The protection and integrity of ʔəms tɑʔɑw is the central concern of this project. As authors we grappled with the many forms that the internet takes, and the ways that it can replicate and amplify colonial paradigms vis a vis Indigenous knowledge. The stories, photos, videos, and language shared on this site are belongings, not content. Some of the belongings are shared belongings in that they are held collectively by ɬaʔamin people. Some of the belongings (the family stories and such) are Chi Chia’s alone. 

This is fundamental to our understanding as ɬaʔamin people - the recognition that communal knowledge is not owned so much as it is stewarded. Our obligation as ɬaʔamin people and jeh jeh’s (family) is to collectively hold, and responsibly steward, knowledge for future generations. Protocols surrounding the sharing of family stories are different than those governing communal stories. Chi Chia herself will be the first to preface the telling of one of our communal stories with “this is just how I tell it, other elders, other families may tell it differently.”

As a ɬaʔamin person, ʔəms tɑʔɑw (our teachings) are delivered through a combination of community and family stories. “Our Ta-ow comes to us through our families. It teaches us how to treat other people and our surroundings” (Washington, 2004, p. 601). Within this model of transmission, Elders are the great curators, serving up the right stories in the right moments in ways that facilitate, but do not force, a learning journey (Simpson, 2014). It is in this way that ɬaʔamin people self-actualize and come to understand how we must be in the world.

We’ve invoked a set of Traditional Knowledge labels, to communicate and affirm how each of the pages may be used.

The labels are as follows:

1. ʔətᶿ naʔ (It is mine.)

2. tiʔiwš (lit. means ‘learn by doing’)

3. xʷaʔ čxʷ xʷaǰišɛxʷ (Don't sell it!)

4. ʔəms naʔ (It is ours.) 

In closing, a website is not a proxy for human interaction. It’s important to be clear from the outset that the goal of creating the digital book is not to offer up an online Elder, or replace the familial and ceremonial patterns involved in giving and receiving ʔəms tɑʔɑw, the teachings. It is, rather, an effort to make use of new tools to support our healing as Indigenous people and that at this point in our history we can use all the tools we can get. As ɬaʔamin people and Indigenous people we need to grapple with issues of how we can effectively and appropriately harness the value of the internet for promoting and amplifying ʔəms tɑʔɑw.