With deep gratitude and great sadness, we celebrate the life of Coast Salish Elder Thiyaas Dr. Florence James (Pune’luxutth Tribe) who passed to the Spirit world on June 15, 2025. She is survived by her son, Rocky and her sister, Marguerite, and a large and loving extended family.
Florence was a respected Knowledge Holder and Wisdom Keeper who shared with others for the wellbeing of Mother Earth. She was a Hul’q’umi’num language expert and teacher, a devout educator on culture and ecology, a powerful advocate for early childhood education, a holistic healer, and a loving family member, friend, and mentor to many.
Florence was also an avid researcher, research participant, advisor, translator, and expert witness in legal cases pertaining to Coast Salish law. As an educator, she drew on both her traditional gifts and teachings from the Ancestors and her university-based education. She had a profound impact as Elder-in-residence and teacher at Vancouver Island University (VIU) for many years by sharing her culture, language, and family teachings with grace and generosity, including developing Hul’qumi’num curriculum for language learning.
Florence’s devotion to language learning continued into her last days in support of the graduates of the LING 182: Language Learning, Language Revitalization and Social Action class of summer 2025. Her son, Rocky, shared that “In her dying days mom was so absolutely determined to keep working and to keep helping people that she showed up to three classes with us. That’s how much the language mattered to her. This week, Penelakut Tribe members completed their final class for their certificate. Each get to carry a piece of mom with them.”
In 2024, Florence received an Honorary Doctor of Letters from VIU for her commitment to sharing knowledge to keep Coast Salish culture and traditions living and to protect the environment for future generations. Our POLIS and Centre for Global Studies (CFGS) teams were honored to support this nomination through a formal letter of recommendation detailing Florence’s contributions over decades. A small selection of these innumerable contributions is recounted below, as a memorial tribute.
POLIS’ long and cherished history of working with Florence goes back to 2002 with a SSHRC-funded research project called “Protection and Repatriation of First Nation Cultural Heritage” that continued through 2006. Florence had been identified as a Knowledge Holder by the Hul’qumi’num Treaty Group, who was the community research partner. The project documented Hul’qumi’num heritage laws related to protection of sacred sites and ancient human remains. The resultant reports and publications, based on cultural teachings shared by Florence and many other Elders, has significantly influenced treatment of archeological heritage in Hul’qumi’num territories.
Florence participated as a local ecological and cultural expert in POLIS’ Chemainus Biodiversity Education Project from 2007 to 2008, which brought together local and academic expertise and experiential learning in “Nature as an outdoor classroom” for community members of all ages in the Chemainus Valley region. Florence and other community members shared their place-based experiences with the project in a session on Cultural and Spiritual Dimensions of Ecological Governance during UVic’s Ideafest event in 2013. These place-based efforts had real impact, helping to save a 50-acre municipal forest in Chemainus from housing development. On Indigenous Peoples Day in June 2022, Florence was asked to officially give a name to what is now Wul’aam Park, meaning “echo” in Hul’q’umi’num.
Florence walked for many years with POLIS Co-Director Dr. Kelly Bannister in facilitating cross-cultural ethical guidance for biodiversity research, education, and policy, eventually shaping the Biocultural Ethics initiative at POLIS. Florence was Elder-in-Residence for a number of major events, including the International Society of Ethnobiology’s 12th International Congress in Tofino in 2010, the Working Better Together national conference on Indigenous research ethics in Vancouver, and Watersheds 2016: Building Capacity for Collaboration and Watershed Governance in British Columbia in Vancouver, where she shared her traditional teachings and contributed her wisdom to international and national and regional policy discussions.
Florence served as an Advisor and Mentor to the POLIS and CFGS teams until her passing, supporting us with cultural guidance in her gentle, compassionate way. She had an invaluable role in many POLIS and CFGS gatherings and events over the years, both in person and online. She offered territorial acknowledgements, event openings and closings, prayers, songs, and cultural teachings, particularly related to reconciliation, watershed governance, biodiversity and biocultural ethics.
One poignant example during COVID restrictions was an online Listening Circle in 2021 with her son, Rocky, and Pune’luxutth Elder Ray Tony Charlie, to help us better understand what reconciliation requires.
Florence also stood with other Elders as they were celebrated at the University of Victoria. She led a blanketing ceremony with Coast Salish Elder May Sam (Tsartlip) for Pune’luxutth Elder Raymond Tony Charlie in June 2022 in recognition of the publication of his personal story of residential school in the book In the Shadow of the Red Brick Building.
Many within our POLIS and CFGS community have experienced first-hand Florence’s generosity in sharing her cultural and ecological expertise for research, education, health, cultural, and general awareness. Her formal and informal contributions began well before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action and have been invaluable in the evolution of our professional and personal development. Whenever we asked to learn, Florence answered our call. Above all, Florence was gentle, wise, generous, and kind. She lived her faith and beliefs with great integrity and respect for all Beings. She was most passionate about caring for and educating the youngest ones among us, steadfastly upholding and believing in them for our future.
In her acceptance speech for her honorary doctorate, almost exactly a year before her passing, Florence shared what the recognition meant to her: “I am feeling so honored that you pushed me beyond the clouds. I’m up there soaring in my heart.”
Florence’s contributions are beyond words; they live in a cherished place in many of our hearts. We remember with gratitude the many gifts that she shared with the world, and we lift up her memory with respect, honour, care, and gratitude as she has lifted so many others. Thiyaas Elder Dr. Florence James, soaring beyond the clouds, dearly missed, never forgotten.
