Jackie Timothy was a storyteller, cultural presenter and master carver from the Sliammon First Nation near Powell River. Sharing the ancestral name La-Sah with his brother, he was descended from the Hereditary Chief lineage of his village and his grandparents identified him as a traditional storyteller.

Timothy was also a residential school survivor. When he was four years old he was taken to the Sechelt Indian Residential School. Because he already identified strongly with his culture and retained his grandparents’ advice to “remember who you are and where you are from”, he endured and succeeded through very difficult times.

Timothy shared his profound gift for traditional storytelling with listeners of all cultures and ages. The stories handed down to him through generations of his Coast Salish heritage are largely unknown outside his culture.