5 minute read
The Integration of Indigenous Aquaculture Practices | Part 1: A Day With the Ancestors
Supporting Indigenous aquaculture practices is a central focus for the Swinomish Shellfish Program. In addition to the clam garden project, program staff joined a network of key stakeholders and traditional stewards including First Nations in British Columbia; Washington Sea Grant, Hawaii Sea Grant, and Alaska Sea Grant; local non-profit organizations; Hawaiian communities; universities; and Northwest Indian College. The goal of the network is to promote Indigenous aquaculture practices in the broader Pacific region to enhance local, ecosystem-based marine food production. The Shellfish Program, with assistance from Sea Grant funding, were able to support tribal members, leadership, and tribal staff travel to Oahu with Pacific Northwest tribes, First Nations in British Columbia, Pacific Islanders, and Sea Grant staff to learn about loko i’a, a traditional Hawaiian aquaculture system, from Native Hawaiians. Opportunities for communities to directly share knowledge strengthens partnerships and advances efforts to revive Indigenous practices that enhance food security, sovereignty, and community health and wellbeing.
PART 1 A DAY WITH THE ANCESTORS ALANA QUINTASKET
AUGUST 31, SALT SPRING ISLAND, CANADA — It was
August, the best month of the year. Life is busy, there are always things to do, places to be – Canoe Journey, Omak Stampede weekend, Swinomish Clambake, the employee picnic, my birthday, and anything else that can be squeezed in during those shortening summer days. I remember how excited I was when I was invited to a clam garden. I had no idea what to expect, and I didn’t understand how such a large part of who we are had been kept from me my entire life.
foods – I couldn’t wait to learn more about our ancestors’ relationship with the clam garden! It was a cold, grey morning when we met at the marina in La Conner. I was not prepared for a breezy boat ride, but I toughed it out. Going through customs to cross the “border” was much simpler than going by car. On the canoe, like our ancestors, we see no “border” and we usually paddle across with no disturbance from the Coast Guard or U.S. Customs.
When we arrived at the clam garden, we were dropped off at the rock wall that we would later learn that the oldest relics were carbon-dated to be about 4,000 years old! A CLAM GARDEN, what?! Clams are one of my favorite
ago. People could see the rock walls at low tide, and were curious; after doing research, they found it was a part of an old Indigenous clam garden that had been left alone for about 300 years. The garden is about 20 meters wide and 800 meters long.
It is formed by a slanted rock wall where rocks were placed strategically at the intertidal level, which is where clams grow. This allows more space for clams to grow larger and healthier, and there can be more of them. It is a method of cultivating the natural environment for food. The Coast Salish people from Puget Sound to Northern British Columbia and up to Alaska had clam gardens such as this one. Clams, sea urchins, sea cucumbers, and other sea life thrive because of this garden. Indigenous people, Parks Canada, and volunteers work together year-round to maintain the garden.
The time we visited, it was not a harvesting time. We were instructed that there were different tasks to do that morning. The people in the front were to pull up seaweed and put it in a bucket to bring over to the tree/brush-line to dry out. It would later be brought into the woods to act as fertilizer for berry bushes. The next group would be picking up the larger rocks to make it easier for the people coming behind them doing the tilling.
When the water started to come through the wall, it was time to finish up and gather our things and get to the wall where we waited for the boat. At the end of the work time, about half the bed was tilled, which allowed more water and nutrients to seep down to the growing clams.
I think about standing there, admiring the garden and the land around it, and this also made me think of something our Hawaiian relatives said about the wall of their fish pond, that when you stand on it, you are standing on
Salt Spring, Canada
Alana Quintasket, Joe Quintasket, Raven Edwards Our ancestors worked for food; their lives revolved around it because their lives depended on it. Now, more than ever, it is essential for us to not only memorialize or honor what our ancestors did but to uphold by practicing their life ways that were passed down generation after generation.
To restore the health of the sea, the people and all life. Restoring this practice is an opportunity to build community, to bring the people together and allow everyone to have a role while we all work toward a common goal. This is food sovereignty, the ability to feed the people of our community food that is genetically built for our bodies, that feeds our spirit and reconnects us to the sea and our ancestors.
I only needed to go there one time and work for just a few short hours to decide that it was one of the best experiences of my entire life; it inspired me to do all I can to restore this practice and our relationship with the clams and the life of the sea. I just needed one day with the ancestors, to work in a place where they once did, and not have to think about the outside world. To be in that moment, working, not for money but to one day feed the people. To sing, pray, and just feel full of life; working in such a beautiful place with beautiful relatives. I pray for more days like this, and to one day be able to do it with our community.
When that day finally comes when we get the go-ahead to move forward on building a clam garden, who will be ready to start moving rocks? It’ll certainly be an exciting time to bring the people together to build community and work toward food security for future generations.
Salt Spring, Canada
Tanner Wilbur
