Stories from the Coast: Hōkūle‘a visits Haida Gwaii 🐬
Seaweed surfboards, high-protein kelp & El Niño 🌊 Ocean updates 🐳
“The complex link between the land, the sea, human beings & Supernatural Beings”
Qkálaqs, little girl who talks around” (ie. social butterfly) in her regalia. Qkálaqs Ariel Corbett has spent most of her life between the Wuikinuxv Bighouse and the CFN Boardroom, shadowing her mom Abúk Danielle Shaw #WuikinuxvNation Chief Councillor. #NextGeneration
Stories From the Coast
Last month, the Council of the Haida Nation hosted a delegation of Indigenous Peoples who traveled from so-called Myanmar. I say 'so-called' because the group didn't identify as being from Myanmar, but as Indigenous Peoples from their own distinct ethnic groups and regions. The story they carried to Haida Gwaii — a trip that has been years in the making, since they first connected with Hereditary Chief Gidansda Guujaaw — was a story of both tragedy and resilience.
The trip gave the group a break from the ongoing war ravaging their homelands and a chance to share story with the Haida Nation and Coastal First Nations as an alliance, and a chance to strategize on how they too might further their rights and achieve recognition.
Read the story and other relevant developments, below.
Emilee Gilpin
Community Storyteller, Coastal First Nations-Great Bear Initiative
HIGHLIGHTED STORIES
‘An Amazing Story, One of Tragedy and Resilience’
While a group of people settle in on a quiet evening to share food and story, a violent and insufferable war wages back in the homelands of members of the delegation. The visitors waited many years to make the long trip from Myanmar to Haida Gwaii, to visit with people who fought for the peace they now offer as a safe haven to the guests.
Snxakila Clyde Michael Tallio receives honorary doctorate from UBC
Snxakila holds the position of Alkw, a ceremonial speaker, historian, orator, cultural leader, and teacher. A fluent Nuxalk speaker, Snxakila has dedicated the past 20 years to the revitalization of Nuxalk culture, language, and ceremonies. He received over a decade of training through community-based teachings by Nuxalk elders, who were among the few remaining cultural experts and fluent language speakers.
Haida Energy Team wins ‘Community of the Year’ Award for Clean Energy Collaboration
Tll Yahda Energy (TYE) — composed of the Old Massett Village Council, the Skidegate Band Council and the Council of the Haida Nation — received the “Community of the Year” award at the 2023 Clean Energy BC conference in Vancouver for their collaborative efforts to get off diesel on Haida Gwaii.
Job Opportunity: Climate Action Administrator
CFN-GBI is seeking to hire a Climate Action Administrator to provide strong executive administrative support to the Indigenous Climate Action Network (I-CAN), including supporting Nations to successfully enroll in I-CAN, and provide human resources support for those Nations to hire local Climate Action Coordinators.
OTHER STORIES WE LOVED
THE HAIDA GWAII MUSEUM
The underlying theme running through our museum is the complex link between the land, the sea, human beings and Supernatural Beings - all which give Haida Gwaii its incomparable natural and cultural character.
Welcome Hawaiian Hōkūle‘a Canoe Crew to Gaw Tlagée, Haida Gwaii!
We're so excited to welcome our Pacific cousins to Haida Gwaii, join us in welcoming and culture sharing during their big journey
Bring your energy. Drum. Regalia. Community Cultural sharing. This is your official invite.
https://hokulea.com/moananuiakea/
https://worldwidevoyage.hokulea.com/
Kelp is harvested off of Bella Bella’s coast:
“It’s like eating vitamins”
While some are harvesting gardens and fields, others are heading under the sea for their foraging.
In Bella Bella, B.C., William Housty pulls kelp covered with herring spawn, providing a tasty and nutritious snack or meal.
You can consume kelp in many ways, if not when it’s fresh and raw. You can dehydrate the kelp and later enjoy it with smoked salmon; it can be fried with butter and garlic; you can boil it with oolichan grease; or it can be incorporated into seafood chowder, said Housty, who is the conservation manager at the Heiltsuk Integrated Resource Management Department.
Kelp is excellent for its high nutritional value and grows quickly from all the sunlight it can absorb.
“It’s like eating vitamins.”
Kelp also doubles as a place for herring to deposit their eggs, which are also loaded with nutrients.
“Kelp have kind of slimy texture to them, so the herring like to spawn on the kelp because it sticks to the substrate really easily, and so it’s more of a sure guarantee for the herring, as the eggs are going to stay deposited and not be pulled off by the tide or anything like that.”
Housty harvests kelp for his family’s consumption and for the local fishery, where Heiltsuk band members can participate with the fishery once they’re over 18.
“It’s a source of income for a lot of people in the community,” said Housty, and a practise his ancestors have been doing for thousands of years.
“Back in 1996, there was a Supreme Court decision that granted the Heiltsuk to be able to commercially harvest the herring spawn on kelp, and so we’re the only tribe on the B.C. coast that’s legally able to harvest the spawn on the kelp for commercial sale.”
Along with personal and commercial harvesting for food, kelp is also used within the Heiltsuk Nation for social and ceremonial purposes.
In Bella Bella, which is on Campbell Island, Housty described the volume of kelp in the water as a parking lot, with “large masses and concentrations of different species.”
He explained that the harvesting season happens over a small window, from about the middle of March to mid-April, depending on the tides, weather and temperature. The herring come in late February and disperse to the spawning areas in March.
The females deposit their eggs – on the kelp, rocks and trees – and then the males fertilize the eggs, causing the water to turn a milky colour.
Next, the seaweed farmers head out onto the water in search of the highest quality kelp, which won’t have holes or rip, said Housty.
“When you break it off, it makes a kind of loud snapping noise, and that shows how healthy the individual is. We never pull the root off the rock. We always break it off because it regrows almost instantaneously, you know. It only takes a couple of weeks, and the kelp regrows back to what it was when you snapped it off.”
The harvest is quite incredible, as the kelp pulled out of the water will appear to be over double in size, which in reality is from the number of roe deposited onto the kelp’s branches. Housty described the roe as a golden yellow colour, with the kelp being more of a brown colour.
“It’s really soft when it’s fresh out of the water. You can pull it apart with your fingers quite easily. Like the same way you could pull apart a piece of bread, you could pull the eggs apart.”
Along with Housty’s wife, Faye, their sons also help out. His youngest son, George, helps out along the shore; his middle son, Landon, helps out in the boat; and his oldest son, Ethan, helped out with harvesting before moving to Haida Gwaii.
“It feels great to be harvesting and being on the water because we are carrying on the harvesting tradition that has been handed down through the generations by our ancestors. Lots of pride.”
Kim Kimberlin, Chilliwack Hope Standard
Global Action Against Plastic Pollution
From the U.S. Pacific Northwest to Brazil, Oceana is winning campaigns to reduce and eliminate unnecessary single-use plastics, while promoting refillable and reusable alternatives. These wins include three of the largest U.S. cities enacting bans or restrictions on single-use plastics, Panama announcing bold commitments to reduce plastic pollution, Brazil’s Museum of Tomorrow becoming a “plastic-free zone,” and more!
READ MORE: https://oceana.org/blog/victory-panama-brazil-and-us-states-take-action-against-plastic-pollution/
El Niño Has Arrived and Could Bring Record Temperatures and Dangerous Conditions, UN Warns
For the first time since 2016, El Niño conditions are brewing in the tropical Pacific Ocean, which means the world is likely in store for rising temperatures and an increase in extreme weather, the United Nations’ World Meteorological Organization (WMO) reported in a press release.
Related: World Could Face Record Temperatures in 2023 as El Niño Returns
♨ ☀ World Meteorological Organization declares onset of El Niño conditions
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Why are we all so obsessed with getting rich?.
“It's a monopoly game created by the devil (Mammon), being overlorded by militarists & madmen, benefitting mainly the ones who own the gameboard & print the money/issue credit. Another haunting question: why are we allowing gigantic "corporations" to siphon off most of the "wealth"/credit for unsustainable & deadly industries & technologies, which we are in essence beeing enslaved to? Nuclear subs, obsolete pipelines, weapons of war, gas-guzzling trucks... it's a racket, all a ponzi scheme mobster racket w/o accountability, almost no accounting at all for the consequences. Why did money & industrial economics allow all of this to happen?”
'If we surrendered to earth's intelligence we could rise up rooted like trees.' ~ Rainer Maria Rilke
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