Against the Current : Interconnected Lives of Salmon and
People on the Skeena River¹

Reflections on the Skeena © David Watson, www.davidwatsonphotographicart.com

Introduction

This project offers a small sample of the many cultures and lives that are integrally bound to the wild salmon of the Skeena River in northern British Columbia. Through the words of four individuals from different occupational groups and cultural backgrounds the reader is invited to think about the different ways in which people come to depend upon a wild resource.

There are four major themes that dominate the testimony of Darlene Wulff (Commercial Fisherwoman), Fred Seiler (Ecotourism Operator and Photographer), Melodie Johnson (Tsimshian Artist and Cultural Educator), and Art Mathews (Gitksan Hereditary Chief and Cultural Educator). These themes are: Community, Ecological Knowledge, the Current Fish Farming Controversy, and Oral Narrative.

All four of these people talk about community, but in slightly different ways. When they speak about community they also speak about the things that can threaten community, whether they be inept government or environmental devastation.

Darlene Wulff emphasizes the ongoing creation of community in the migratory lives of commercial fishing people. Her sense of community extends to the wild creatures she encounters every day on the water.

Fred Seiler also speaks about his deep sense of community and connection with the world of nature. He expresses this most poignantly in the language he uses, when he talks about the “homes” of the bears, and the way fish farming might cause us to “lose everybody.” He’s not talking about humans alone when he says “everybody.” He means the bears and the wild animals that he has grown to love.

Melodie Johnson talks about her role as artist, cultural educator, communicator and translator when she talks about community. She provides a cultural bridge between past and present, by documenting the knowledge of elders at Kitsumkalum, and using this knowledge in her own art and in her cultural education programs for young people.

Art Mathews also plays a critical role in his Gitksan community at Kitwanga, as Hereditary Chief, “Dinimget,” and cultural educator. He has started a carving program to help young people learn the fine skills of carving, and the critical role of the carver in expressing identity, history, knowledge and place. His knowledge of tradition is especially rich because he avoided going to residential school, where most of his peers and childhood playmates went to have their language, cultural knowledge, and deep sense of family and community taken away from them.

He was also one of the Gitksan and Wet’suwet’en Chiefs who went to court in the famous Delgamuukw case to establish Native rights over land in British Columbia². He and his people never gave their rights to their territory away. Nor were they conquered in war. Though the case itself did not succeed, it established important precedent for the use of oral narrative in the courtroom.

For all four of these people community is linked with heritage. Their love for their parents and grandparents, and their respect for their ancestors, is also rooted in the land. These parents, grandparents and ancestors taught them to love the land, understand some of its secrets, and respect its willingness to take care of people, if properly cared for in return. Art Mathews argues strongly that people and nature are not really at odds. People belong in nature and can be good for nature.

All four of these contributors are critical of fish farms. This project is not designed to give a full sampling of different views on fish farms³. It is designed to give a sense of how and why wild salmon are important to people of northwestern British Columbia, both culturally and economically.

The testimony of each contributor is organized according to the first three themes mentioned above. The last theme, oral narrative, is threaded through the fabric of the entire text, just the way storytelling actually happens in real life.

Notice the way stories about memorable experiences in a person’s life, proverbs, legends and myths are woven into the tapestry of conversation. Sometimes the specific story line and a more general form of commentary goes on simultaneously.

Think about the role these stories play in communication. Stories about personal experience help people to crystalize and make sense of important moments in their lives, moments of learning and of personal transformation.

Proverbs provide an easy and artistic way to remember important information, or they may be used to shape opinions by offering philosophical and ethical perspectives on current events. Sayings that exaggerate, and might be used in tall tales, like Fred Seiler’s description of how fast he and his wife got out of Vancouver (“Before the door could hit us in the ass. Before the wind settled down. To say that fast was an understatement.”), use memorable language for memorable events.

Melodie Johnson and Art Mathews use traditional legends and myths constantly as educational tools, in teaching ecological knowledge, and philosophical and religious perspectives on life. As they make clear, ecological knowledge, the insights, skills, and techniques people use to sustain themselves, is intricately bound together with the sacred, the deeper layers of myth and meaning. Their teaching tools are filled with humor and wisdom, providing a kind of knowledge that is linked with hope, change and renewal.

Totem poles, as Art Mathews explains, are the physical embodiment of traditional stories. Through ceremony they are taken from the forest and born into the cultural world of the Gitksan. They stand as reminders for many years, before falling over and slowly decaying back into the earth. As the physical form of traditional stories, they point to the deep connections between people, the stories they tell, and the land that holds them.

Fingers of the Skeena © David Watson, www.davidwatsonphotographicart.com

¹ I thank Maureen Atkinson, historian, journalist, scholar and friend for suggesting this title.

² See A Death Feast in Dimlahamid, by Terry Glavin, or Our Box Was Full: An Ethnography for the Delgamuukw Plaintiffs, by Richard Daly.

³ I have spoken with one fish farm worker who enjoys the challenges of managing the technology. He feels connected with the fish in his tanks, enjoys watching them jump and play, and watching their colors change as they grow. They remind him of the wild Atlantic salmon of his childhood in Nova Scotia. He speaks of a strong sense of community among fish farm workers, who do shift work together in camps. Elmar Plate, Ph.D, Fisheries Biologist, tells me that “the fish farming industry in BC is much more tightly regulated than it was in the 1990’s. The industry has responded by cleaning up its act, and will hopefully be trying to address environmental risks that are rightfully kept in the public eye by concerned citizens.”

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