Sea Strait Studios Sub Salish Sea Archeologic Survey
Nutrition
Sea Strait Studios of Powell River, British Columbia is initiating an extended photographic, ethnographical, and ethnobotanical expedition of the inland waters of British Columbia. This survey will be based upon the seafaring travels of the tla'amin* First Nations People. The voyage will visit traditional fishing grounds, trade routes, and seasonal foraging encampments. This expedition will be an odyssey guided by oral histories and interviews with surviving elders and their heirs. Resources will also include academic literature and archival materials.
The work is intended as a tribute to the tla'amin Nation. Inherent in the project is the underlying goal of waking a nonaboriginal sleeping giant to an awareness of Aboriginal Knowledge (AK), culture and philosophy. The proposed book, documentary video, website, and other resulting media will document and illuminate traditional practices and ceremonies of the Salish Sea's original inhabitants. The very people who preserved a nurturing, sustainable, and hallowed environment over millennia. While First Nations' practices and ceremonies may be diminished in the 21st century, this First Nations' philosophy of hishuk ish ts'awalk — all things are one — is eternal.
What aspects of the tla’amin culture can contribute inspiration and perhaps guidance in a period of increasing environmental degradation and a global collapse of biological diversity? What is to be gained from looking back at a people so docile they were rapidly subjugated by the European invasion? Superior in technology rather than numbers, the Europeans dominated the tla’amin and undermined the unified First Nations People. The tla'amin were forcibly divided into three Bands – the Sliammon of Powell River, the Homalco of Campbell River and the Klahoose of Bute and Toba Inlets.• Our project is spotlights the tla'amin of Sliammon. With the tla'amin partitioned and no doubt disoriented the resulting Bands were unable to prevent the increasing numbers of European colonizers from robbing their lands, forests, and seas. And eventually from suppressing their language ʔAyajuθəm (ayajuthem), their ceremonies, and much of their culture. The colonizers eventually alienated the precious tla'amin children, subjecting them to monstrous treatment in the Residential Schools and shattered their connection with their ancestral traditions. The longterm effect has been an immoral deconstruction of the tla'amin culture, knowledge, and way of life.
Traditionally Smoked tla'amin Salmon at Sliammon
According to Hewkin (son of Treasure Bearers Rose and Bill Mitchell)
"These islands have mild winters with little snow. Food, including game and seafood, was plentiful on the islands. In contrast, the territory on the mainland has colder winters, the inlets freeze over and there is more snow . . . .Winter was a time when people came together for social and spiritual celebrations, such as the potlatch.
It was a time to celebrate, dance and feast, and to strengthen ties to each other and the land. It was a time of spiritual renewal. Large villages existed on these islands when people met there for the winter months. There were many longhouses on the islands at one time. There are many middens and other signs of our ancestors who lived on the islands, such as lines of clam shells, rocks with fish carvings, and burial sites…
People travelled through the islands slowly in rowboats, so there was time to tell stories about each place along the way. People stopped at many places on their journeys and got to know where food could be found in different places at different times . . . . In the springtime, the people would spread out all over the inlets and lakes of our territory to harvest salmon. There was a Chief who knew how much salmon to take from a place so that the salmon would return the next year."
The aim of Sea Strait Studios is to enhance awareness of and respect for First Nations' cultures in the region. The Sea Strait Studio vessel, Eilock II, will follow in the wake of the original the tla'amin people. An attempt to rediscover and illustrate where and how they lived in health and harmony with nature for thousands of years. This work will inform how the First Nations' approach to living in harmony with the environment can diminish pressure on the planet and restore ecosystems. The goal of gathering and disseminating this knowledge is simple, it is to multiply the number of people in support of halting unnecessary development. Development for development's sake, i.e., development for wealth generation for developers at the expense of all else. This project aspires to effectuate an ancient path for persons interested in preserving what remains of our planet.
During a scheduled year and a half exploration, the Sea Strait Studio crew will attempt to recreate and document a year in the life of those First People. The expedition will visit coastal waters, the shore, and the forest territories of the tla'amin with the intention of bringing a new awareness to the tla’amin practices. Seasonality will be key as they travel, whether to a "fish camp" a "medicine camp" or a "trading site." Researchers will gather food and medicine from the land and the sea, using historical records and traditional accounts. Such gathering will correspond to the seasons and the locations of what remains of the one time abundant natural resources in the coastal environs.
Ethnobotanists and traditional healers who accompany the expeditions will undertake fieldwork using traditional gathering techniques of plants used for food and medicine. They will perform ceremonial prayers to accompany gathering, harvesting, and preparation of traditional medicines. Seasonal voyages will be determined by plant maturity dates, plant sustainability, and location. Investigations undertaken during this project will impart a basic understanding of food and medicine preparations used by tla'amin people for millennia. Photographs will provide step by step procedures on the preparation of medicines and traditional tla'amin foods – including recipe appendix – both traditional preparations of foodstuffs as well as a fusion of traditional style with modern techniques – rendering new and delectable variations on ancient recipes.
χʷukʷayin t̓imiχʷ (3)
Ethnobotanists and traditional healers will join in creating a guide to traditional medicines which abound in the Pacific Northwest ecosystems of the Salish Sea. They will use the galley of Eilock II as a floating laboratory for production of medicines along the route, her decks and rigging as drying racks for roots and herbs during fair weather.
• http://www.firstnations.de/development/coast_salish.htm
•• http://rem-main.rem.sfu.ca/papers/welch/WelchEtAl2011Hert+Soc_EffectiveLeadership.pdf
••• t̓imiχʷ- medicine in the tla'amin language.
Sea Strait Studios' Vessel Eilock II
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