Mother Nature provided the perfect weather for a recent gathering at Cowichan Bay as members from Cowichan Tribes and students with the UBC Indigenous Ecology Lab spoke on the Quw'utsun Food Systems Revitalization Project.
"It's wonderful to see each and every one of you here today," said Cowichan Tribes Chief Cindy Daniels. "Huy ch q'u" (Thank you) to our Elders and all the teachers for supporting this opportunity to share knowledge on the land with our future generation."
High school students from Quw'utsun Secondary as well as little ones from Le'lum'uy'lh Daycare brought some nurturing to Hulitun Spulhxun/Tumuhw (Nurturing Fields), which was started last year and given its name by Cowichan Elder Philomena Williams.
The little ones brought the gift of song, while the secondary students brought the gift of hard work and diligence as they worked together to remove weeds during the nursery workshop held on June 16. It was part of a series that the First Nation has been holding with their partners and students from local schools. The first workshop was held in April which included students from Yuthuy’thut Adult Learning Centre.
Through detailed mapping, cultural interviews and historical ecology, researchers from the Indigenous Ecology Lab at UBC are helping to re-establish a sophisticated and place-based system of Indigenous agriculture that was disrupted by colonial land practices.
Nature Trust BC, and Ducks Unlimited, who have worked with the First Nation for more than a decade, are also co-partners on what is the largest Indigenous food restoration project in western Canada.
It will support Indigenous food sovereignty, and security by restoring native plant species, and Indigenous agriculture across the 170-acre Quw'utsun/Xwulqw'selu (Cowichan/Koksilah) Estuary Restoration area while aiming to improve access to local, sustainable and traditional foods, and medicines for both current and future generations.
Salish educator Jared “Qwustenuxun” Williams, who is a community engagement coordinator for the project, has been providing traditional food knowledge on the use of the foods, where they would have been raised, and how they would have been harvested. As the chair for the Indigenous Advisory Council on Agriculture (IACAF), he is always hearing about water issues, and how they will eventually impact current agricultural practices. Williams said the short term goal is to raise enough of a seed crop for when the land sees a return to estuary islands.
"The idea here is to raise up these crops to then transfer them over to those estuary islands so that we can then restart the Indigenous agricultural system here in the estuary," said Williams. "Instead of utilizing food systems from other cultures, this project is a way to re-introduce Indigenous like food systems that don't require any extra water.
"We haven't had an abundance of Indigenous crops in the valley like we have wanted to in 80 years, and the elders who know how to raise this food and had it when they were small are about to leave us. We need to have it now while we still have Elders who are young enough to remember what it was like, how to use it, and how to live with it, and being able to hand that information over can rescue knowledge as it only exists in the minds of those elders, so having that opportunity to hear from them while they are still here is huge."
Elder Ken Elliote recalls how the nation's greenhouses that were 30 feet wide by 150 feet long were once filled with more than 155 different species of plants that he had a hand in growing. It's important to keep in mind what the plant is giving up so one may share it as a food or a medicine, he said.
"For most of my growing up years to adulthood, I had let my language and teachings go, but the plants let me know that they didn't forget me," said Elliote. "Some may just give up a tip of their branch, others give up a corm but either way they have to give up a piece of their living, sharing that love with the plants was real medicine for me, and real medicine for them."
Prior to colonization, the Cowichan/Koksilah Estuary provided a central food system that sustained Quw'utsun villages with an estimated population of 15,000 with a food system that included crops of native plants including camas, silverweed roots, as well as wapato tubers and medicines. It also included having fishing weirs in the river, and doing shellfish harvesting at low tide — one of the project's long term goals is to bring back shellfish harvesting to Cowichan Bay.
"Our Elders have passed down many teachings regarding our relationship with the environment which including taking care of the earth and living in harmony with nature, said Cowichan Tribes Councillor Darcy Joe. "These teachings express our Cowichan approach to agriculture while ensuring we add both food sustainability and security. Our restoration work to the estuary is to ensure that we can thrive and have it sustain us once again particularly as we face the impact of climate change."
"With the guidance of our Elders, we are learning about and honouring how our people sustained themselves for thousands of years," said Daniels. "We used to look after one another and take care of ourselves, it was what we did, and what we were born and raised on. Now we are just bringing it back."
Once the Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship gives final approval for the removal of a dike on the land, the channel work will then get underway this summer.
"I hope they remember this experience," said Williams. "When these young children are Elders they will remember that they once had their hands in Indigenous food systems."
