by Glenn C. Jim –
ÍY ȻEĆIL HÁLE (good day all). Today I want to share a story about my late elder friend George.
I first met him when I was a young child on my beach in Pat Bay. I liked him right away. I eventually came to know him as a fisherman, a crabber and shrimper, a clam-digger, a plant harvester and someone that followed our traditional resource teachings. George was an amazing individual; many knew him as a hard drinking and rough scrapper which was probably true to a degree, but I want to share another side to his story.
George grew up and lived his entire life in Tseycum (1942 to 2015). Throughout George’s life, he would freely share his environmental and traditional knowledge. George grew up learning and understanding Mother Nature’s cycles from his late father Sandy, another well-known local fisherman for much of the last century. George, no matter how difficult his life, still followed his teachings.
In George’s latter years, health and diminishing resources impacted his lifestyle. Decreasing salmon stocks, environmental pollution and increased population all impacted George’s livelihood. Due to the above-mentioned factors, our beaches were closed to harvesting and remain closed after more than 30 years. This meant the harvesters could not dig clams for food and, in George’s case, commercially for the local restaurants and wholesalers. He was now only able to dig clams as bait for the crab fisherman.
I use George as an example because when one understands the way he harvested and gathered, it always followed the same pattern: 1) he understood his environment; 2) he had knowledge of it; and 3) he understood that if he wanted to continue to utilize the resources, he had to manage himself as well as the resource.
Twenty years ago, if you drove by Tseycum and saw the lone figure out digging clams, it was probably George. He would start digging at the beginning of each new tide; summer tides were during the day and winter tides were deep into the cold nights. This didn’t stop him. George would start his digging in a left-to-right pattern, always moving as the tide moved. It followed him in, or he would follow it out. In this way he was able to methodically cover the entire beach over a period of tides.
But George wasn’t just digging up clams: he was improving the health of his beach by aerating the beach substrate. Also, by removing the larger clams, he created more space for the smaller clams to grow. He was taking care of and monitoring his beach, so it stayed healthy and productive.
Remember, ÁLEṈENEȻ means “homeland, village, where one comes from,” or “one’s place, one’s land.” George’s story talks of ÁLEṈENEȻ and adaptation in contemporary times. In recent years within our ṮEṮÁĆES (Gulf Islands), knowledge of the ancient practise of creating clam beds have come to the forefront. This process was the act of building long, small rock walls close to and below low-tide lines. Over generations of time, the beach above the rock walls would fill with sediment and create more suitable habitat for various types of clams.
To finish off, we all can contribute to the greater process of living within our ÁLEṈENEȻ. My late friend George’s example of being able to know, understand, and adapt his beach helped him live within that environment in a much better way.
HÍ,SW̱ḴE HÁLE SIÁM
