Sharing the fine art of cleaning herring
Nitanis Desjarlais and her son Chico Seitcham harvesting traditional foods like urchins and seaweed in Nuu-chah-nulth territory on western Vancouver Island. Photo by Melody Charlie @FirstNationPhotographer
By Rochelle Baker
Joshua Charleson throws back the lid of an enormous cooler to reveal a cache of hundreds of freshly harvested silver herring that sparked “oohs” of excitement from a crowd leaning in to get a look.
Charleson, or ḥasiikʷaay̓ak, then promptly put folks to work, teaching them how to gut and prep the fish for an Indigenous smokehouse.
The hands-on workshop was just one of many at the two-day Island Indigenous Food Gathering hosted recently by the Ahousaht Nation in Tseshaht Territory near Port Alberni, British Columbia.
The food summit, involving First Nations from Vancouver Island and the B.C. coast, was a cultural exchange and celebration aimed at strengthening food sovereignty and Indigenous communities' response to climate change and other emergency situations.