Voice to Salmon
by Alexandra Morton
I was given the name, Gwayum’dzi by chief Alice Smith of the Kwicksutaineuk-ah-kwa-mish. I was adopted into the family of Dr. Evelyn Willie Voyageur and Carla Voyageur of the Dzawa”da”enuxw and Beatrice Smith of the Kwicksutaineuk-ah-kwa-mish. My naming was completed in the big house in Fort Rupert. I was invited this winter to walk with Beau Dick and his family to give voice to the salmon.
The reason I left my woodstove and cozy home to walk and camp in February is because the work I am doing tracking European viruses has made me realize there is no time to waste. The viruses detected by the labs cause serious sickness in salmon and the salmon of the Pacific won't have any immunity to these European pathogens.
While the governments of British Columbia and Canada turn a blind-eye, I believe the Norwegian salmon feedlots operating in BC are perpetrating one of the greatest threats known to the living world. Turning feedlot viruses from the Atlantic Ocean loose into the Pacific is damage that might not ever be repaired. You cannot recall these pathogens. The wild salmon can only die to fight this, but if the viruses keep pouring out the wild fish may simply die until they are gone.
The reason Beau Dick and his family undertook this journey was to cut a copper on the steps of the BC Legislature. This ceremony has not been performed since the 1950's at which time the weight of the ceremony was too great and that copper was repaired. The copper carried down the island is so old no one knows when it was made.
The copper embodies their family, the past and the future, life itself.
We were a core group of about 15 people and they asked me how I test the Atlantic salmon for viruses. And so as we walked through Duncan, we went to Superstore, and went to the seafood counter, got a pack of farm salmon and bought it.
Superstore took offence calling the regalia costumes and told us to leave, although they could not identify why we should leave. Customers were smiling, clapping, taking pictures with phones, and it became a story on CTV News watched by almost 3,000 people.
The next day we walked to the Cermaq hatchery and I told them how Atlantic salmon are raised in this strict biosecurity and then placed into the territories of the people of Kingcome Inlet and others. A sadness swept through the group. The strict biosecurity existed only to protect the Atlantic salmon, not the Pacific salmon that sustain First Nations, wildlife, the forests and most coastal communities of BC as well as the communities along the Fraser River. The people of Duncan did not realize this was occurring here.
The reason I went on this journey was to have the chance to explain my work with the viruses to the people as we walked through each town and reserve. In the gatherings I was given the talking stick and I spoke. I don't have a million dollar advertising budget but I have legs and I have a voice and I use them because I don't think killing off the wild salmon of British Columbia is going to be good for anyone.
On the final day we walked the 18 km from Goldstream park to the Parliament buildings. It was a very uplifting time spent talking, drumming, waving to people who cheered us on.
There were about 1000 people at the Parliament as we walked into them.
The speeches lasted several hours, very passionate speeches expressing concern for the future of Canada, the future for our children and expressions of distrust for what Stephen Harper and BC Liberals are doing to us, giving away the land and water to foreign corporations, talking away the rights of people to protect what it is they need to survive. Shelley Joseph, daughter of the great and beloved chief, Bobby Joseph who gave Beau Dick his tunic to wear on this day, spoke.
Henry Hunt spoke
and many others:
And then in a powerful and ancient ceremony the copper was cut, as iPhones captured and shared the event widening the circle of awareness.
That something has gone very wrong in the relationship between the people and the government.
I was there, I carried my white face into this ceremony to be a part of it, to communicate the destruction to the life blood of this coast and to communicate that Canadians do not need to fear this movement. As was so often repeated in big houses, roadside, over dinner, everywhere, this is a movement about Canadians expressing to government that they cannot rob the very life out of this country, leaving the people to come after us with far less than they need to survive and irreversible pollution caused by viruses, cancer-causing chemicals, shattering the very ground beneath us with fracking. I think virtually everyone is worried about where we are headed. Events like this journey are meant to wake people to the possibilities, that there is another way that will benefit even Stephen Harper's children who are stuck on the same planet as all the rest of us.
British Columbians, you have an opportunity to be heard as we go into the upcoming elections. One thing you can do right now and everyday until the vote is tell your MLA hopefuls that the licences of occupation the Province of BC has given to the salmon feedlots have to be revoked. No one in their right mind would leave it up to foreign shareholders to decide the fate of wild salmon, no one would wait for people who have never drawn a single breath in this province to stop the European salmon viruses from pouring into the Pacific Ocean.
It is time for everyone of you to lean into this. You can also tell the stores you will not be contributing to this damage, you will not be buying feedlot salmon. Sign this petition
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