STORIES

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Part of a Tradition: Going to the Water

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Community: Thompson

"Now we all have to have a Think Salmon t-shirt,” was the first thing the woman said to me, looking over her shoulder at her three young kids, one of them wearing the black and yellow Think Salmon shirt. Her husband nodded beside her, with some enthusiasm. Their youngest had received a Think Salmon t-shirt for his winning Salute to the Salmon design and now they all wanted one. We helped them organize themselves and they told us their salmon story.

That was just one of the salmon stories we collected at Adams River.

At the opening ceremeonies to the Salute to the Salmon festival we spoke to two families who live in separate places and get together this one weekend every year to see the salmon and take the photo that will become their Christmas card. Without fully understanding their connection—one of the parents was a sibling with one of the other parents—it was clear they had dovetailed their annual gathering with the salmon coming home.

A woman who carried a gnarled, polished, driftwood cane talked to us about her memories of her father, a commercial fisherman, who used to go out for salmon in his boat on the saltwater. She told a few stories and, as she talked, she choked up a little talking about how she used to miss her father when he was gone fishing.

Kids came up to us to tell us the story of the salmon lifecycle. So many of them knew the story off by heart and wanted to share what they had learned. They shouted over each other the names of the salmon at different stages: fry, smolt, alevin (sounded out in syllables).

We walked the trails along the banks of the Adams River and saw people connecting or reconnecting to the natural world. A poet named Michael Blackstone told us about the First Nations tradition of “going to the water,” a spiritual reconnection with what sustains us. People all around us were going to the water to stand and watch and murmur to each other.

It was clear that the salmon affected people. Many folks had travelled hundred of kilometres, as far as the salmon, to reach Adams River. They came to see the salmon, to go back to the water, to go back to the story of the salmon’s return.

Over the next few weeks we’ll be posting the stories of the people who went to the water to see the Adams River Sockeye on the Adams River blog. We hope you’ll join us in the celebration of salmon.