|
Fresh clams, wild salmon and crabs.
No, it’s not the menu at a high-end restaurant — it’s what was on the dinner menu for Tsleil-Waututh ancestors 500 years ago in səl̓ilw̓ət (pronounced suh-ley-l-wut, also known as Burrard Inlet in what’s now part of Vancouver).
B.C. reporter Steph Kwetásel’wet Wood just wrote about a study by University of British Columbia researchers that reconstructs what Tsleil-Waututh people were eating prior to European contact. Using archaeological evidence and cultural knowledge, researchers found the Tsleil-Waututh diet was high in fat and protein — a whopping 232 grams of protein per day, up to four times as much as the average person might eat today (but not quite as much as The Rock, a fellow aficionado of ocean foods.)
But with colonialism came the industrialization and environmental destruction of Burrard Inlet. Dredged to make way for industries that pollute its shallow waters, the inlet lost about 55 per cent of its tidal zone — an area more than twice the size of Stanley Park. That loss also decimated the populations of crabs, clams and other bivalves, which the Tsleil-Waututh people harvested for at least 3,000 years.
|
|
|
Michelle George, a member and cultural technical specialist from the Tsleil-Waututh Nation (səlilwətaɬ), told Steph that the study put the impacts of colonialism on her ancestors’ diet into sharp focus.
“We should be able to eat from the water. We should be able to use it,” she said.
Now, the Tsleil-Waututh Nation is working toward revitalizing that diet — not only to bring ancestral foods back to the dinner table, but to also restore and heal the habitat in the midst of a biodiversity crisis.
“Michelle and lead study author Meaghan Efford said food security can feel like such a huge issue, too big to solve — like climate change and the biodiversity crisis,” Steph told me. “I like how they said this data doesn’t need to be seen as something stuck in the past, but more a vision of what this land is capable of, and what we can strive for, and what a path back to food sovereignty may look like at the local level.”
To get a full picture of the ancestral Tsleil-Waututh diet — and what restoring it could mean for the polluted Burrard Inlet — check out Steph’s story here.
Take care and throw your friends a summertime dinner party,
Karan Saxena
Audience engagement editor
|
|
|
|
He said what? But did what?
If Canada held a federal election tomorrow, most polls predict Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre would win. And as the seven-time MP positions himself as the next prime minister, he’s been trying to distance himself from Parliament Hill’s lobbying culture.
Poilievre has called industry reps who try to push policy ideas “utterly useless.” He’s said companies need to convince “truckers, waitresses, nurses, carpenters” — not elected officials.
But as climate investigations reporter Carl Meyer discovered, Poilievre’s office door is pretty open to lobbyists. Federal records show he or a staff member spoke with lobbyists connected to oil and gas interests 46 times over the course of a year.
Analysts say that it makes sense for lobbyists to try to establish relationships now with members of Poilievre’s inner circle.
“People who are in the leader’s office, who know the files, who are the go-tos, would be the ones that would go with him if and when he becomes prime minister,” one told Carl. “You spend years and years building these relationships in the political space.”
Go read Carl’s look into which fossil fuel companies are trying to connect with Poilievre and his inner circle.
|
|
|
|
Success amid turbulence
We probably don’t have to tell you: the past year has been a pretty wild one for the news industry in Canada.
Last summer, when the Canadian government passed the Online News Act, Meta and Google both threatened to block all news content for users in our country. Instead of panicking, we saw an opportunity to start building more direct relationships with our audience.
Those efforts turned out to be pretty successful: thousands of you signed up for our newsletter and hundreds became members of The Narwhal.
Now, we’ve earned an INNovator Award nomination from the Institute for Nonprofit News, a network of more than 450 independent news organizations. It’s a thrill to be recognized for our work to not only survive, but thrive, as a sustainable news organization in turbulent times.
Thank you, Narwhals, for reading and supporting our independent journalism.
— Arik Ligeti, director of audience
|
|
This week in The Narwhal
|
|
|
These Ontario farmers are losing the land they own to industry. But that’s all anyone will tell them
By Fatima Syed
In Waterloo, the regional government is threatening to expropriate over 320 hectares of farmland to meet the province’s call for shovel-ready land
READ MORE
|
|
TC Energy lobbyist called B.C. premier’s office one day after scathing pipeline inspection report
By Matt Simmons & Mike De Souza
READ MORE
|
|
|
Why are Canada’s parks so primed to burn?
By Drew Anderson & Matt Simmons
READ MORE
|
|
|
‘An invisible emergency’: how governments are preparing for extreme heat
By Julia-Simone Rutgers
READ MORE
|
|
|
Drones, robots, sensors: farming isn’t what it used to be. Will tech help the environment?
By Delaney Seiferling
READ MORE
|
|
|
What we’re reading
|
|
Turns out, environmental organizations have been helping greenwash Big Meat’s climate impact. What gives? Vox’s Kenny Torrella digs deep.
Villages in the Northwest Territories are flying in essentials, because the MacMackenzie River is too low for barge traffic. A proposed highway could offer a lifeline, Ed Struzik writes in Yale Environment 360.
More than a year after the Kearl oilsands spill in Fort Chipewyan, Alta. — and over 30 years since Indigenous leaders have been asking for accountability — the federal government has allocated $12 million to study oilsands impacts in the region, Brandin Morin reports for Ricochet.
|
|
|
|
|
|
