Nancy Turner bubbles with enthusiasm as she speaks of the wapato, or Indian potato as it’s also called, that has been successfully reintroduced in the Salmon River delta, a root vegetable that was once a staple of the Neskonlith people living in the area. Late Neskonlith elder Mary Thomas remembered her granny wading into the water and pulling up the tubers.
Turner exudes the same excitement when she speaks of the large high-bush cranberry that was discovered thriving in the delta, a bush that Mary Thomas picked berries from as a girl, and her mother and grandmother would have picked from too.
Turner was speaking this weekend at a workshop, Meeting our Aboriginal Neighbours Again for the First Time, sponsored by First United Church and Switzmalph Cultural Society. Turner is an internationally-esteemed ethnobotanist who spent years with Thomas, learning about plants in the Salmon River delta.
Following the blessing given by Splatsin elder Ethel Thomas, which concluded with the traditional phrase, “All my relations,” Turner spoke about never taking other species for granted, because we’re all related and interdependent.
Bonnie Thomas and Dorothy Argent of the Switzmalph Society spoke about the restoration of the Salmon River watershed. Argent said Mary Thomas came to city council in 1991, more than 20 years ago, concerned about the degradation of the delta and the disappearance of plants. From this, the Salmon River Watershed Roundtable was born. Now, 65 per cent of the watershed has been restored. Argent spoke of Mary’s wisdom, noting she often said: “People only look after what they know about.”
And so the workshop went, providing many speakers with information about initiatives and partnerships ongoing for the delta, and providing cultural information so people got to ‘know about’ each other. A sense of kindness and community prevailed.
In keeping with tradition, Bonnie Thomas presented thoughtful gifts to Nancy Turner, Neskonlith Chief Judy Wilson and Mayor Nancy Cooper. To Wilson and Cooper she beaded eagle feathers, one for home and one for work. She recognized the hard work leaders do and said people keep the feathers to give them strength. As well, eagles have excellent vision and leaders are expected to provide long-term vision.
Salmon Arm Mayor Nancy Cooper said, in her opening remarks: “City hall is just across the street, but in some ways, it’s a long way away.”
To underline that statement, just two days later, a ruling was delivered on the lawsuit involving the city, SmartCentres and the Neskonlith band – emphasizing the distance between city hall and the band. In my mind, a lawsuit is a failure in human relations, evidence of the ‘not knowing’ that Mary Thomas spoke about countering.
With the success of the weekend’s workshop, which close to 150 people attended, another step has been taken to ensure that in the future the community – with all its diverse members – will be more likely to act in consideration of “all its relations.”
