For thousands of years indigenous peoples have invented ingenious, often strikingly beautiful ways to harvest marine resources that, in combination with their belief systems, prevented overharvesting. But today, commercial fisheries and skyrocketing human populations are driving the future of resources from the sea toward a dangerous tipping point. Inspired by marine biologist Daniel Pauly, a group of indigenous knowledge holders and community members, scientists and artists led by Anne Salomon, a Simon Fraser University professor, formed the Pacific Sea Garden Collective and created an elegantly simple interactive map to share traditional ways that people interacted with the sea, hoping to inspire a more sustainable future.
Each of the 22 points on the map opens to a story and photos of a place along the Pacific Rim and a specific indigenous innovation. Sometimes techniques passed from generation to generation are still being practiced today. In other cases, as stories are lost when elders die, only archaeological remains hint at past practices.
In a press release about the map from Simon Fraser University, Kii’iljuus Barbara Wilson, a Haida Matriarch and scholar concluded: “In this time of climate change, it’s really important to acknowledge Indigenous mariculture as conservation and recognize First Nations governance over our land and resources. We managed to live in this world for thousands of years without the massive ecological destruction that is happening now. It’s very much about not taking more than you need.”