A study examining the pre-colonial history of the Tsleil-Waututh finds that seafood plays a particularly important role in their traditional diet.
The diet of the Səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh Nation) before the arrival of settlers was based on a food source that was abundant, diverse and nutritious, and was a world away from that of today.
New research between the Tsleil-Waututh people and the University of British Columbia will use archaeological evidence and Aboriginal oral traditions to piece together what was on the menu between 1000 AD and first contact with Europeans around 1792 AD.
While the nation’s diet included all types of mammals, marine life and poultry, research found that its four main pillars are salmon, forage fish, shellfish and seabirds.
The lush Burrard Inlet has provided tireless food and supported thriving populations of Pacific salmon, Pacific herring, eulachon, smelt, anchovies, flatfish and sturgeon, untouched by colonization and industrialization, said the study’s lead author, UBC doctoral student Meaghan Efford.
“The bay has provided so much food for thousands of years largely because the Tsleil-Waututh people used special management and farming techniques that ensured a sustainable harvest over that period of time,” she said.
Efford said our ancestors’ diets were incredibly high in protein, with each person consuming an average of over 200 grams per day. Today, the recommended amount of protein is about 0.8 grams per kilogram of body weight, or about 60 grams for a 75-kilogram person.
Eating seabirds such as dabbling ducks could help combat cardiovascular disease, vascular disease and organ problems that can be caused by a high-protein diet because of the high fat content in the diet, Efford says.
The study, A Fish-Based Menu: An Interdisciplinary Reconstruction of the Ancestral Diet of the Tsleil-Waututhis part of a wider doctoral research Efford conducted with the nation to learn more about its pre-colonial existence.
The majority of the findings, including the knowledge about the people’s diet before settlement, confirm much of what the Tsleil-Waututh people have been saying for decades, Efford said.
Michelle George, a culture and technology expert from the Tsleil-Waututh Nation, said stories of a Burrard Inlet teeming with life have been passed down from generation to generation, but the picture painted is so different from what remains today that the stories feel more like folk tales than fact.
“My family always told me that when the tide went out, the table was set and there was more than enough food to feed a family and a large community and have some left over the next day,” she said. “It was like that every day. The whole of Burrard Inlet was a mussel bed.”
George said Efford’s research has given support and confidence to a nation whose indigenous oral traditions have long been ignored in favor of Western science. The scientific “support” should spark a more serious response from local communities and environmental groups, who often need official statistics and numbers to feel compelled to change, she said.
While there is “still a lot of work to be done,” George said efforts to rehabilitate and restore the bay have gained momentum in recent years – and the fruits of those efforts are now becoming visible.
Last spring, the country’s Treaty, Lands and Resources (TLR) department completed a four-year marine restoration project aimed at protecting and preserving the bay. The effort included restoring seagrass and native plants and removing creosote waste and marine debris.
Healthy habitats promote the recovery of marine life populations, which in turn replenishes the Tsleil-Waututh Nation’s diet and helps educate the community on their own culture, George said.
“Many elders return to their reservations after a long life and find their family again. Many of these people want to learn about the Tsleil-Waututh diet,” she said. “Information like this is crucial because then we can teach them what their family used to eat. Maybe then these people can try seafood for the first time. It’s about bringing that culture, that way of life, back to our people.”
Mina Kerr-Lazenby is the Indigenous and community affairs reporter for the North Shore News. This reporting section is made possible by the Local Journalism Initiative.
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