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Harvesting wellness with Okanagan sockeye salmon

University of British Columbia

Prior to colonization the Syilx Okanagan people were healthy and strong, by honouring reciprocal relationships with salmon and all living things. Colonization contributed to a loss of salmon abundance that is now being restored by the Syilx Okanagan Nation. The relationship that Syilx people have with salmon is also being reintroduced to those who are not familiar with it. This study explores how restoring Syilx connections to salmon have impacted the well-being of Syilx Okanagan peoples by asking, how do Syilx Okanagan Nation members understand the influence of Sockeye Salmon reintroduction on their wellness? and how can an Indigenous centered relational research process promote a diversity of knowledge in regard to the role of traditional foods within an Indigenous context? A relational methodology that is fundamentally informed by Syilx knowledge utilizing an En’owkinwixw methodology through a postcolonial lens and an interpretive phenomenological (IP) method was applied to increase understanding of a collective experience of wellness. Eight participant interviews with Syilx Okanagan Nation members increased my understanding of the influence of Sockeye Salmon reintroduction on their wellness. This inquiry revealed that for participants, wellness was not fully present in the absence of salmon and that participants’ understandings of wellness reflected a uniquely Syilx perspective. An element of this perspective is that salmon creates a spiritual connectedness that is at the core of Syilx wellness with Salmon. Findings reveal that spiritual connectedness is comprised of the senses of belief, identity and reciprocity and is supported by Syilx traits of wellness that include relationships, connections, responsibility, participating and sharing and purpose. A storied account of the salmon cycle from the literature draws from generations of Syilx perspective to provide agreement that salmon brings strength to Syilx wellness and stability to social and governing structures in communities while contributing to the sustainability of ecology throughout the salmon system. We conclude that salmon restores Syilx wellness and has potential to create health equity. Indigenous foods restoration is an important way to apply Indigenous knowledge within current systems to further the well-being of Syilx people.

Text

2020-04-03

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/73901

Interdisciplinary Studies

University of British Columbia

UBCO

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/