Haisla Nuuyum: Cultural conservation and regulation methods within traditional fishing and hunting

Haisla Nuuyum (Way of Life and Laws) offers cultural teachings that continue to grow and develop throughout generations. This paper translates and interprets stories told to me by my parents about how our Nuuyum illustrates how cultural rituals and ceremonies act or serve as methods of conservation and regulation for fishing and hunting. In these rituals and ceremonies, I include roles of family members as the fisher and hunter prepares for their expedition. I will share accounts of cultural knowledge as it relates to seasons, weather conditions, and the ceremonial rituals required to be performed prior to, during and after the fishing or hunting trip. My analysis includes an examination of, and suggestions for how to apply rituals and ceremonies into contemporary fishing or hunting regulations. Throughout this paper I refer to cultural conservation, as a method that includes rituals and ceremonies in how we practice conservation from our Haisla Nuuyum. Moreover, I explore strategies on how to re-teach cultural conservation to young people. It is important for you as a reader to understand that these cultural teachings are only one example of how a community practiced (and to a certain extent still practices) conservation in a cultural way. There are diverse Indigenous histories, identities and cultural practices and in these diverse places, some practices are still vibrant and lived, whereas for many other communities, cultural practices have been violated by colonial forces. Cultural teachings are lifelong processes and for many other Indigenous communities who continue to confront the devastation of their violated territories, there is an urgency to hear, preserve and re-tell their own sacred teachings as it relates to fishing and hunting.

Due to modern shifts within Indigenous worldviews, it is essential that we are creative in how we relearn cultural knowledge and in how we re-tell these teachings to young people. As an academic, I have chosen to learn these cultural practices and translate them into text. In this text, I also incorporate specific stories that signify a cultural practice that, from my perspective, illustrates a teaching for conservation.