Submitted by Christine
Aday
for Uu-a-thluk
Aug. 24, 2006
On June 15th Ditidaht Community School, Christy Wilson
(DFO South Island Education Coordinator), and Uu-a-thluk staff organized
a fun and successful third annual Ditidaht Oceans Day celebration.
World Oceans Day was proclaimed at the United Nations Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 as an annual reminder "of the life giving role of oceans worldwide" (Fisheries and Oceans Canada website).
The purpose of World Oceans Day is to increase awareness of oceans, ocean resources, and how all our actions affect the ocean - something many Nu-chah-nulth-alt are very aware of through the principle of hisuk is c'awaak, everything is one and all are connected.
The Ditidaht Oceans Day started with Christy WIlson's dynamic presentation to the kindergarten, grade one and two students. The presentation included a food web game in the Ditidaht language (thanks to Adam Werle, language teacher at Ditidaht Community School) to demonstrate hisuk is c'awaak to the young students.
Next Christy WIlson and Sabrina Halvorsen, Uu-a-thluk's summer student, did a similar but more challenging presentation to the grade three through six students. At the same time Shannon Cowan, Uu-a-thluk Capacity Building Coordinator, and Christine Aday, Uu-a-thluk Capacity Building Intern, gave a talk to the older students which included sharing stories and talking about jobs in the area that are related to the ocean. "Many of the students have already worked in this field, so it wasn't all new information," said Cowan.
Exciting
news cut the presentations short: Ditidaht students who had gone on a
two day canoe and camping journey in their hawits ha-hoult-ee were arriving
by canoe. The drummers and dancers gathered at the dock to welcome home
the young canoeists and to practice their coming ashore protocols for
when Tribal Journeys canoeists come to Ditidaht in July.
The
day just kept getting better and better as a feast of seafood was served
to the community. Many thanks to Phillip Edgar, Perry Edgar and Terry
Edger for harvesting the crabs, gooseneck barnacles and mussels, and to
Shelly Amos and Hazel Edgar for cooking the delicious luncheon.
The afternoon was spent listening to Elders and community members' heartfelt words regarding our traditional involvement with the ocean, doing fish prints, painting t-shirts and having hands-on learning through tanks filled with live local sea life.
Shannon Cowan wrapped up the day saying, "Oceans Day was a great experience. We're all working toward the same goal: healthy communities making a living from a healthy ocean."
Did
you know the world's ocean:
- Generates most of the oxygen we breathe
- Helps feed us
- Regulates our climate
- Cleans the water we drink
- Offers us a pharmacopoeia of potential medicine, and
- Provides limitless inspiration
(from the oceanproject.org)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
home
> ditidaht/fisheries
> article
