Monday, July 11, 2005
Matter of Respect
Four years ago, I recall a story out of Canada about a tribe on Vancouver Island whose chief had recently died saying he would like his spirit to return as an Orca to his people on Nootka Sound. Days after he passed over, a lone, young Orca swam into the waters near their village and proceeded to rip apart some industrial salmon pens (fish farms) that the tribe had opposed for environmental reasons. Needless to say, this whale was greeted with great respect and enthusiasm by the tribe still in mourning for their beloved chief, and plans by Canadian Fish & Wildlife to forcibly remove the whale were adamantly opposed to the point of a canoe and boat blockade of the bay, preventing the Canadian government vessels from further traumatizing both the Orca and the Nootka people.
So this morning I read in Indian Country Today that the Mowachaht/Muchalaht First Nation is still guarding Luna, the killer whale that became separated from its pod in Nootka Sound in 2001.
The Mowachaht/Muchalaht call the operation ''Kakawin Guardians.'' Kakawin is the word for orca in the Nuu-Chah-Nulth language, which the Mowachaht/Muchalaht share with 13 other First Nations and the Makah. The guardian program consists of daily patrols by the band's fisheries management boats to deter boating interaction with Luna, and an education outreach program for boaters to alert them that they are in the kakawin's territory. Mowachaht/Muchalaht believe the sociable whale's interaction with people and boats could harm it and inhibit a reunion with its pod. Many Mowachaht/Muchalaht believe the orca - which they call Tsu'xiit - embodies the spirit of their late chief, Ambrose Maquinna, who died in July 2001, a few days before Tsu'xiit's first appearance in Nootka Sound. Mowachaht/Muchalaht canoe paddlers surrounded Tsu'xiit last year to prevent Canadian fisheries' officials from capturing the orca and moving it to the Straits of Juan de Fuca, where its pod spends much of the year.
''We have never opposed a natural reunion,'' Chief Mike Maquinna, son of the late chief, said in a press release circulated by Orca Network. ''But our culture views the kakawin with great respect, and the way [the Department of Fisheries and Oceans] was trying to move him last year was not respectful.'' Maquinna said the guardianship program would seek to help Luna expand his territory to areas where he could potentially hear the calls of L-pod, should any of its members pass in the vicinity.
A different way of doing things.
So this morning I read in Indian Country Today that the Mowachaht/Muchalaht First Nation is still guarding Luna, the killer whale that became separated from its pod in Nootka Sound in 2001.
The Mowachaht/Muchalaht call the operation ''Kakawin Guardians.'' Kakawin is the word for orca in the Nuu-Chah-Nulth language, which the Mowachaht/Muchalaht share with 13 other First Nations and the Makah. The guardian program consists of daily patrols by the band's fisheries management boats to deter boating interaction with Luna, and an education outreach program for boaters to alert them that they are in the kakawin's territory. Mowachaht/Muchalaht believe the sociable whale's interaction with people and boats could harm it and inhibit a reunion with its pod. Many Mowachaht/Muchalaht believe the orca - which they call Tsu'xiit - embodies the spirit of their late chief, Ambrose Maquinna, who died in July 2001, a few days before Tsu'xiit's first appearance in Nootka Sound. Mowachaht/Muchalaht canoe paddlers surrounded Tsu'xiit last year to prevent Canadian fisheries' officials from capturing the orca and moving it to the Straits of Juan de Fuca, where its pod spends much of the year.
''We have never opposed a natural reunion,'' Chief Mike Maquinna, son of the late chief, said in a press release circulated by Orca Network. ''But our culture views the kakawin with great respect, and the way [the Department of Fisheries and Oceans] was trying to move him last year was not respectful.'' Maquinna said the guardianship program would seek to help Luna expand his territory to areas where he could potentially hear the calls of L-pod, should any of its members pass in the vicinity.
A different way of doing things.
