Caring for Lhuq'us
Lhuq’us harvesting places referenced from ethnographic texts, Traditional Use Studies, theses, and documents published by Hul’qumi’num and other Coast Salish communities.
From left to right: lhuq’us drying on a tarp at Winter Cove camp - Lhuq’us in clam chowder at Russell Island camp.
Lhuq’us harvesting beaches and privately held land.
Caring for Lhulq’us (pryopia spp.): mapping and remote sensing of Hul’quimi’num culturally important seaweeds in the Salish Sea is a thesis project, by Jack Baker, that focuses on lhuq’us a flavorful and nutritious intertidal seaweed that grows on rocky beaches across the Pacific Northwest. Hul’q’umi’num’ language, cultural values, teachings, and family histories are all interwoven into the harvesting and consumption of lhuq’us in Hul’qumi’num territories.
This project followed two broad streams of inquiry, the first stream employed ethnographic methodology including interviews and observant participation, which documented cultural values, oral histories, lived experiences associated with lhulq’us as well as concerns for the future of lhulq’us and lhulq’us beaches. The second stream, based in a geographic approach, asks whether Unoccupied Aerial Vehicle (UAV) technologies could be employed to record the status of lhuq’us as a baseline for monitoring.
There are serious concerns and cultural values and practices deeply interconnected with culturally important species like lhuq’us. Through holding these concerns and values side by side with systematic observation and analyses maps and materials were created which communities can use to assert their rights, enact their own monitoring of territories and re-prioritize environmental decision-making done by federal, provincial, and municipal management agencies.