Raincoast Conservation Foundation just finished the autumn run of its Salish Sea Emerging Stewards (SSES) program, which runs twice a year. In this program, First Nations students connect with the land through a series of in-class and field visits aboard their research vessel, Achiever.
Achiever, which is a 68-foot steel-hulled sailboat, was acquired by Raincoast Conservation in 2003 to be used as their research vessel, but it's so much more. The vessel is currently out on the West Coast of Vancouver Island surveying marine mammal birds, but it has also worked with researchers, documentary film crews, and local Indigenous Nations.
Launched in 2016, Raincoast's Salish Sea Emerging Stewards (SSES) aims to train and empower local Indigenous youth as future leaders. These trips focus on bringing the youth to places they've never been (on their own traditional territory) and introducing them to conservation, natural history experiences, as well as sailing and the marine world.
A unique part of this program is the use of two-eyed seeing, which merges Indigenous knowledge with contemporary science — a term coined by Mi'kmaw Elder Albert Marshall back in 2018.
The program is typically a five-day immersion exploring islands throughout the Salish Sea, but because of COVID-19, they pivoted to single-day sails. Each morning before heading out on the water, co-coordinators Nathaniel Glickman and Asta Mail brief the students. Even though they are education coordinators, they remind the students that everyone is there to learn from the land and each other.
"The foundation of everything we do is to protect the coast of BC and the lives of people who have been dependent on the coast," Glickman says.
"You're the ones who are inheriting this place, and we hope we'll inspire you to take our jobs from us," he adds.
Over three days, Captain Drew Patrick Graham navigates youth from W̱SÁNEĆ Leadership and Quamichan through the Salish Sea to explore the woods and intertidal zones of SISȻENEM (Halibut Island), SḰŦÁMEN (Sidney Island), SXEĆOŦEN (Portland Island), and ȾEMÁȻES (Russell Island).
Special thanks to language keeper PEPAḴIYE Ashley Cooper for SENĆOŦEN words and translations.