Straits Salish Plant Stewardship in the 21st Century:Cultivating Co-management Relationships in BC

This research supports the T?Sou-ke Nation to re-establish connections with culturally important native plant species cultivated and stewarded by traditional T?Sou-ke peoples for food, medicine and technology and to store this information in database and maps. The product of this research will be accessed when T?Sou-ke consider both large, economic development projects proposed within their territory, and for plant harvesting opportunities (for food and commercial purposes) by their members. Using community engaged methods alongside of ethnography, mapping and vegetation surveys, the Intern will establish the breadth and depth of plant use and management in T?Sou-ke?s traditional food system at the time of contact with Europeans, and suggest how the T?Sou-ke?s current interests in these plant species can be accommodated now and in the future.

Faculty Supervisor:

Nancy Turner

Student:

Pamela Spalding

Partner:

Firelight Group

Discipline:

Environmental sciences

Sector:

Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

University of Victoria