Metlakatla Youth Cultural Revitalization Project

Dave Leask and his team from Metlakatla Stewardship led the learning for a youth cultural revitalization project with Pacific Coast School by taking students clam and cockle digging on Metlakatla territory. 

Metlakatla has been working diligently to protect and appropriately manage local resources during the past few years. This project was a very rare opportunity for SD52 students to be a part of, and thus SD52 Aboriginal Education is very thankful to the highly knowledgeable and professional staff of Metlakatla Stewardship, to the Metlakatla ferry staff and especially to Metlakatla Chief and Council for granting permission to access Metlakatla beaches. 

SD 52 would also like to extend gratitude to the Marine Planning Partnership (MAPP) and North Coast Skeena Stewardship Society for providing the grant that made the entire project possible. 

On the evening of Tuesday December 19th students, teachers and support staff from Pacific Coast School boarded the Metlakatla ferry and headed over to a beach in Metlakatla territory to get their hands dirty and learn how to harvest clams and cockles. The Ts'msyen Seasonal Rounds' time of Ha'lila̱xsiga̱boox and Ha'lila̱xsits'a̱'a̱x (the months of harvesting clams and cockles), typically takes place during the early winter months. 

Once the students arrived close to the beach they were ferried over to shore by a small skiff operated by David Leask and the Metlakatla Stewardship staff. Once on shore David gathered the group and spoke about the importance of the clam and cockle harvest to the people of Metlakatla, gave safety instructions, briefly demonstrated the harvesting technique and told the students to have fun and harvest some clams and cockles. 

The students teamed up with the adults and in groups spread out through out the beach and started digging. It was a sight to see; small clusters of lights spread along the shore line with students diligently digging and plunking clams and cockles into their buckets one by one. 

The students kept up the hard work for nearly two hours until they filled their buckets full of clams and cockles. Some of the students even cleaned and ate some of the clams right on the spot. 

The next day some of the students came to Wap Sigatgyet to shuck and package the clams and cockles in preparation to gift them to Metlakatla Elders. The students worked hard all day and at the end many bags of processed clams and cockles were ready to be delivered.  

The students were honoured and very happy to have participated in the project. Pacific Coast Secondary students and staff along with Aboriginal Education staff documented the project from beginning to end. Stay tuned for the a video documenting the learning to be used for future learning.