Salmon Farming and Salmon People: Identity and Environment in the Leggatt Inquiry

• Main Author: Schreiber, Dorothee
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: eScholarship, University of California 2003
• Subjects: land rights; resource recognition; colonial material practice; Native identities; First Nations
• Online Access: https://escholarship.org/uc/item/175934gk

INTRODUCTION In October of 2001, the Leggatt Inquiry into salmon farming traveled to four small communities (Port Hardy, Tofino, Alert Bay, and Campbell River) close to the centers of operation for the finfish aquaculture industry in British Columbia (see fig. 1). In doing so, it gave local people, particularly First Nations people, an opportunity to speak about salmon farming using their own vocabularies, styles of speaking, and forms of knowledge. Their testimony, however, was about much more than salmon farming. In fact, most of the talk at the inquiry focused upon people’s sense of place and community, and their understandings of their way of life. In particular, the inquiry brought to light the legal and political context in which the salmon farming industry operates. This paper focuses on narratives that in technical and scientific circles would probably be considered rambling, anecdotal, and off the subject. Much of the background needed to make sense of these accounts of fish farming lies hidden in the colonial context of the industry and the ongoing struggles of Native people in British Columbia for recognition of their rights to land and resources. In particular, the material practices of the colonizers seem to produce Native identities quite different from the ones Native people themselves know and rely on. My analysis of the Leggatt Inquiry tries to give voice to the Native people who appeared at the inquiry by showing that, while they are certainly the victims of continued intrusions into their territories and ways of life—and, as I hope to demonstrate, salmon farming represents such an intrusion—they are not passive bystanders in the process. Instead, the aboriginal people who spoke about salmon farming at the inquiry creatively and strategically employed a variety of devices that would help others see the controversy over salmon farming as they themselves did.