Author: Colten Van Der Minne, ƛaʔuukʷiʔatḥ member and PhD candidate at the UBC Centre for Indigenous Fisheries

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The haʔukmin (Kennedy) watershed is an important and storied area for ƛaʔuukʷiʔatḥ (Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation). It is located on the West Coast of Vancouver Island and is part of the ḥaḥuułi of the ƛaʔuukʷiʔatḥ Ḥawiih (hereditary chiefs). Meaning “the Great Feastbowl”, haʔukmin is a traditional source of food for ƛaʔuukʷiʔatḥ, especially salmon, and of significant cultural importance. However, decades of overfishing, irresponsible logging practices, and other factors have had an enormous impact on haʔukmin and the fish that call it home. Today, ƛaʔuukʷiʔatḥ can no longer fish out of this watershed, and an important pillar of our food sovereignty is threatened.

Helping with a Ha’oom salmonid monitoring project in June 2022. (Picture taken by Jess Edwards).

I first came to know haʔukmin during my undergraduate Honours thesis. I am from ƛaʔuukʷiʔatḥ paternally and of mixed settler descent, but the Sixties Scoop separated my father, and therefore myself, from community. By the time I had entered the Honours Marine Biology program at the University of British Columbia (UBC), I was coming to grips with my identity and yearning for a stronger connection to my home. This came to be tied to my work when I discovered the UBC Centre for Indigenous Fisheries, with whom I completed my Honours thesis and work in my current role.

A portion of the lower Kennedy River, part of the haʔukmin watershed. (Photo taken by me in the summer of 2023).

I moved home for the first time in my life in the summer of 2022 to do the fieldwork for my Honours thesis. I partnered with Ha’oom Fisheries Society, an organization that supports and facilitates the commercial fisheries for five nuučaan̓uɫ (Nuu-chah-nulth) Nations, including ƛaʔuukʷiʔatḥ. I was investigating plankton diversity as it relates to salmon in the estuaries of several watersheds, including haʔukmin. I also had the opportunity to help with a salmon monitoring project in haʔukmin that summer. After completing my thesis and graduating, I returned to work as a research technician at Ha’oom and once again helped with work in haʔukmin before starting in my current role as a graduate student.

I began a Master’s degree in 2024, and have since transferred to a PhD program. While my undergraduate work focused on haʔukmin among other watersheds, I am now focused entirely on haʔukmin. My research is a partnership between the Centre for Indigenous Fisheries, Ha’oom Fisheries Society, and ƛaʔuukʷiʔatḥ (Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation). The overarching objective of the work is to contribute to the healing of relationships between haʔukmin, salmon, and people. To that end, this work is shaped by ƛaʔuukʷiʔatḥ principles such as hišukʔiš c̓awaak (everything is one/connected).

Because hišukʔiš c̓awaak, I view haʔukmin as being at the centre of a web of relationships. My role is to understand this web as much as possible to aid in healing the relationships that have been damaged. Taking a step further, this work applies several methodological lenses to understand more of, and more about, these relationships than any one lens could do alone.

The project is specifically focused on four different methodologies. One approach is archival research, through which my goal is to compile a full written history of haʔukmin. Another approach is through community interviews, with which I hope to shed light on ƛaʔuukʷiʔatḥ’s history with haʔukmin as well as Traditional Knowledge of salmon in the area and the Nation’s priorities for the watershed going forward.

My third methodology is Western ecological salmon research, through which I can help address outstanding knowledge gaps. This approach is purposefully vague at the time of writing, as I am leaving space to shape this work according to the community’s priorities that will be articulated in the interviews.

Finally, I am examining the laws and policies governing Western fisheries management. This investigation, alongside the rest of the project, will lead to a research-informed policy brief that can address changes that better reflect ƛaʔuukʷiʔatḥ management and sovereignty in relation to haʔukmin and its salmon.

Part of the ƛaʔuukʷiʔatḥ hatchery in haʔukmin, on the lower Kennedy River. (Photo taken by myself in August 2025).

This work has been a long time in the making – it is a continuation of relationships built in my undergraduate years and time as a research technician between degrees. Since beginning my current project, I have been focused on university-facing components, including coursework, transferring to my PhD, defending my proposal, and completing my comprehensive exam.

Meanwhile, I have had space for the conversations and experiences that have been needed to help this project take shape. It has been developed with partners in ƛaʔuukʷiʔatḥ and Ha’oom to ensure it is responsive to the needs of the Nation and the fish. I have also been able to strengthen community relationships as I settle into living and working within the ḥaḥuułi, and my relationship to the fish as I continue to help with other projects in the area.

I am very excited to be engaging in this work more in the coming months, with interviews beginning in the new year and ecological research thereafter. I am also in the early stages of the archival and policy research.

Standing in front of a poster I presented at the American Fisheries Society annual meeting in 2024. (Photo taken by Alex Duncan in September 2024).

This work is deeply personal to me. It has turned into my path home, as it brought me to live in home territory part-time and now permanently as of 2024. I hope it is the start of a career that will allow me to work in and for community going forward. I’m deeply grateful to my family and community, my teams at the Centre and Ha’oom, and to the funders like the Conservation through Reconciliation Partnership (CRP) that make this work possible. It isn’t an exaggeration to say this has been the most meaningful work of my life.

Adult miʕaat (sockeye) returning to haʔukmin to spawn. (Photo taken by myself in September 2025).

The Conservation through Reconciliation Partnership (CRP) provided some funds to support this project. The CRP Student Bursary initiative was made possible through the generous contributions of the following partners: WWF-Canada, Nature United, the Nature Conservancy of Canada, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.