I recently returned from an exhilarating 18-day hiking and zodiac adventure on Haida Gwaii and I can’t help but contrast their islands' lifestyle with the island I call home.
Salt Spring Island is an 182.7sq.km (70.5sq.mile) island located between Victoria and Vancouver with a thriving population approaching 12,000. Salt Spring’s population is said to double in the summer due to an influx of holiday visitors. Contrast this with Haida Gwaii (previously known as the Queen Charlotte Islands), which is comprised of more than 150 islands (with a total landmass of 10,180sq.kms or 3,931sq.miles) and is home to a vibrant, but relatively small permanent population of 3,800. Tourists flock to this islands’ paradise (often called the Galapagos of the North), but not in the same droves as they do to Salt Spring in the summer months.
Just as no two people are the same, no two places are the same either, but for some reason when you travel you can’t help but make comparisons and see both the differences and the similarities.
I, probably like most wide-eyed first-time tourists, fell head over heels in love with everything about Haida Gwaii, the warm peoples, the raw natural physical beauty, the abundant wildlife (bears, sea lions, eagles, ravens and otters galore) and the beautiful food. The food is what has left a long lingering impression and I couldn’t help but notice the authentic and totally natural way people have incorporated local food (and hunting and gathering) into their daily life.
Whether it was picking berries for morning pancakes, harvesting sea asparagus and frying up chantralles for dinner, herding crabs off the beach at early tide or catching fresh fish or prawns for a seafood feast, while maintaining thriving kitchen gardens, the people seem to spend a good deal of their time revolving around food. And for their efforts they live like gastronomic Kings and Queens. The result is a population that, for the most part, seems to eat exceptionally well, in addition to looking incredibly healthy and physically fit.
The rationale for the hunter-gatherer lifestyle is practical as much as economic with the cost of importing food so high and with wild food so abundant, but we didn’t enter a single household that didn’t have at its core the collection and storing of food. Tinctures, syrups, jams, homemade wine, freezing fish and cleaning meat, canning salmon, baking pies, drying mushrooms, and pickling sea asparagus are just a few of the food preparations we saw taking place as a normal part of daily life.
I guess where I saw the contrast between the island I call home and Haidi Gwaii was with the lack of flash and pizzazz around food. Food was food.
There was no long-winded lectures, seminars and conferences on food security and arguments about organic versus local versus imported pesticide-laden food. Their system of gathering food is simply practical, a necessity, and it is how the vast majority of the Haida Gwaii population chooses to live.
On Salt Spring Island we seem to spend much more time talking and debating the merits, benefits and problems of food production compared to actually engaging in the collection, creation and manufacturing of food. Now, I don’t include our diverse range of dedicated Salt Spring farmers and food producers in this gentle observation, but I think if we islanders put a bit more effort into actually engaging in gathering and growing our own food (and also utilizing the abundance of wild food growing on our island), we would spend a lot less time arguing (Salt Spring Island is often referred to as a disagreement surrounded by water). Perhaps then we would have more time to engage in healthy living and eating, while taking the opportunity to create a more harmonious and food secure community at the same time.
Haida Gwaii is many things, but the one thing that will always stand out for me is how their community is a example of how you can live closer to the land, utilize what is available naturally, while following the seasons and living a good, clean, healthy life.
On a final tantalizing side food note, if you are ever so fortunate to visit Rose Harbour in Gwaii Hananas Park you will experience a 100% local multi-course meal, prepared off the grid and served by candlelight, and know the closest and most delicious thing to culinary heaven that you will ever find on this Earth.
Valerie Williams is a writer living on Salt Spring Island, spending her nights dreaming of returning to Haida Gwaii.
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