‘Fishing Has Provided Me with a Connection to Place’

Growing up, Taylor Wale spent her summers harvesting salmon with her Gitxsan grandfather, near Hazelton, where the Skeena and the Bulkley rivers meet.

“Our family would work on cutting and processing hundreds of fish together to deliver to the rest of the family,” she recalls. “And although my role in that work as a kid was small, or sometimes just to observe, I now realize the weight of that moment.”

The Gitxsan are matrilineal, and each clan is composed of house groups called wilps, which connect family members to specific fishing sites, territories and histories. When Wale’s grandfather passed away, her clan rights were extinguished. Her great-aunt Sadie adopted her into the Wilps xGwoimtxw, part of the Lax Gibuu (Wolf Clan).

“They gave me the name Luu'maja so that I have a place in our feast system and know where my bloodline comes from,” says Wale. “In my story, even through years of being disconnected to our home territories and communities, fishing has provided me with a connection to place and family, and a space for me to learn about Gitxsan governance and the importance of our laws surrounding fish and water.”

That connection has not only shaped Wale’s identity, but also her career as a fisheries biologist working with the Gitksan Watershed Authorities. She’s the project lead for the McCully Creek Restoration Project, funded by the REFBC’s Healthy Watersheds Initiative. The multi-year project to restore and monitor the salmon habitat of the creek, which requires her to spend a lot of time out on the land. She regularly brings Gitxsan youth into the field with her, encouraging them to strengthen their connection to the lands and waters through fieldwork.

“[Gitksan Watershed Authority] and other Gitxsans have been doing this work of contributing back to our systems since long before I arrived here and picked up some of the pieces,” explains Wale. “Something that I've been adding to this effort is aiming at supporting house groups and youth to take back ownership of some of the work like habitat restoration or monitoring the streams in their own territories.”

Leanne Sexsmith of the Real Estate Foundation, who nominated Wale for the Emerging Leader Land Award, wrote, “She offers an incredible example for other young people, and for anyone working to protect, restore and conserve land and water, and uphold Indigenous rights and title through her professional, personal and volunteer work.” The Emerging Leader Award goes to a young person who has demonstrated early successes and the capacity to achieve wider change.

Wale holds a bachelor of science from the University of British Columbia in natural resources management, and in 2021 she obtained a master of science from the faculty of forestry, focusing on the ecology and conservation of salmon. Now her days are mostly spent on her traditional territories in the field, taking samples. “One major perk of my job is that every field day is different,” said Wale.

She’s also currently working with Gitxsan youth to build an interactive platform for accessing technical data as well as cultural knowledge shared by community members and Simgiigyet (Hereditary Chiefs), in order to make the work of the Gitksan Watershed Authority available to all communities so that they can apply the insights to land use planning.

For Wale, bringing Gitxsan people together to share knowledge and be together on the land is the most rewarding part of her work.

“There was a day last year near the end of the sockeye peak run where our whole field crew was able to spend the day together dip-net fishing and sampling sockeye at Gisgegaas Canyon, an old fishing site and village where a few of our families come from,” she recalled. “A few of us on the field crew are related, and most have spent time up Gisgegaas with our families in the past.”

“It's a place that feels very special and old,” she continued. “Getting to visit Gisgegaas with family, our young crew members, our really experienced and knowledgeable crew members, and getting to learn more about the place from different perspectives, feels like a big privilege that comes with this line of work.”

“Moments like this when our work seems to come full circle and bring all things together feel the most meaningful to me.”