By Marissa Balle
It’s something you can enjoy raw, straight from the smoker or served delicately on wafer thin crackers – salmon is a culinary delight to the Western world. The Chinook salmon, from the Rakaia River in North Canterbury, is especially sought after, not just by food connoisseurs or keen anglers, but also by the Winnemem Wintu people
– a First Nations Tribe from California.
The Winnemem Wintu Tribe claims the Chinook salmon in the Rakaia River are descended from eggs from the McCloud River. The salmon, which once thrived in the McCloud – a tributary of the Sacramento River, made up the bulk of the Winnemem Wintu diet; they would each consume around a pound of salmon daily. In the 1940s, with the construction of the Shatsu Dam on the Sacramento River, the seasonal salmon run which had existed for thousands of years stopped, breaking a sacred covenant that the tribe had with their fish. They are now a poor tribe unrecognised by the US government and survive on minimal social security payments. They say that their troubles began when they broke this covenant with their salmon and that they didn’t do enough to protect them.
Fortunately for the fish, the US government bred millions of Chinook salmon eggs and shipped them around the world in hopes of creating new fisheries. The salmon was introduced into Aotearoa’s South Island waters between 1901 and 1907 and became a breeding ground where the fish thrived. The salmon has now established spawning runs in the Rakaia, Waimakariri, Hurunui, Waiau, Rangitata, Opihi and Ashburton rivers.
Mark Franco, Head of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe, says their journey was prompted by a ceremony performed by Winnemem Wintu’s spiritual leader. And so began the 2010 Winnemem Wintu’s spiritual mission to Aotearoa. Earlier this year Ngai Tahu welcomed the tribe to NZ’s shores to apologise to the fish at the Rakaia River in Canterbury, and ask them to come home.
“During a war dance ceremony in 2004 our spiritual leader received a message from our ancestors; the spirits came into the fire area and said we had to get it done, that we needed to mend our relationship with the fish in order to heal.”
Earlier this year, 28 members of Winnemem Wintu, many whom had never before left their homeland, gathered on the banks of the Rakaia River accompanied by Ngai Tahu elders to commence an intense four day ceremony which culminated in a dance called the nur chonas winypus or middle water salmon dance.
“We danced very hard for four days; we sang our hearts out. We have so much sadness but we feel relief in reconnecting with our fish. We don’t want to leave them.”
Ross Millicamp from NZ Fish and Game hosted the Winnemem Wintu on a field trip around Canterbury’s High Country where the salmon spawn.
“It was interesting to see the reverence in which the First Nation’s people held the salmon. It was surprising the emotion witnessed from the First Nation’s people. When we first met they seemed like an average group of mixed age people enjoying New Zealand – typical visitors having a great time – but as soon as they saw salmon they became very very emotional; it was pretty moving for them.”
Ross says for NZ Fish and Game it was a worthwhile project. And whilst NZ is not in a predicament in terms of habitat here for salmon, we could be in the future. But for now it’s about helping the Winnemem Wintu people replenish their stock.
“We hope to have an ongoing relationship with the Winnemem Wintu tribe – everyone hopes the visit will be a precursor to helping restock their river, but the main issue is restoring the river so the adult salmon can spawn there. They understand they need to clean up their river and when they get to that stage, we’re happy to help them repopulate their salmon.”
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