Saltries of the Salish Sea

Welcome to our research project the Saltries of the Salish Sea. With community elders sharing their recollections of the canneries, spending time in museum archives and going to see the locations we have pulled together the films stories and images below.

“Be part and become one with the water. You can fight the current or flow with it. From water we can learn how to adapt and be resilient. Embracing the essence of water allows us to understand the power of being in harmony with our surroundings. Like water effortlessly navigate through obstacles, we to can choose to flow gracefully in times of great challenge. This mindset encourages a sense of ease and acceptance while fostering a deeper connecting to the world around us.
Jane Marston

Jane joined us on the boat to visit the waters and lands where she spent her childhood. Thinking we were just going on a day of boating she started to share stories of the locations we were passing. Filled with knowledge of how life used to be a community and how all people used to work together we learned of how things used to be.

Communities worked together to support a vibrant fishing industry before the relocation of the Japanese population in the 1940s.

Photographing all the locations how they are today is part of this project and we are happy to share our photos with you. We will update the images later in the spring when we have a collection of research to share.