Traditional Kwakwaka'wakw Practises Part 2

Hello guys, sorry for the delay. I ended up falling asleep last night before getting to update the blog! Here's part 2 of traditional practises: preparing the seaweed for consumption! I will mention beforehand that the word 'laver' is often used as a common name for different species of Porphyra, so I'll be using it throughout this post.

Porphyra abbottiae could be prepared a variety of ways depending on the Nation, the community, or the individual. For example, Chief Adam Dick of the Kwakwaka’wakw Nation has said that he never used cedar racks to dry the laver. Instead, he would spread it out on rocks to dry if it was a sunny day. In contrast, Boas (1921) wrote that the Kwakwaka’wakw used cedar racks to dry the seaweed. With the advent of electric stoves, the sun wasn't necessary anymore to dry the the seaweed (Williams, 1979)(this was very handy for times when the sun wouldn't appear for several days at a time--if you already picked you seaweed, it could go bad if you didn't dry it after a few days!). Women used to be the ones who would harvest and prepare laver, but now both men and women take part in this activity. Boas (1921) wrote that for the Kwakwaka’wakw there is an ‘experienced’ and ‘inexperienced’ way to prepare laver, and Turner (2003) also mentions a similar case for the Haida. The inexperienced harvester would empty the canoe and let the laver immediately dry under the sun. This made the seaweed very tough and relatively harder to eat than seaweed prepared by an experienced harvester. The experienced harvester would cover the pile of laver with a woven mat mat (today some people use canvas tarps). Even if the weather was good, they would let the algae start to rot (or ferment) for a few days, usually around four days. This fermenting stage stops laver from becoming tough, and is thus why experienced harvesters used it. (As an aside, I think this can be compared to how salted, dried fish that is dried indoors in a drying room is a lot harder and tougher to chew than fish that is slowly dried outside under rain and sun for many weeks).
After the fermentation period the mat could be taken off and the laver was spread out to dry on a cedar drying rack outside on a sunny day (Boas, 1921). The harvester would turn the laver over on its other side around midday to make sure it was drying properly. When it was completely dry, the laver was rolled up in a woven mat and stored in a dry, indoors location. Keeping the laver dry after it has already been dried is very important! Sophie Misheal of the Songhees Reserve said, “once it’s dry it can’t get wet again because it turns red and smells bad” (Williams, 1979). Later that night chitons (small marine molluscs, see the picture to the right!) were caught, cooked, and chewed (you'll see in a moment why this was important). A cedar bentwood box was lined with cedar branches, salal leaves (Gaultheria shallon), or skunk-cabbage (Lysichiton americanus) (Turner, pers. comm.; Curtis, 1915). The seaweed was placed in the lid of the box and then the harvester spat the juice of the chitons onto the laver (Turner, 2003; Boas, 1921)(also see picture of the bentwood box to the lower-left--it is a Haida box, not Kwakwaka'wakw, found at the Museum of Civilization in Ottawa). I've tried both plain oven-dried laver and laver prepared using chiton juice, and I can attest that there is a subtle difference in flavour (but both were very tasty!). The wet laver was packed in the box between layers of cedar branches, salal leaves, or skunk cabbage leaves until there was no room left. The box was tightly sealed up with ropes and rocks, and left to dry. A month later when the seaweed would stick together the harvester took it out of the box and left out to dry under the sun, and then returned it to the box at night (Boas, 1921). This was repeated about four times to make sure it was completely dry, and then the laver was packed away in the box without the cedar branches. According to Curtis (1915), these compressed cakes of laver resembled prune-coloured plugs of tobacco.
Alternatively, the laver could be dried indoors on a cedar rack near the fire following the fermentation (Boas, 1921). The seaweed would be browned on one side, and turned over so the laver would be uniformly browned. When the laver was dry it could be bundled up into deer-skin and beaten until it became a powder. The powder was placed into a bentwood cedar box, and stored in a dry location.

References

Boas, F. 1921. Ethnology of the Kwakiutl: based on data collected by George Hunt. Government Printing Office: Washington, D.C.
Curtis, E. S. 1915. The North American Indian, Being a Series of Volumes Picturing and Describing the Indians of the United States, the Dominion of Canada, and Alaska. Johnson Reprint Corporation: New York.
Turner, N. J. 2003. The Ethnobotany of Edible Seaweed (Porphyra abbottae and Related Species; Rhodophyta: Bangiales) and its Use by First Nations on the Pacific Coast of Canada. Canadian Journal of Botany, 81: 283-293.
Williams, M. D. 1979. The harvesting of “sluckus” (Porphyra perforata) by the Straits Salish Indians of Vancouver Island, British Columbia. Syesis, 12: 63-69.

Traditional Porphyra practises (Part 1)

Welcome back! As mentioned yesterday, there were many First Nations that harvested Porphyra. The Hanaksiala, Haisla, Kitasoo, Oweekeno, Tsimshian, Pomo, Kashaya, Tolowa, Yurok, Hesquiat, Nuxalk, and the Kwakwaka’wakw are among the many who are known to have used it (Moerman, 1998). The presence of Porphyra nearby did not guarantee that it would be eaten; some coastal Nations, such as the Ditidaht and the Makah, did not historically harvest or eat Porphyra (Turner, 2003). The number of harvests in a season could vary between Nations, with some like the Gitga’at and the Saanich (Straits Salish) harvesting Porphyra twice over the course of a year (Turner, 2003; Williams, 1979).

Porphyra abbottiae is the most commonly eaten species of the local Porphyra and may be considered by many to have the best-tasting flavour (Turner, 2003). Identification is very important, as there are other seaweeds that occupy the same ecological zone in the intertidal or are look very similar to P. abbottiae. These other seaweeds are different in texture and flavour, possibly even indigestible. Once of these seaweeds is one that Helen Clifton of the Gitga’at described as ‘seal seaweed’, which may be a species of algae in the genus Iridaea (Turner, 2003). This seaweed can grow where P. abbottiae is found and should not be picked.

Knowing when to pick the seaweed is not guesswork.The conditions for harvesting seaweed must be ideal. If conditions are not good, the harvester risks having his or her seaweed spoil, or risks their own life in unsafe conditions. Harvesting usually takes place in the month of May (Turner, 2003; Turner, 1975), when the Porphyra fronds are young and short (usually up to about 30 cm). Further north up the British Columbia coastline, some species of Porphyra are harvested from early spring up to July (Turner, 2003). The water should be at the low-tide line, and the Tlingit & the Gitga'at specify that to start in the morning will be the best for drying the seaweed (Garibaldi and Turner, 2004; Curtis, 1915). The Gitga’at and the Kwakwaka’wakw say that seaweed should never be picked when it is raining. It is also forbidden to harvest laver that is below the water-line or is floating in the water (it is said that it will start to rain if you do so; Garibaldi and Turner, 2004). Garibaldi and Turner (2004) call these a temporal taboo and habitat taboo, respectively. The first taboo applies only to the time when it is raining (when harvesting is restricted only to the exposed, intertidal habitat) while with the second taboo (the habitat taboo) harvesting is restricted only to the exposed, intertidal habitat. These are very practical taboos, because harvesting on slippery rocks when it is raining greatly increases the risk of injury or possibly death by drowning. A taboo passed down to each generation helps protect the new, inexperienced harvesters from accidents not witnessed in the community’s collective living memory, but that had occurred perhaps centuries earlier.

Depending on the timing of the tides, some of the Porphyra will dry directly onto the rocks where it is growing. If the seaweed has dried on the rocks where it is growing, the harvester would peel it off. If the laver is still wet, the harvester would pluck it off the rock (Boas, 1921). The seaweed has to be dried soon after it is picked or it will rot. By picking Porphyra that was already dry, the job of making it ready to eat was a bit easier. Seaweed that was already dry was less likely to go bad should bad weather suddenly arrived for several days (but it is important to keep that seaweed dry! But, with everything there are a few small exceptions. We'll look at one technique that involves fermenting Porphyra before drying it). In the past, harvesters used big cedar baskets to carry the seaweed. When the basket was full it was emptied into the canoe (Boas, 1921). The harvester returned home when the canoe was full or the weather turned to rain.

References

Boas, F. 1921. Ethnology of the Kwakiutl: based on data collected by George Hunt. Government Printing Office: Washington, D.C.
Garibaldi, A. and Turner, N. 2004, Cultural Keystone Species: Implications for Ecological Conservation and Restoration. Ecology and Society, 9: 1 [online] URL: http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol9/iss3/art1
Moerman, D. E. 1998. Native American Ethnobotany. Timber Press: Portland, Oregon. Pp. 433.
Turner, N. J. 1975. Food Plants of Coastal First Peoples. Royal British Columbia Museum. UBC Press: Vancouver. Pp. 21-22.
Turner, N. J. 2003. The Ethnobotany of Edible Seaweed (Porphyra abbottae and Related Species; Rhodophyta: Bangiales) and its Use by First Nations on the Pacific Coast of Canada. Canadian Journal of Botany, 81: 283-293.
Williams, M. D. 1979. The harvesting of “sluckus” (Porphyra perforata) by the Straits Salish Indians of Vancouver Island, British Columbia. Syesis, 12: 63-69.