“Hishuk Tsawak” (Everything Is One/Connected): A Huu-ay-aht Worldview for Seeing Forestry in British Columbia, Canada

Abstract

Huu-ay-aht First Nation has been undergoing treaty negotiations with the governments of British Columbia and Canada for the past 15 years. A settlement will allow Huu-ay-ahts to re-introduce their traditional forest management practices based on Hishuk Tsawak—a worldview that means “everything is one/connected.” Despite centuries of oppression from colonial and postcolonial forces, Hishuk Tsawak remains strong among Huu-ay-ahts and is lived as both a set of spiritual beliefs and a set of daily practices, enacted through a series of defined cultural protocols. Most importantly, Hishuk Tsawak displays an ability to be resilient in the physical location of the Huu-ay-aht traditional territory, while at the same time challenging and resisting (acting around the “edges” of) its social location imposed by those same dominant colonial and postcolonial forces. Worldviews, such as Hishuk Tsawak, have the potential to conceive of an alternative way of seeing forestry in the province.