Mountain Top to Ocean Floor: The Eco-cultural History of Hauyat

The Mountain Top to Ocean Floor Project is a collaborative undertaking by the Heiltsuk First Nation, Simon Fraser University, and University of Victoria that seeks to document and explore the unique cultural and ecological history of Hauyat, a landscape in Heiltsuk traditional territory on the Central Coast of British Columbia. Over millennia, Hauyat has been transformed by a complex web of relationships between people, plants, animals and ecosystems. The rich and deep history of this place is known through Heiltsuk oral history and is also reflected in the number and diversity of archaeological sites and eco-cultural features. Ranging from the lower intertidal to the subalpine, the landscape has been modified to include clam gardens, fish traps, root gardens, berry patches, orchards, settlements, rock art, and defensive sites. These features are suggestive of long-term resource management systems that likely worked together to provide food, materials, and medicines for past communities.