• Digging clams - ʔoʔoɬqo
(Sliammon)
• wuxʷuθin – clam garden
(Welcome to the Clam Garden Network website)
The first example of land stewardship practices passed downthrough language is clam gardens. Clam gardens were a land stewardship practice that promoted better clam harvests and sustained the clams during climate change events that could have killed them. “Digging for clams creates healthy bivalve habitat by turning over the beach sands and silts and exposing these sediments to oxygen. In an unworked beach, seaweed and dead clams can accumulate on the surface of the beach, suffocating live clams.
When digging for clams - whether in a clam garden or an unwalled beach - people ensured that populations were healthy by removing predators, thinning clams, and preferentially harvesting larger clams, in order to allow younger clams to grow. Some people added broken shells back to the beach to augment the sediments as needed.” (Welcome to the Clam Garden Network website). Clam gardens were a vitally important cultural practice for many coastal First Nations that allowed their continued survival, and one that is being revitalized today, with clam gardens being built and tended to on beaches around Vancouver Island, as recently as last year. (Welcome to the Clam Garden Network website). Clam gardens offered a steady supply of clams, which were a very important food source, cultural symbol and traded currency and was a practice that made clam harvesting easier. This practice takes place on the land and works with the environment to create the best habitat for clams to live in, especially when climate changed happened and the planet got warmer. “For thousands of years, Indigenous people on the coast have tended to under-sea gardens — sustainably harvesting clams and other seafood.” (Land Remembers: Were The First Gardens Underwater?) Hul’q’umi’num Elder Philomena Williams told that, “this is something that was a staple for our people for many moons, and life in the ocean was our means where we were able to sustain ourselves by the ocean.” Harvesting rights to the clam gardens have long been held by family units, known as ȾEXTÁṈ to the WSÁNEĆ ̱ people who alsopracticed clam gardens. The families who traditionally managed them, could continue where their ancestors left off and have a sustainable food source for generations to come (Land Remembers: Were The First Gardens Underwater?).
Image: (Smith)
The image above shows an example of a clam garden. You can see how the ocean is held back at the mouth of the beach by the rock wall. The sandy area behind the rock wall is a perfect clam habitat.
Information about these clam gardens can be found inlanguage, in the words for clam gardens used by the different Nations that practices them. These words show how they were used or how they were constructed, carrying meaning and information about them, in the name. I was
able to find names for clam gardens in ʔayʔaǰuθɛm, Kwak’wala, Hul’q’umi’num, Nuučaanu̓ ł,Xaat Kíl (the Xaayda language) and Haí̱ ɫzaqv,which is the anglicised as Heiltsuk. In ʔayʔaǰuθɛm, the word for clam garden is “wuxʷuθin”,which means “held back at the mouth” (Welcome to the Clam Garden Network website). This word is comprised of two parts, wuxʷ-, which means barrier, and -θin (Smith et al), which is the lexical suffix for mouth. This refers to the rocks that are piled up, holding back the tide to make it easier to dig for clams (Welcome to the Clam Garden Network website).
In Kwak’wala, the word for clam garden is lux̌ ʷxiweys(Clam garden), which means “rolled together”, “where the stones roll”, or “rolled rocks forming a wall” (Smith et al). This name refers to the action of rolling rocks to create the walls of the clam garden (Welcome to the Clam Garden Network website). The word for clam garden is Hul’q’umi’num is
“smeentuxun”, which means rock wall, which refers to the rock walls that create the terraces of the clam garden. This word is comprised of the parts “smaant”, meaning “rock”, and “uxun”, meaning “wall” (Smith et al). In Nuučaanu̓ ł,the word for clam garden is not recorded, although the place name for one is, which is t’iimiik. T’iimiik means “something being thrown”, or “move aside rocks”, referring to the creation of the rock walls of the garden (Welcome to the Clam Garden Network website). In Haíɫzaqv, a clam garden is “λápacI”, whichmeans “to dig for clams in an enclosure / container”, referring to ̓ thepurpose of the clam gardens and the action of digging for clams in the clam gardens (Welcome to the Clam Garden Network website).
Image: (Elroy White)
The meanings of the words for this practice carry information about it in their meanings, in each part of the word. It paints an image of the clam gardens, and how they are created, in the rolling of stones to create a rock wall, that holds back the tides, creating a closed area for digging clams. These words mean more than just a clam garden. They mean all the land stewardship activities that went with harvesting clams. They mean the creation of the walled beach, aerating the sand, harvesting only the biggest clams and removing dead clams, predators and dead seaweed from the beach to help create a healthy environment for the clams to grow in. When Indigenous people spoke these words, they knew what was involved in tending to a clam garden and this knowledge was passed down through the generations, so that every generation would have a sustainable food and trading source. This knowledge, having been developed over thousands of years of working with and observing the environment and climate, created land steward practices that helped to create an environment that clams can thrive in.
This is why this important harvesting practice and land stewardship activity had so many words related to it and how it became part of the Coastal Salish people’s identity and worldview. This is also why the Indigenous languages on Vancouver Island and across Canada need to be revitalized, so that these very important land stewardship practices that existed to help vital resources survive and thrive during times of climate change, can be passed onto everyone, so that everyone can learn to care for the land properly, as our planet changes. Indigenous people know how to care for the earth and have been in sustainable ways for thousands and thousands of years, and it is incredibly important for everyone to learn from Indigenous wisdom and science, so we all can again learn to care for the land and ensure our human species survival, as well as the survival of the plants and animals around us. We need to learn how to live in harmony with the land and the creatures that live upon it, in sustainable, healthy ways, to mitigate the damage colonial societies have already caused, as well as prevent future damage.
Resources:
“Clam Gardens — Sea Gardens Across the Pacific.” Sea Gardens Across the Pacific, www.seagardens.net/clamgardens#:~:text=Intertidal%20clam%20gardens%20exist%20where,in%20their%20specific%20landscape%20modifications.
“Clam Garden | Clam Garden Network.” Clam Garden Network, www.clamgarden.com.
Contributed. “Remembering the Ancient Art of Clam Gardens as Vancouver Island Mariculture.” North Island Gazette, 1 June 2025, www.northislandgazette.com/trending-now/remembering-the-ancient-art-of-clam-gardens-as-vancouver-island-mariculture-8039289.
Museum. “Turning the Garden: Clam Gardens as Ancient Mariculture.” Campbell River Museum, 29 May 2025, crmuseum.ca/2025/05/29/clam-gardens-as-ancient-mariculture/#:~:text=Tending%20a%20loxiwe%20%E2%80%94a%20practice,and%20pass%20on%20traditional%20knowledge.
Parks Canada. “Growing Connections: Restoring Clam Gardens and Caring for Our Beaches.” Island Parent, 3 Apr. 2025, islandparent.ca/growing-connections-restoring-clam-gardens-caring-for-our-beaches/#:~:text=Imagine%20taking%20your%20child%20to,%E2%80%A2.
Taylor, Alistair. “Clam Garden Restoration Revives Millennia-old First Nation Food Source.” Campbell River Mirror, 21 Sept. 2024, www.campbellrivermirror.com/community/clam-garden-restoration-revives-millennia-old-first-nation-food-source-7497834.