Welcome to Bike Sense, the BC Cycling Coalition's podcast, where we talk about all things related to active transportation advocacy in BC.

I'm your host, Peter Ladner, Chair of the Board of the BC Cycling Coalition.

I hope you enjoy the show.

My guest today is Christania, also known as Elder Ruth Adams from the Tuasin Nation.

She is the visionary behind Smukwahiel, the Great Blue Heron Way, which is a very ambitious First Nations-led project to reconnect First Nations communities and others along the Fraser River and around the Salish Sea.

It's more than just a trail, it's a journey through history, culture, and nature.

So here to tell us about it and what's happened with it, what's going to happen with it.

Elder Ruth Adams, welcome.

Thank you very much.

I'm very honored to be here to speak about Suwasim First Nation and the Smoq Coal.

This is about our history, our culture, and everything that we lost under the Indian Act.

So we no longer live under the Indian Act anymore.

We had our treaty in 2009, and where our chief Kim Baird said, we are open for business.

So I thought, oh, that is great.

Now we can talk about our history.

So that was the part that I thought was really important was to be able to visit other First Nations the way we did before settlers came in to try and tell us what to do.

What got me to starting this out and how that started is for our treaty.

I am Carol Vignali went to Victoria to listen to our chief as she was doing the treaty, and went went, uh came upon the galloping goose, and I asked them what First Nations are in this, and they said zero.

And I told them, oh, that's all right.

She can come on the Great Blue Heron Way.

When you were on the Galloping Goose and you said we want to do the Great Blue Heron Way, did you just come up with that name and that thought at that time, or had you thought about it earlier?

And why Great Blue Heron?

Oh, because we have the rookery.

And so I came up with the Great Blue Heron Way because what I told our youth, I said, that's our way of life.

It's all about our way of life on our land and water.

So that that is what that great blue heron meant because that was part of us and we are part of nature.

In the old days, cowboys and Indians would say, Oh, they're so wild.

Yes, we are wild, because we belong in the nature.

We knew all about the land and the water and everything living with us.

I understand that one of the first initiatives that somebody undertook or looked at was a way to cross Highway 17, which many people know as the road out to the Tuason Ferry Terminal.

And you that separated your community.

What was going on there and what has happened there?

Oh, because the highway going to the ferry um cut us in half.

It took away our gathering place, which is there where the Great Blue Heron Way rookery is.

That was our gathering place.

It was a sacred place, and our our people would go out into the flats to gather crabs.

And there were so many crabs that we we would take them back, and we would all eat crabs together at this gathering place, and that's where we've um put some of our history, all of all of our things along that rookery going into the water.

And and and nobody cared what what they did.

They went through where our longhouse was, and our little Catholic church was there, because my grandmother and grandfather had a little stove in there, wood stove, and they would uh my grandfather would do the stove and my grandma would would uh bring flowers and clean the church.

So it went right between those.

The road went right between those, those things, with without um, without anyone ever asking, do do we want that or do we need this?

What are we going to do with it?

Did you achieve the crossing of Highway 17?

How do your people cross it now?

Uh now thank you for asking that because they put a traffic light there to cross over to for us to go over to the our little gas station that we have there.

But that's a long ways to where we used to walk along the beach to get to that gathering place.

So uh so our people, and we've already had an accident where our young one has not been able to marry, not to have children, because he got hit on that highway.

So it's about the safety, and that crossing does not get us to the beach where we used to walk along the beach to get there.

So that's the part that was broken to us.

So that is where this bridge will, land bridge will go over for our pedestrians to be able to walk over there to the other side where we gather and where we have our own little park there now, too.

Well, it sounds like your project is is a very bold and important attempt to remedy some of those breaks and disconnects and and harms that have been done.

Um could you just imagine it's all done in your mind, and you've talked about the cultural healing and and knowledge that is involved, but what is it, what is it actually going to look like on the ground in your mind?

Oh, it it will it will look at how we how we can uh how we can honor what we have right now, that we can go along our boardwalk and get out to the dike, which is the Great Blue Heron Way.

You can stand there and you can turn around and look at our whole nation in a circle, and then you turn around and you look at what do we have today?

A port and a ferry.

So um I'm I'm what I want the children to see, the youth to see, is that they can walk around our nation and do the history, have our artwork, have our signage, and even go high-tech and and have a little a little thing that you could pick on your phone and look at the thing and be able to hear us talk about what this piece of land means to us and what did we do.

And and and just to just to have the tours for my great blue heron way for all of the friends in Delta, especially, who want to come to visit us to be able to hear the real history.

Because I have lots of friends out there that mean a lot to me, and they want to know about us, and I will I I want to have them around us and have them be safe.

So this is what the Great Blue Heron Way is.

It's about our ancestors, but it's about me today, letting people know that they should get to know us and what we have done for British Columbia and Canada.

I need them to know the real history, and I'm glad the governments didn't do it because they would have gotten it wrong.

So we're telling our stories, we're telling our history because it's your history.

Well, uh speaking of my history, I feel compelled to mention that that the town of Ladner was named after my great-grandfather, so I have a personal connection with that land, and I have been lucky enough to take the trip on my bicycle along the section that's built now, along the dike and that boardwalk.

And uh it's very beautiful.

And I would recommend people to look at the video, which will put a connection to it in our show notes, where you've done a video which basically is a representation of what you just described, standing in that place and looking all around.

Yes.

And we talked about Highway 17 going out to the ferry, but there's also, as you mentioned, the port, the coal port, which has a railway that that cuts that.

Yes.

Um, what are your thoughts about getting over through past that railway, which is now quite a bit of a detour?

Oh, it is, thank you very much, because it is the other part.

It is the other part of what I'm working on along with the Suwasan Delta bicycle hub, is that that this is a big connection to Ladner.

If if we could go over there in a safe way, go over to the other side, and even go along that dike right into Ladner, and Ladner can come over to us in a safe way.

So that means a lot.

We would love to have that crossing, a safe crossing, because it's just beautiful to go along there and it could be fixed in a in a safer way.

And I'm going to say this, and and this is always all those little gossipy things that people say, oh no, the drunk people are gonna go and party down there.

No, they'll have to they'll have to bicycle or walk.

And if you're drunk, are you gonna bicycle or walk?

I don't think so.

So, no, we're we're making this for people who want to enjoy the nature, walking or biking.

So, so just a I I know how people think and talk.

So just for those people.

That's uh a benefit of active transportation that we have not brought up before on this podcast.

It discourages um crazy partying because you have to walk or cycle to get there.

So looking at the at the municipal support for this, how how are they looking at this?

I guess this is the municipality of Delta for this particular section.

And uh have they offered support and what do they want to get out of it?

Well, I I think they want a nice place to bicycle in the first place that that that they would want to go along that dike, and when they get to the end of that dike, where are they going to go?

They're going to come to Swasham First Nation.

Elder Ruth, when you think about the other attracting and working with these other partners, um do you have access as Tuas and First Nation to funding that is not available to, say, the municipality of Delta that could make this project happen faster or better?

Well, we now have things that settlers had forever in their lives.

We we can look into the grants now.

And so there are some grants that are for First Nations.

Finally.

Uh there's a project to expand the port, as I don't have to tell you.

Yeah.

Uh and is it is it have you spoken to them or is it possible that they could be asked or expected to contribute to this as a give back to the community for what they're doing, which is let's just say somewhat harmful in some ways?

Well, it it's like everything else, that it's not just one big organization, the port.

Uh, we did work with one part of it, and they were they were happy to do that because what you're looking at is artwork and signage, and who and the heck is Delta, and who and the heck is TFN.

You've talked about connecting First Nations beyond just your Troisen First Nation.

W what are who are some of the other First Nations that you either have involved or would look forward to getting involved in this?

Well, you have to understand that we don't do 10 or 100 nations all put together like the governments want one statement to fit all of the nations, one treaty to fit all of the nations.

No, you can't do that.

That is not us.

So I go one by one to each nation to let them know what is happening, and all I am doing there is saying, Oh, I'm going across your traditional territory, and I want to thank you and acknowledge you for letting me pass into your traditional territory, and that is all that I will do.

I will not tell that First Nation what to do, because that is their way of life, and if they want to do something, that is up to them, and if they don't want to do something, that is up to them.

So that that is what this is about.

Looking after everyone.

That's the that's the key that I I hear from you, Elder Ruth, is looking after everyone.

It seems that your First Nation, in spite of its um need to educate the settlers, is also open to people from anywhere to come through this route and experience your land, your territory, and the beauty that you see around you.

I know that you've engaged younger people in your community to take this on and pick it up.

And as you say, this is this is your handoff really to them.

How are they embracing it and what do they think about it?

Well, they're excellent because when we started our treaty, it was youth that wanted the boardwalk along with me, and and the person that was doing our, and I have to mention his name because uh I told him the story of the Great Blue Heron Way, and he made the roads and everything with that name on it.

So that was a youth, and now they're all grown up.

I'm into the third generation of youth, and they wanted that boardwalk, and now the next youth wanted the the the pass over the highway.

And and so that that is a big one.

So that will be this generation, and probably the next generation will be the ones that say we want that overpass over the railroad track.

So this is a multi-generational project.

Yes, it is.

Uh, there's something else called Experience the Fraser, which I've heard about, which is another some other kind of active transportation multi-use pathway route.

Uh are you part of that?

Is that uh overlapping with what you're doing or something different?

No, it isn't.

And and why I'm involved in all of this, I'll let you know my little story.

My children used to ask, why do you need to know everything?

I said, because I don't want to fall in a hole along the path.

I need to know there's a big hole there, or I need to know something's gonna whip me in the face, a big tree or whatever.

So that is my life, knowing everything.

Yes, I I have heard about the experience of Fraser, and what do I think?

I think this, you're not gonna know the experience of the Fraser until you know the experience of all the First Nations along the Frasier River.

So they've left out that part.

So of course I'm gonna be talking about, and I do talk everywhere and anytime anyone asks me.

Oh, and that is my job now.

Hey, I do, I do get I do get honorarians for opening up meetings and for saying the prayer and the recognition, and that's another big thing.

There's these people that say, oh, why do we have to do recognition every time?

Because every time you come up to a person, that's another part of your life.

You do not forget, just like you say, hello, how are you?

Well, the recognition is what we that's our culture, that's our heritage.

We always ask.

The canoes coming in, they had to ask if if they could come in.

So that is why every time you recognize the First Nation, just think of it this way: when you do that, then you're recognizing your history, not just the First Nation history, but it's your history, the real history.

You're that's what you are getting when you recognize the traditional territories.

Well, I first met you at the Active Transportation Summit in New Westminster in 2024, where you did the recognition, the acknowledgement, and the prayer and describe this project.

And it was a pretty uh inspiring moment there.

And uh I I'm inspired as well to hear you now.

And I didn't fully understand how much of the historical part of this route was was built into it.

And we tend to, at least on this podcast, look at the way bicyclists can move around and not really pay enough attention to the history of the land they're moving through and the people who were there and their involvement in these routes.

So I think you're doing a a great service to all of us to pursue this and and keep this framework in our minds as we try to enable more choices for moving around and also build in more ways to understand our history.

So thank you very much for doing this.

Oh, I just have to say to you, thank you, because one of my children just, oh, there is a there is a Ladner, there is a person Ladner, and I said, Yes, there is.

So for you, Peter, I'm thankful to meet you, and I think we need to put that history out of um how your family came on this land and how it happened.

Same, same as Sawason and Sean Hodgins, and how did they get that name?

So all of that is history, and right now I just have to say, thank you, Chief Laura Cassidy.

You're our hero.

The same as talking to Peter Ladner of Ladner, BC.

Laura Cassidy, your chief Laura Cassidy of Sawathan, the host nation between Cowchan and Lummy tribe in Washington.

So you are the chief of this host nation.

So I just thought I put that in because she is.

I really appreciate your work, and we will be watching this very closely.

Thank you very much.

It's been an honor, Mr.

Ladner.

Thank you.

Call me Peter.

Yes, Peter.

You've been listening to Bike Since, an original podcast from the BC Cycling Coalition.

If you like the podcast, we'd be grateful if you could leave us a rating on whatever platform you use.

You can also subscribe so you don't miss future episodes.

If you have comments or suggestions for future episodes, email me at peter.ladner at bccycling.ca.

You can help us amplify BC Cycling Coalition's voice by simply becoming a free member at bccycling.ca.