Orca Chief brings Indigenous wisdom to oceans under threat

B.C. storytellers Roy Henry Vickers and Robert “Lucky” Budd will be launching the third in a series of illustrated Northwest Coast legends on April 25.

Titled Orca Chief, it takes its place alongside their previous bestsellers Raven Brings the Light (2013) and Cloudwalker (2014).

For Vickers, already a renowned First Nations artist, the series has been a chance to merge his artwork with the oral histories he has shared with audiences across Canada for the past 30 years.

“The goal was to set down another story that I’ve been telling for years and years,” he explained. “The three books that are out now, including Orca Chief, are old ancient legends that I have grown up with.”

While the legend is ancient, the message it carries is especially timely, with the twin threats of global warming and energy extraction looming over the B.C. coastline.

Vickers and Budd have publicly expressed their opposition to both the Northern Gateway and Keystone XL pipeline projects, and have drawn on the power of the moral fable to promote the goal of marine conservation and respect for the environment.

Budd, author of Voices of British Columbia, said he first approached Vickers about creating a book series after hearing one of his storytelling sessions at his Eagle Aerie Gallery in Tofino.

“I recorded one of his storytelling sessions and got really excited and said, ‘Look, we have a series of four books here.’”

Budd said that while the Orca Chief legend has been adapted for the book, it remains true to its original intent.

“These are all oral legends that we have spun with our own interpretation. But the message has been the message for thousands okf years. We haven’t changed the message of any of these stories. We’re just bringing them out at a time where it is just as topical now and the values are just the same as when they were told thousands of years ago.”

One spring, thousands of years ago, four hunters leave the village of Kitkatla to harvest seaweed and sockeye salmon. When the hunters damage the seabed with their anchor, they are summoned to the underwater realm of the Orca Chief to face the consequences.

There, the hunters ask the chief for forgiveness and apologize for failing to show respect for his kingdom. In response, Orca Chief sends the hunters out with his pod to learn how to sustainably harvest the ocean’s resources.

Orca Chief reflects the environmental ethics of Indigenous cultures from time immemorial. The four hunters must confront the fact that, if they are to survive, they must kill and consume living creatures which are made by the same creator.

In asking the Orca Chief for forgiveness, they are recognizing his sovereignty over the ocean’s bounty. In return, the chief delivers the second lesson: while you are permitted to harvest from the sea, you must exercise stewardship to ensure survival for all.

Budd said children, especially, can relate to the animal imagery and supernatural events in Orca Chief.

“They don’t have any problem that the whales can talk and that the Orca Chief can behave and speak like a human. That’s a way of communicating a message of compassion, a message of forgiveness, and a message of ‘We’re going to educate you –†you better pay attention.’”

But first, the hunters must apologize for their ignorance and demonstrate their willingness to learn, Budd added.

“You still have to eat, and you still have to feed your village. But you do it in a respectful way and find a way to not take more than you need. These have been the values of Coast First Nations for thousands of years.”

For Indigenous peoples through history, these lessons of respect and of living as part of a unified ecosystem were basic to human survival.

“On the Northwest Coast, you learn about people fishing and finding the biggest fish and letting it go. It’s not a matter of the prize in getting the biggest fish. It’s about, ‘If I let this one go, it will eventually breed and we will have lots of good, big beautiful fish.’ You don’t take the biggest and best one. Those are part of the core values.”

That is in contrast to the trophy hunter who seeks the biggest and best specimen to hang on the wall.

“Once it’s done, it’s over,” Budd said.

“You’re doing it in a way that is not respectful to the people or to the animals or to the air or anything else. You are operating in a vacuum. And it is the same story as for thousands of years: everything is connected to everything else. You can’t take something from one place and expect that it’s not going to hurt somewhere else.”

For their part, Vickers and Budd have joined the movement to promote the lessons and the historic Indigenous wisdom of West Coast First Nations.

“That’s what oral history is. It adapts to tensions in the culture,” Budd said. “To us, this is our link in the chain. This is not the end of it. With any luck, people will be telling these stories thousands of years from now and the lessons will be the same. It’s an honor for us to take our part in it.”

The book contains 19 never-before-seen artworks by Vickers to bring the dazzling undersea world to life. And as in Raven Brings the Light and Cloudwalker, there is a link to a website where the reader can download additional material including a retelling of the original Orca Chief legend by Vickers, as he performs it in live appearances.

Orca Chief is published by Harbour Publishing and is set for release on April 25. In May, The Orca Chief tour will visit cities across B.C., including Courtenay, Duncan, Nanaimo and Victoria, Kelowna, Penticton and Vancouver.