Healing the land with PEPÁḴEṈ HÁUTW̱
PEPÁḴEṈ HÁUTW̱ Foundation is a community based non-profit organization in W̱SÁNEĆ. PEPÁḴEṈ HÁUTW̱ is SENĆOŦEN, the language of the W̱SÁNEĆ peoples, meaning “Blossoming Place”. PEPÁḴEṈ HÁUTW̱ Nursery and Garden is situated at ȽÁU,WELṈEW̱ Tribal School in Brentwood Bay, where they grow nourishing traditional foods and native plants used for restoration projects throughout W̱SÁNEĆ territory. They have created a supportive environment that teaches students about indigenous food sovereignty, restoration, and SENĆOŦEN language. PEPÁḴEṈ HÁUTW̱ works in partnership the Tsartlip Lands Committee, BC Parks, W̱SÁNEĆ knowledge keepers and local restoration specialists to guide the restoration of this site. Over the last year, HAT has been honoured to partner with PEPÁḴEṈ HÁUTW̱ for ecosystem restoration on their SṈIDȻEȽ Resiliency Project. Together, we have hosted many restoration events aimed at healing the land through invasive plant removal such as Daphne, English Ivy, Oxeye daisy, and more! We would like to extend a big thank you to all the wonderful volunteers who have participated in these events.
SṈIDȻEȽ (Tod Inlet, Gowlland-Tod Provincial Park) is both culturally and ecologically important to the W̱SÁNEĆ peoples. SṈIDȻEȽ (pronounced ‘sneed-kwuth’) means “Place of the Blue Grouse” in SENĆOŦEN. J,SIṈTEN (John Elliott, Tsartlip elder) shares the story of how SṈIDȻEȽ was the first W̱SÁNEĆ village site and where XÁLS the Creator placed the first W̱SÁNEĆ man, SLEMEW̱.
The photos above are from a spring restoration project that involved the removal of Oxeye daisy (Leucanthemum vulgare). It is important to remove this invasive plant due to the fact that a single plant can produce over 25,000 seeds. These seeds can remain viable for up to 20 years.
A more recent project involved removing creeping buttercup with staff and volunteers that were growing up and around the bases of native shrubs that were planted in previous years.