Sterling Terrain V02 - Flipbook - Page 18
16 | Sterling College
Photo: Mark Washburn
At the same time, our curriculum intentionally intersected with the arts and other cultural practices, from reading Passamaquoddy poetry to learning about seaweed preservation techniques.
We learned traditional work songs of the sea, while rowing together in the harbor off Belfast.
Especially salient, we explored how oral history and storytelling are used to inform fishery knowledge and practices as well as enforce cultural identities.
For example, we learned about Local Ecological Knowledge and Traditional Ecological Knowledge
through stories: changes in the abundance and distributions of lobsters and salmon, the more
recent arrival of green crabs indicated by the absence in oral records, the Passamaquoddy’s use
of Traditional Ecological Knowledge in legal claims, the transmission of generational knowledge
to younger folks working with lobsters, and the use of oral history archives to find ways to bring
back industries like the bivalves and seaweed. Not separate, cultural traditions often directly
inform present practices of fishing and gathering from the sea.
Inspired by these varied ecosystems and the questions they raised, students pursued individual
research projects that resulted in wonderful syntheses of their learning, including an illustrated
guide to saltwater fishing, a seaweed cookbook, an investigation of how terrestrial coastal foraging can complement sea-based food systems, a series of profiles of individuals involved in
coastal community food action, and an analysis of the cultural phenomenon of “lobster gangs”
through a short story about a vampire lobsterman.
Students left the course with renewed appreciation for the complex ecological, cultural, political,
economic, and social intersections that comprise coastal food systems. They left with connections to the individuals and organizations who made our course possible, from the Greenhorns
and Smithereen Farm to Henry Bear of the Passamaquoddy nation, as well as Paul and Lydia
and the people they introduced us to who make their living from the sea. But we also left with
big questions: What are the most sustainable practices when it comes to fisheries? How can we
move toward a new understanding of “the commons,” not as a so-called tragedy but as an opportunity to re-envision community food systems? There are no easy answers, but we now have
intimate experiences with coastal food systems that will help us develop informed perspectives.
Fittingly, our final meal before heading back to landlocked Vermont was shared with Paul and
Lydia and included foraged mussels and seaweed, wild apple crisp from nearby trees, and, of
course, mackerel.