Women Take a Leading Role in Fishing

Along the coast of British Columbia, fishing has long been central to Indigenous family life yet the women who helped sustain that livelihood have often gone unrecognized. At the Indigenous Seafood Conference, veteran fishers Rosemary Georgeson and Connie Crocker reflected on growing up on commercial boats around Galiano Island and carving out careers in a male-dominated industry as B.C.’s coastal fleet began to shrink.   While their stories capture the decline of a once-thriving fishery, women on the Somass River near Port Alberni — including Christine Fred, Roxanne Tatoosh and Shae Doiron — are helping shape a different future, where Indigenous women are increasingly visible on the water and carrying fishing traditions forward for their families and communities. Read the full story on the Ha-Shilth-Sa website