PBS series on Indigenous reefnetting from Whatcom County earns 4 regional Emmys
A documentary series about Indigenous fishing practices based in Whatcom County took home four Northwest Emmy Awards in early June.
“Origins: The Last Reefnetters” is a five-part documentary series for Cascade PBS chronicling Lummi Nation’s ancient reefnet fishing tradition and the effort to preserve it, according to a press release sent to The Bellingham Herald.
The documentary series was produced by Fishboat Media, founded by Tyler Rowe and Samuel Wolfe.
“Sam and I met doing some work for Penco Brewing Company on Whidbey Island. I was doing some social media work for them. [Sam] had done some video work,” Rowe told The Herald in an interview. “I feel like one thing that held me back from pursuing film work was finding the right collaborator, and so we ended up serendipitously talking about film through our collaboration with Penco, we did a short piece down at the boatyard.”
After that experience, the duo realized the area they lived in is rich with stories and people who have deep-rooted connections to water and began looking for grants. After experiencing success with a Maritime Washington project, they decided to name the company Fishboat and commit to focusing on telling stories involving water.
“The documentary series is pretty powerful. It brings together the variety of work that’s going on around reefnets,” Raven Borsey [Xwesultun], Lummi Nation Tribal member and senior researcher at Setting Sun Circle, told The Herald in an email. “It’s not just, ‘Here’s this really old technology that we used to use, or this spiritual technology that we used to use.’ It brings in the diversity of academia to practical reefnetting, that’s still ongoing in the Salish Sea. This documentary gets to show where this work is at now, where we’re at in history with salmon going possibly extinct in the next 50 years. We’re never supposed to say that as Coast Salish people, but if we don’t confront that reality, then we’re just as responsible for that extinction. So this is one of the many abilities that Indigenous voices can be uplifted and used to confront that challenge and prevent this nightmare.”
In the traditional static fishing practice, a net is lowered between two boats and left to wait for fish to swim their way into the net.
Wolfe, who is a member of Choctaw Nation in Oklahoma, first read about reefnetting and felt a personal connection to it.
“I have never stepped foot in Oklahoma. I’ve always kind of had this interesting disconnect from my tribe in terms of proximity, geography and even culturally, it’s something that’s a part of me on paper, and I’ve done my best to reconnect with that side of my past, but it is what it,” Wolfe told The Herald. “So, when I read about reefnetting, and how so many people that like me have never actively practiced reefnetting, never heard of reef netting — even Ellie Kinley, who is one of our central cast members, had never heard of reefnetting growing up, despite the fact that Lummi Nation literally invented it, and it’s this huge thing that shaped the Salish Sea. I [felt] I [could] connect the feeling of not knowing why you’re not connected to your own history and culture.”
Wolfe and Rowe credit Setting Sun Circle (formerly Children of the Setting Sun Productions) for aiding them in the process. Since the project heavily relied on historical footage and connections, the Bellingham-based Indigenous storytelling company was able to provide historical footage, photos and resources for the production of the documentary series.
“Seeing our Indigenous perspective pushed ahead of what modern science and things have been telling us, it’s something that we and our ancestors and elders have known for the past 175 years since the treaty has been signed — that the world around us was disappearing,” Xwesultun said. “The world around us was being taken away, and this comes with our voices being taken away. This series, you get to see that not only is Indigenous fisheries more sustainable, but that it was the building stone for what our modern fisheries are able to do.”
While the duo is thinking and planning their next documentary, they are still taking in success of the recent series while letting the story speak for itself.
“The competition’s been amazing. The other nominees are fantastically talented human beings,” Rowe said. “It feels great. No complaints.”
“There have been kernels of this story [told in] lots of different ways. What we did was just synthesize ingredients that were already there and build things on top a little bit,” Wolfe said. “[We’re] just thrilled and humbled to even be involved in the conversation and the effort to make sure that it is heard about for years and years to come. I don’t want to be taking center stage.”
“Origins: The Last Reefnetters” is free to stream on Cascade PBS, PBS and YouTube.