(pensive music) - [Alana Quintasket] It's like a dream.

(pensive music continues) It's like a memory that's inside of you that you didn't even know was there until you started this work.

It's like in your DNA.

It's like a old friend, or somebody from the past that's come back and it's like, wow, you're so significant.

And I didn't realize how much I missed you until you're back.

(bird chirping) - [Camera Operator] What do you hear?

- The eagle, Yahola, calling sun.

The ancestors.

(pensive music continues) (footsteps crunching) Pretty excited to be out here.

It's always a good day when I get to go to the Clam Garden.

(stirring music) The Clam Garden project is something that started before I even got involved in it.

(stirring music continues) I was invited to go up to BC to visit an ancient clam garden that was 3,500 to 4,000 years old.

And before that, I had no knowledge of the Clam Garden Project or what significance they had for Coast Salish people and Northwest Coast people.

(stirring music continues) It brings tears to my eyes because it's so moving and so powerful.

At Swinomish, we've started the first modern clam garden.

It's basically like a terrace of rocks that is built at the inner tidal zone, which is the optimal habitat for the clams to grow.

So it's where they like to live, where they're the happiest basically.

It doesn't just support the clams, you can expect different sea creatures to be there, like sea urchins, sea cucumbers.

It just really increases the biodiversity of the beach.

(footsteps crunching) Yeah, today is extra special for me because my birthday was yesterday.

And so for me, this is like how I'm starting my next year, and I couldn't be more grateful that I get to start it at the Clam Garden, you know, with community, with elders.

(people chattering) - I don't know if you can still see it, but you can see the rock ball.

- Oh, good, yeah.

(gentle music) (Alana speaks native language) Good morning.

(Alana speaks native language) My English name is Alana Quintasket, and I want to welcome you to Swinomish, welcome you to the Clam Garden.

This is your first time here.

I'm really grateful for everyone for making it out today.

And I think we'll have a really, really good day of healing and being together and being as one as it's supposed to be.

- I'm excited to see the Clam Garden flourish and getting our shellfish back to our own people.

- Living as an urban Indian and trying to find your identity is what I'm doing out here.

- Well, good morning.

My name is Lona Wilbur, and I'm a Swinomish Tribal member.

And my heart is very happy to be here today.

All of my family was raised here on these beaches.

It was our playground.

And this is an area where everyone in my family harvested shellfish and food to put on our table to eat.

- We used to come down and play on the beach and clam dig, and to just really enjoy yourselves and kind of commune with nature, set your spirit and your soul right.

Haven't been here for quite a while.

I wasn't really sure if I could come down here or not.

So I'm happy to come back.

- You know, Swinomish people weren't allowed to come and dig here for so long.

And this is part of the work that we wanna do is reacquaint our people with this place, this land.

- Yeah, grab some gloves and we'll head down to the path.

(people chattering and laughing) (gentle music continues) (shells clanging) (people chattering) (engine purring) - I am crushing up oyster shells to add to the garden bed, and we're trying to get them as fine as they can be, but you can see they're pretty hard to break up and it takes a lot of manpower.

(Alana laughs) So sweaty.

(people laughing) But it's good, I'm having a good time.

I mean, you think about the old ways, our people wouldn't just throw the shells in the trash.

There was a purpose in it, and it's just another way of taking care of the garden.

(wood tapping) - So where do you want it?

- [Alana Quintasket] In this area?

- Just all around that ring.

(slow music) - In 2021, we experienced the heat dome for the first time.

So it was a mass mortality for all of the shellfish across the Salish Sea.

We're having to adapt once again.

So I'm the next generation who's stepped up to the plate to fight every single day.

Like you think about it, like, what can we do to make drastic changes to take care of our relatives.

It's how can we prepare the beach to be more resilient.

One of the ways the sea level rise, we've already seen that, and that's a part of the planning of this Clam Garden wall is we built it high enough to prepare for that so that one of the ways that we built this to be adaptable and sustainable.

(pensive music) (birds chirping) (water rustling) We've been experiencing climate change since first contact.

This isn't anything new to us.

We've had to learn and grow and adapt in ways that people couldn't even imagine.

(pensive music continues) It's a lot of work, but we're in it for the long haul.

You know, I'll be moving rocks for the rest of my life.

I already know it.

We're not doing this for ourselves.

This work is not for me.

You know, this work is for the future generation.

My future children, my future grandchildren, my future great-grandchildren.

So that's the most important part for us.

This is only the beginning.

(pensive music fades)