The annual arrival of sockeye salmon to their spawning grounds in the Adams River is cause for great celebration – particularly in peak years such as this.
This year’s Salute to the Sockeye at Roderick Haig-Brown Park begins Friday, Oct. 3, with the official opening taking place at 1 p.m. this Sunday, Oct. 5.
Following a brief prayer by a member of the Little Shuswap Indian Band will be a traditional welcoming song. This will preface a territorial welcome and a number of speeches that wrap up at 2 p.m. with a friendship dance performed by the Little Shuswap Indian Band.
Then it’s along the trail for the grand opening of the new viewing platform that has been constructed in a more stable area of the river than the previous one.
The formal ceremony concluded, it’s party time with a Salmon Brothers Play, followed by music from Doc and the Disorderlies.
It’s also time to wander through the area filled with food vendors, a souvenir tent, a local artisan market, salmon interpretive displays, including the occasional fish dissections out behind the society’s log cabin.
These salmon have travelled thousands of kilometres in their four-year life cycle an arrive at their spawning grounds determined to ensure the survival of their species, despite their exhaustion and diminished health.
“Visitors must remember that the salmon come first,” says event co-ordinator Jeremy Heighton, who offers the following tips to salmon watchers:
• Keep all dogs on a leash and out of the river
• Approach the river bank slowly and quietly
• Don’t throw anything in the river, including sticks and rocks.
Heighton also recommends polarized sunglasses to reduce the glare on the water and allow for better viewing of the salmon swimming below the surface.
Visitors are advised to stay out of the river, not only because it could disturb the spawning salmon, but because the rushing river is a dangerous place.
Safety and protecting the environment are also the reasons why visitors are asked to stick to the well-laid-out trails and well away from riverbanks.
A beautiful Salute to the Sockeye programme contains information relevant to very young and older visitors, history and beautiful photography.
Kathryn Michel, an Adams Lake Band member, has designed a unique local sockeye design that appears in the programme and on all other souvenirs and promotional material.
“The salmon is of vital importance to our culture and the environment of this area,” Michel says. “We fish in the South Thompson and smoke-dry it to last the whole winter.”
Michel explains that Secwepemc art is very simple with strong lines.
A fee of $6 per car will be charged to cover the costs of special services for the event.