Neighbors Along the Riverbed Episode 1: Introduction

Neighbors Along the Riverbed Episode 1: Introduction

Mickey Morgan 0:07

How can we be better neighbors to the salmon in our communities? To see non-human community as part of the complex ecosystem we rely on–our neighbors.

Mickey Morgan 0:21
I want to add a disclaimer, This is the work and opinion of me, the artist, and does not necessarily reflect the views of NOAA Fisheries West Coast Region


Mickey Morgan 0:35
Salmon are essential to communities, ecologies, our neighborhoods, in countless ways that will be addressed throughout this project. They’re sustenance, culturally, and spiritually significant to many people. Entire communities have been built around fishing economies surviving on wild salmon, shaping the cities and neighborhoods they’ve grown into. They’re also an indicator of the health of our ecosystems, when salmon disappear, the ecosystem is at risk.


Mickey Morgan 1:08
It’s especially important to focus on how native, wild salmon are essential in urban coastal communities for a couple of reasons. First, the species of salmon and steelhead of focus here are anadromous, though they can also be resident. Being anadromous means they move from the ocean to California's inland waterways to spawn. These fish have to move through urban areas along the coast to reach their destination, and they face a lot of barriers in these cities to get there. It's a huge part of why these populations are endangered and threatened. Cities also have the densest population, which means that if folks in coastal cities were to become even a bit more involved in conserving and restoring habitats for these species, it would make an enormous difference.


2:06
Especially to Indigenous communities within and beyond urban areas, salmon are extremely important. For all of these reasons, food, economy, culture, spirituality, and more. Beyond that, the way it’s been explained to me (cit) is that Native communities have spent many thousands of years learning from the land and waters and those who reside in it. This is called epistemology, the ways that people learn and know things. For these native populations of salmon to disappear would also mean eradicating the ways that Tribes and Nations live and pass on knowledge.

Cities are diverse communities filled with folks who are transplants and immigrants from around the world or other parts of the US. These folks intertwine and move across class, race, ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation. With all of this in mind, one of the big ideas behind this project is to understand what people already know about their salmon and steelhead neighbors.

The goal with Neighbors along the riverbed is to encourage people to feel empowered in taking action in solidarity with these 7 endangered/threatened salmon and steelhead populations. These populations were chosen by NOAA Fisheries, and working with AICAD they host an artist fellowship–My name is Mickey L.D. Morgan, I use they/them pronouns, and I’m lucky enough to be this year’s fellow.

When we have a healthy ecosystem, these focal species move seasonally through urban areas all along the coast of california. The California Coastal Chinook, Southern Oregon Northern California Coast Coho Salmon, Central California Coast Coho Salmon, Southern California Steelhead, South Central California Steelhead, Central California Coast Steelhead, Northern California Steelhead. You’ll hear the steelhead referred to both as salmon and trout, they’re the same thing.

The NOAA Fisheries/AICAD Art + Science Fellowship is a grant-funded opportunity for an artist who graduated within the last 5 years from an AICAD school to create a creative response to an ecologically-focused challenge posed by NOAA Fisheries. The 2022 challenge was: as an artist/designer, can you imagine ways to engage communities to support conservation and recovery of urban and suburban salmon habitat in coastal California? How can you convey the importance of these corridors that link the ocean to the natal headwaters of NOAA’s trust species?

The way I approached this was to develop a community engaged project that focused on conversations with neighbors to discuss the difficulties and hopes for salmon conservation among locals, which were turned into podcasts, and on site pictures which were combined with maps of water-based migratory pathways.

Specifically, this project took place in San Diego on Kumeyaay Land, on Kizh, Chumash, and Fernandeño Tataviam in LA county, and on Muwekma Ohlone, Ramaytush, and Tamien Nation Land in the Bay Area. Settler names for these places around the Bay Area are Oakland, San Francisco, Berkeley, Fremont, and Hayward.

My ancestors are not from this land, they arrived here as Jewish refugees before and during the holocaust, and I’ve lived most of my life on the territory of Musqueam, Skokomish, Tsleil-Waututh, and Stó꞉lō nations.

I am a firm believer that conservation, restoration, and ecological-justice should learn from the native people who have stewarded this land and water for thousands of years. These salmon are designated as Californian regional distinct population segments, also called DPS, such as the California Coastal Chinook. It’s important to think critically about the language we use around these fish, not allowing it to create borders that do not align with Indigenous understandings of Land and Water nor do they align with how science is practiced. My work as an artist to encourage conservation and restoration of native salmon is inspired by Indigenous leaders, land and water defenders, & climate activists around the world. The central exploration in Neighbors Along the Riverbed, how we can be better neighbors to all in our ecosystem, began with learning from native people about the idea of kinship.

Not all of the episodes have a “happy ending” or a neat bow as this is not realistic and not what I encountered– it would also leave us no room for imagining new solutions. One gift that my Jewish ancestors gave me is an understanding called tikkun olam, the idea that no matter how bad things are in the world we have a responsibility to do our best to fix it. That our actions make a difference even if we won’t see the result of them until the generations after ours, and in fact it is important to move through the world thinking about these future generations, in this case with the hope that they will be able to live with wild california coastal salmon as neighbors.

If you have any questions or want to add to this conversation, email salmonneighbors@gmail.com