SUMMER 2025 STORIES
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“I want to share with you a vision that came to me of the Great Blue Heron Way. There was a time many years ago when our ancestors travelled the Salish territory on a trail that connected all our communities. Our connections run as deep as our roots. The message I received was to create and re-build a path that our ancestors once walked on together. To honour our ancestors is to save the mudflats that nourish our birds, sea life, and people—to heal us and our communities through the ancient connection.
- Elder Ruth Adams from the Tsawwassen First Nation
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Meet Ruth Adams, a Tsawwassen Elder who led the vision and creation of sməq̓ʷaʔ xeł, the Great Blue Heron Way. sməq̓ʷaʔ xeł is a boardwalk trail established on Tsawwassen First Nation territory in 2017, spanning 3 kilometers over the coastal wetlands that eventually reach the coast of the Salish Sea. The Great Blue Heron Way was named to honour the Great Blue Heron bird, known to the Tsawwassen First Nation as a caretaker of people. In Western Canada, Tsawwassen is home to the largest Great Blue Heron rookery with more than 300 nesting sites.
sməq̓ʷaʔ xeł builds upon the foundation of creating and walking pathways long practiced by ancestors of the Tsawwassen First Nation. It offers a safe and tranquil space to walk, run, and cycle, especially in an area where the nearby Highway 17 occupies and disturbs the landscape. sməq̓ʷaʔ also plays a key role in climate resilience and environmental protection by enabling respectful access to the surrounding wetlands. These ecosystems are vital to protect and conserve: their soil, deposits, and plants serve as significant carbon sinks; they are natural buffers against coastal erosion and flooding; and they are fundamental to biodiversity and Tsawwassen culture, as here are where cultural medicines grow and where wildlife, such as Great Blue Herons, thrive and depend on.
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Tsawwassen is known to many travelers, having the largest BC Ferries terminal with routes between the Mainland, Vancouver Island, and the Southern Gulf Islands. Just between April- September 2024, the Tsawwassen terminal received 2.4 million cars. In the month of August, the terminal can have up to 34 scheduled departures in one day—not accounting for arrivals. It is a central and familiar transportation hub, but how known are the very people, culture, and ecosystems that have lived there for centuries?
The development of the BC Ferries Tsawwassen Terminal began in 1958, when the provincial government initiated its construction and without consultation, dismantled the Tsawwassen First Nation’s Longhouse. Elder Ruth recalls the Longhouse to be the place she would visit with her grandparents, where they all gathered together as the Tsawwassen community to celebrate their culture.
“There’s that highway that goes to the ferry that broke our Nation in half. That’s where we all gathered in the old days with my grandparents. We all gathered on the other side of the highway. Then they took out the Longhouse. Look over this way, you will see the port. And that killed our water where we swam, and right now it’s taking away the crabs we live and eat on. It’s a lot of noise, and a lot of things come to our port that are not native to us.”
After the establishment of the ferry terminal and Highway 17, members of the Nation observed that many local bicycle riders were drawn to the coastal parts of Tsawwassen territory. It was initially met with worry, imagining the influx of bicycles this could further bring. But Elder Ruth wanted to understand what was happening. Elder Ruth reflects that the Indian Act had embedded a deep sense of caution and restriction around using their own land.
“I’ve always looked into things, all my life. Looking at what we have, what we don’t have. I need to know why things work or don’t work.”
In response, they honoured this natural pull to the area by transforming it into the Great Blue Heron Way. To Elder Ruth, the Great Blue Heron Way puts down what the Tsawwassen Nation needs and wants in this land. It is to remind the Nation that the land is theirs and to reconnect present and future generations to practices and places that were once more intimately known. Elder Ruth hopes that the sməq̓ʷaʔ xeł can be a stepping stone in restoring and re-establishing trails that connect more First Nations to each other.
“The Great Blue Heron Way lives within the Tsawwassen people, in our history, and links us to others on the mainland, island, and the waterside communities. Our ancestors will be proud and honoured with our return.”
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This article is written based on an interview with Elder Ruth Adams in July 2025.
