Spreading Out the Berries to Dry

Edith Campbell spreading berries on to drying racks. The gitxsan name for huckleberries is sim maa'y, meaning ""the real, the true berry"". They are the favored berry for drying as they retain their flavour well, and are easy to roll when dry These scenes of food processing were initiated in order to create colour images of practices that were partially captured in earlier black and white photographs and in early texts such as those written by Marius Barbeau and William Beynon. The Book Builders of 'Ksan produced a volume on these collecting and processing practices titled Gathering what the Great Nature provided: food traditions of the Gitksan, by the people of 'Ksan.