This post is part of Elizabeth Chiver’s 2023 Lazarus Summer Internship.
I grew up with four brothers in Rhode Island, where we were raised by two distinctively wise parents who loved teaching us. One central part of this education-rich upbringing was the way we explored and strengthened the capacity to sustain ourselves and others using the land and sea surrounding our home. We dug, weeded, raked, fed, harvested, and caught in the blooming backyard, shallow salt ponds, messy coops, and open ocean that I call home. It was a vein of my life that so wholly centered a meaningful ethos and community. Ths vein is even more present in the experiences of my father and many of his friends, who engage with these practices on an industry level. The understandings and ways of learning cultivated by growing up in this context have been deeply defining to my personhood and perspective. When I was offered the opportunity to delve into a food-related topic for my independent project, I knew I wanted to return to my home state and communities, centering the breadth of experience, knowledge, and sovereignty that food producers in the area possess. One industry that particularly interested me was the oyster aquaculture industry, which is blossoming, sustainable, and local in ways inherent to its product and contexts. I decided to conduct interviews with oyster farmers who work in the Point Judith Salt Pond and ended up centering three–Chris Morris, Harvey Cataldo, and Mick Chivers–who all share common connections. I wanted this to be guided by their voices and reflections, rather than preconceived vision, so my research question was loose, asking “what are the defining practices and economics of Southern Rhode Island’s oyster aquaculture?”
I headed to the salt pond a few times, each day with a list of questions and an open mind. Standing on the docks, we looked over the gear and bags as each of the interviewees reflected broadly on their skills, contexts, and work. The focus shifted; as I conducted my interviews with these farmers, I noticed the topics that kept cropping up and the threads that connected them to one another. I was left with hours of recorded interviews rich with parallels and intersections going far deeper and beyond just “defining practices and economics.” Those were certainly central aspects of the conversation, but I noticed that the reflections and memories shared in the interviews were defined by three core dynamics – change, relationships, and industry. Further, one relationship in particular stuck out as a root for each person’s connection to the work – that with brother, fisherman, mentor, and lifelong Rhode Islander Tom Hoxsie, who passed away in 2021. With this in mind, I opted to write an account of what was pertinent and omnipresent throughout these interviews, with the aim of highlighting the knowledge and recollections of these three different individuals, with their varied positionalities and perspectives.
My final project takes the form of a written piece. On an academic level, it provided me an opportunity to attempt new ways of learning and sharing information in a way that was true to the interviewees that first held and shared it. The project involved learning to utilize new technology, conducting dynamic interviews, responding to a depth of information, and synthesizing different but overlapping voices into an informative, truthful piece. The material and experience garnered throughout this project is thanks to the farmers who shared their labor and minds with me and my Sony recorder. The gift of their rich voices enables so much further thought on what the food and fishing industry looks like, particularly at this personal scale. It is clear that relationships to land and sustenance (of self, of community, of climate) are vital ones, as seen in their experiences, in my childhood, and wherever people grow and eat.
This writing is linked here (in progress). It centers the knowledge and memory expressed by these farmers, with the aim of accurately recording these practitioners' reflections on their defining practices and experiences of the industry, one which lends itself well to sustainability, growth, and small-scale ownership.
Additionally, the slides I used for my presentation are linked here.