Nooksack people

That's what Noelani Augustin says, and that's something she did not experience growing up here.

I am a Salish woman from Nooksack and Swinomish Village, and also Hawaiian.

She says Bellingham, which is a port city, has always been a thriving and vital place for indigenous people from the entire area.

It was actually, like, a hub between the islands, between the Lummi and the Nooksack, between, uh, you know, those trade trails and routes that came from the Fraser Valley and from the south.

As a child, she knew this place was her homeland, but...

You know, I used to take field trips downtown as a kid.

My mom calls me Willie.

I live in, uh, what's called Bellingham, Washington, but Nooksack and Lummi territory here in the Salish Sea.

basin and particularly spend most of my time in the Nooksack River basin here in, uh, Washington.

How have you navigated how life isn't so linear [laughs] and, uh, while maintaining downstream momentum?

Oh, that's a big question.