General

A new four-piece mural installation was unveiled at Eighth Avenue Learning Center (EALC) on Feb. 8. The murals were created through the Oneness of Nature Youth Project made possible through the collaborative efforts of the students, elders, Rollin Art Centre, the EALC, and renowned Tseshaht artist Connie Watts.

Native Education Worker Richard Samuel started the event by leading Nuu-chah-nulth protocols, including recognizing that communities were in mourning. He invited representatives of Tseshaht and Hupacasath to welcome people to their traditional territories.

Fifteen-year-old Cody Savey has made a huge leap forward in his hockey career with the signing of a Standard Player Agreement with the Seattle Thunderbirds of the Western Hockey League. The contract signing took place Saturday and was announced on Sunday, Feb. 13, the same day as his first game in a Seattle Thunderbirds jersey.

This year the Nuu-chah-nulth Nations’ fisheries managers, technicians, Nuu-chah-nulth fishers, and community members remain concerned that WCVI herring stocks are not sufficiently rebuilt to allow commercial fishing.

Lory and Judy Campbell, an Ahousaht couple living in Port Alberni, are hosting an informal feast at the Alberni Athletic Hall on Feb. 11. They are relying on donations and volunteers to help with this major undertaking.

The Grade 7 students of Haahuupayuk School vowed to stay away from drugs and gangs so that they can live long, happy lives in a safe community.

Their discussion about drugs and gangs came after a series of prevention presentations delivered by RCMP Constable Scott MacLeod of Port Alberni’s Aboriginal Policing Services.

Members of Huu-ay-aht’s Cook family presented a cheque for $4,290 to the Alberni Athletic Association at a board meeting on Feb. 1 at the Alberni Athletic Hall.

According to association board member Sherry Cook, her friends and family presented the cheque to association President Larry Spencer. The funds are to be used to offset the cost of building and grounds maintenance and sporting equipment maintenance.

“For three generations the Cook family has been able to use the Athletic Hall for sports and we want other families to have the same opportunities we had,” said Cook.

Like their older sisters, 14 years earlier, Kayleigh Frank, Tamara Thomas and Jaden Frank arrived at their Aatys-too-thlah Jan. 28 carried in a traditional chupitz on the shoulders of their male relatives.

Like their sisters before them, they met one of the first demands of womanhood, remaining calm even if they didn’t feel that way.

The Zeballos Forest Service Road has become so degraded over the fall and winter that residents of the five communities that use it, and Claire Trevena, the NDP MLA for North Island, say travel on it is unsafe.

“I’ve grown up in B.C. I’ve lived out in the bush my whole life along logging roads, and I’ve never seen anything so neglected as this,” Gwen Alsop, a school trustee living at Zeballos, told Ha-Shilth-Sa.

An initiative to change the name of an elementary school and a Port Alberni street named for an overt racist has set off a firestorm of racism on social media and the local Letters to the Editor section.

On Jan. 23, Councillor Chris Alemany brought forward a resolution to work with First Nations, Japanese-Canadians and the wider community to consider re-naming Neill Street, named after one-time Indian Agent and Member of Parliament A.W. Neill.

There will be no mining or industrial logging in Ahousaht traditional territory. That was the message the Ahousaht Ha’wiih (hereditary chiefs) delivered at a special event in Tofino on Jan. 25 as they revealed their Ahousaht First Nation Land Use Vision Plan.

“We will not allow mineral extraction from our Hahoulthlee. There will be no mining. That is clear direction (we received) from our people,” said Tyee Ha’wilth Maquinna Lewis George through his speaker.