General

Nuu-chah-nulth youth The’e Wind Dancer is now free to dance as often as she wants in the city of Toronto. Wind Dancer was awarded the Renee Highway Memorial Dance scholarship by the Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre (CCDT) after she was discovered by them last March.

Wind Dancer, the daughter of prominent textile artist and Nu-chah-nulth-aht J’Net Ayay Qwa Yak Sheelth, had been sitting with her mother having dinner when she received the call notifying her of her award.

The BC First Nations Forestry Council [FNFC] and Tseshaht First Nation are inviting all first nations whose traditional territories fall within the Arrowsmith and Pacific timber supply areas to attend a strategy session in the Tseshaht Great Room on Feb. 16.

The session is targeted at chiefs, councillors and tribal council representatives who hold forestry governance and policy) portfolios(as opposed to forestry operations, according to meeting coordinator Keith Hunter.

A controversial proposal to increase the legal harvest of black bears in Tseshaht traditional territory has been rejected by the province.

On Wednesday morning, senior wildlife biologist Sean Pendergast of the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations (West Coast Region) contacted Ha-Shilth-Sa to advise that the application by the Vancouver Island wing of the BC Trappers Association did not survive the preliminary screening process, due to objections raised on the part of stakeholders.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada has announced it will not open the West Coast of Vancouver Island and Haida Gwaii to commercial herring fisheries.

Both areas are “below commercial fishery cut-offs and are closed to commercial fisheries for 2015/2016,” wrote Andrew Thompson, regional director, Fisheries Management, in a letter Dec. 30, 2015.

Tseshaht First Nation has issued a strongly-worded protest to the province over a proposed permitting system that would allow guided hunters to kill up to 40 black bears annually in Tseshaht traditional territory.

Twenty-two years after being handed a business card from a talent agent, Duane Howard, 52, took his triumphant walk down the red carpet at the TCL Chinese Theatre on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Dec. 16 for the premiere of the movie The Revenant.

The Revenant, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy, is a biographical western film directed by two-time Oscar award winning director Alejandro G. Iñárritu. The movie is set in 1823 Montana and South Dakota, and was inspired by the experiences of frontiersman and fur trapper Hugh Glass.

The Haahuupayak Christmas concert was held the evening of Dec. 17 in the school gymnasium, and it featured a unique play about the damaging effects of gossip and how it tears people apart.

Entitled “qu?usin and his Big Mouth”, the story is about qu?usin and the villagers who were spreading gossip. The chief was upset about what was happening in the village, so he brought everyone together to put an end to the damaging chatter and have qu?usin apologize to correct the negative effects of gossip.

This is the story of a man named Rocky, a woman named Marianne and a feast in the community of Ahousaht on Wednesday Dec. 16.

Each year, someone or some family hosts the holiday meal, and this year Ha’wilth Rocky Titian invited the community to gather at Thunderbird Hall to enjoy turkey, roast beef and ham, as Rocky’s Titian family served up the dinner.

To help manage the complex ecological relationships between humans and nature, Uu-a-thluk is working on the Marine Traditional Knowledge (MTK) Mapping project with Nuu-chah-nulth Nations. Funded by Fisheries and Oceans Canada, the goal of the project is to establish data-sharing protocols between the Nations and emergency response agencies to allow the responder to have quick access to the locations of crucial marine habitat areas.

The Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council’s Teechuktl (mental health) and Quu?asa Program hosted the Feed the People Christmas lunch on Dec. 10 at Trinity Church in Port Alberni. It was the fifth year the lunch was held in honor of late Ray Seitcher, who dedicated his life to helping people.

Many Nuu-chah-nulth and other kuu-us families live in Port Alberni and they look forward each year to come together for a meal.