Uchucklesaht Tribe hosted an Aboriginal Day of Wellness event at Maht Mahs Gym on June 19.
Organizer Charlotte Rampanen said the focus was on health, with a focus on First Nations traditional knowledge.
“I applied for a grant through the First Nations Health Authority,” she explained. “Every year they provide a grant for an Aboriginal Day event. The requirement is that you put on health-related information.”
The Conservation Officer Service was quickly able to track a hungry cougar that was prowling near the entrance of the Tsaxana reserve near Gold River June 17, but not before the cat provided some worrying moments to area parents.
Jackie Jack had come upon the cougar when she was driving home yesterday afternoon. She saw something in the middle of the road. She drove toward it, just to make sure she was seeing what she thought she was seeing, and, sure enough, it was a cat.
It just sauntered off, she told Ha-Shilth-Sa. “It wasn’t spooked or scared.”
Updated: June 23.
An Ahousaht water taxi operator and his passengers are lucky to be alive after the boat they were traveling in ran out of fuel and ended up on the rocks in the early evening on June 15. The water taxi had seven passengers aboard, including two children.
According to Carlene Paul, who was a passenger on the M.V. Tyco, it was a windy day, making for a rough boat trip. The sea was so rough that the water taxi driver hugged the shoreline on the way back to Ahousaht; a common practise among skippers of small boats in stormy seas.
Teachers and students of Gill Elementary School celebrated National Aboriginal Day June 10, a few days early, but for good reason.
National Aboriginal Day is celebrated in Canada on June 21, but Gill is in its last days, preparing to close due to a reconfiguring of the local school system, phasing out the middle schools and closing low enrolment schools.
Ditidaht’s fourth annual TRC Paddle Days June 10 and June 11 was a fun-filled event, with five schools and 130 visitors to the remote First Nation community taking part.
Paddle Days grew from a Truth and Reconciliation program that helped restore canoe skills on west coast waters, and the students from Ditidaht community school, where paddling has now been embedded into their regular physical education school program, have flourished.
Parks Canada is inviting past and present West Coast Trail Guardians and their families to a 20th anniversary celebration of the highly successful program. The celebration will take place in Port Alberni on June 19 at the Alberni Athletic Hall.
According to Laura Judson, Parks Canada Media Relations and Communications officer, the Guardian program began in 1995 as a contracted partnership between Parks Canada and the three Nuu-chah-nulth Nations that have sections of the trail in their traditional territories.
British Columbia’s Provincial Director of Child Welfare said she “was not engaged in or had any meaningful discussion” about the federal Aboriginal Affairs’ decision to no longer be signatory to child welfare delegation agreements in the province.
The Tseshaht Longhouse was open to children and caregivers June 3 as guests of Usma’s annual celebration of children in care.
Social Worker Sandra Karlsen said the celebration is part of a week-long provincial initiative where children-in-care are recognized for their resilience and ability to overcome struggles.
“These gatherings allow kids to make connection with their families and their Nuu-chah-nulth communities,” said Karlsen.
Nuu-chah-nulth foster parents travelled from as far away as Nitinaht Lake to take part in the event.
Drivers navigating a rough gravel road in Ahousaht were in for a shock on the morning of June 5; the community’s first-ever speed trap was set up right in front of the high school.
“At first you could see there was shock, and drivers hit their brakes when they first saw the speed board, not sure what to do,” said Constable Jeanne Vestergaard of the Ahousaht RCMP detachment.
Unless we adopt the environmental wisdom of Indigenous peoples from around the world, mankind will continue to be just another invasive species, said Dr. David Suzuki.
This was the message he delivered to a packed Maht Mahs gym on June 2 during the Celebrating Coastal Connections tour stop in Port Alberni.
Suzuki said Canada’s First Nations have a critical role to play in changing the way we manage our resources and our economy.
“What we do or do not do in the next few years will determine whether we survive as a species,” Suzuki warned.