General

School District 70 representatives met with the Nuu-chah-nulth Nations Feb. 25 at Maht Mahs to discuss school closures and a planned reconfiguration of the district beginning in September.

The meeting was organized so that Nuu-chah-nulth-aht could ask direct questions about the impacts of the closures in advance of today’s public meeting at Alberni District Secondary School at 7 p.m., and discuss concerns with configuring ADSS as a Grade 8 to 12 secondary school and AW Neill, EJ Dunn, Alberni, John Howitt, Maquinna, and Wood schools as Kindergarten to Grade 7 elementary schools.

The Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council and the Nursing Program said goodbye and best wishes today to Ina Seitcher, Manager of Nursing, and Pearl Dorward, Aboriginal Nurse Liaison at West Coast General Hospital, upon their retirement.

There were many tears and great emotion for the women as they begin the next stage of their journey. The sisters were celebrated at a luncheon held at Hupacasath House of Gathering. Members of the Seitcher family were in attendance at the feast.

Staff and students of the Vast and Choices DL (directed learning) Program gathered for the Second Annual Success Forum at the Vast Centre on Feb. 26.

With graduation just a few months away, the goal of the forum is to recognize student achievement so far and provide a bit of extra incentive to stay on track to achieve their Dogwood Certification.

“Please take this as an opportunity to network with community resources and to light a fire under your butts to keep going,” said instructor Kama Money.

Update March 16, 2015

For the record, Keith Hunter has told the province he will not be part of the “façade” of community consultation meetings with B.C. Timber Sales when, in fact, they aren’t taking place.

“I don’t want to be in the position of [BCTS] going ahead with timber sales and not telling us, and then telling us they were going to have meetings with information provided, when they don’t,” Hunter told Ha-Shilth-Sa March 15.

Updated:

Organizers of the Top 20 under 40 awards are getting ready to honour young, Vancouver Island business people at their third annual Top 20 under 40 event, and two local women will be among the honorees.

Sponsored by the Comox Valley’s Old House Village Inn & Spa, awards recognize promising business people under the age of 40.

Educators at haahuupaquwit, also known as EJ Dunn Middle School, have stepped up their efforts to promote Nuu-chah-nulth language and culture with a regular morning welcome announcement performed by students.

On Feb. 23, the task was assigned to Arianna Ward, Jenna Sawyer, Elsie Harris, Mali Poher and Tseshaht member Jasmine Gomez, who coordinates the Nuu-chah-nulth language component of the daily welcome.

When Metis actress Tantoo Cardinal crosses the stage tonight to accept her ACTRA Award she will be bringing a little bit of Nuu-chah-nulth with her in the form of a dark velvet evening gown.

In the acting business for more than 40 years, Cardinal, 64, is being honoured with an Award of Excellence by the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA). This is the union of professional performers working in English language recorded media in Canada.

Former National Hockey League star Theo Fleury is bringing his message of healing and hope to Port Alberni with two special events on May 8 and May 9.

On the ice, the undersized Fleury, who is of Metis heritage, was unstoppable, winning a World Junior Championship, a Stanley Cup and an Olympic gold medal.

But in 2009, shortly after he retired, he published a book, Playing With Fire, where he outlined a traumatic childhood and a searing account of sexual abuse at the hands of a hockey coach and of his out-of-control life off the ice.

The Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council is pleased to introduce their newly-hired capacity building coordinator. The position came as a recommendation from the NTC directors after a series of strategic planning sessions.

Norine Messer was hired in early February on a term contract that runs to March 2016.

According to Messer, the goal of her new position is to empower communities to take charge of their direction and strengthen their capacity to plan, design, implement and evaluate activities focused on increasing social and economic resilience.

A routine day of fishing nearly ended in tragedy when an Ahousaht fisherman’s boat broke down off Estevan Point near Hesquiaht Harbour. It was battered by huge waves as it drifted towards the rocks, broke up and sank, but not before the four crew members were rescued.

Keon Frank Sr., 42, and his three crew members left Ahousaht early on the morning of Feb. 4.

“We listened to the forecast and heard it would be nice all day, but (wind) was supposed to pick up at night,” Frank recalled.