General

The Weeping Cedar Woman made her long-awaited return to Tofino on Easter Weekend, after an extensive restoration led by the original artist, Godfrey Stephens.

The five-metre tall carving was unveiled outside Tofino Community Hall on April 20 as part of the public celebration of the Tla-o-qui-aht Tribal Park Declaration.

The visual impact is breathtaking. The female figure has twin cascades of tears flowing from her eyes and she is ornamented with a galaxy of images and designs. Her right hand is in a “Stop” gesture and her left hand points to the earth.

On Monday, April 21, Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation Chief Councillor Moses Martin took a party of guests to the site of a confrontation between logging giant MacMillan Bloedel and those opposed to the company’s plans for Meares Island.

It was 30 years ago—April 21, 1984—that Tla-o-qui-aht declared the area a tribal park. Five months later, Martin and hundreds of people, Native and non-Native, stood shoulder to shoulder to stop the clearcut of 90 per cent of the island in Clayoquot Sound.

Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation celebrated the 30th anniversary of its declaration of a Tla-o-qui-aht Tribal Park on Meares Island with a gathering at Tofino Community Hall on April 20.

A pair of totem poles will soon grace the entrance to Vancouver Island University’s Shq’apthut building, a gathering place used for cultural events and feasts. It is the indigenous space at VIU, a home away from home for aboriginal students.

The carving will be carried out by well-known artists representing three Vancouver Island tribal groups: Coast Salish, Kwakwaka’wakw and Nuu-chah-nulth.

Rob Oldale remembers what it was like to be young, unemployed and on the outside looking in. He brings that insight to his role as Senior Coordinator for the BladeRunners youth training program, which has been delivered by NETP since 2007.

The BladeRunners program is funded under the Canada-British Columbia Labour Market Agreement. It was created in 1994 during the construction of General Motors Place (now Rogers Arena) in Vancouver to provide employment opportunities for inner-city “street-involved” youth.

NETP employment counsellor Corinne Moore’s cultural and spiritual connection to the Nuu-chah-nulth community runs deep.

The daughter of Denny and Sarah Durocher, Moore attended Haahuupayak School where she learned the Nuu-chah-nulth language and culture alongside her First Nations classmates.

“It was a fantastic experience,” Moore said. “The spirituality and the teachings really had a strong influence on me growing up.”

When your mandate is to introduce people to the trades, it doesn’t hurt to hire a tradesman. Just ask NETP Special Projects coordinator Dave Watts Sr.

As coordinator, Watts is in charge of setting up training projects in Nuu-chah-nulth communities “from Kyuquot to Ditidaht.”

“Since I’ve been here, there have been 65 different projects. It’s been a lot of travelling,” Watts said.

Watts went into the construction trades after graduating from Alberni District Secondary School, earning the industry-recognized Red Seal Carpentry certification.

Aaron Edgar Sr. stood out as a class leader from the beginning, so it was a natural fit for him to be chosen as emcee for the graduation of Ditidaht’s students from the a-m’aa-sip Essential Skills program. A ceremony was held March 28 in the community.

When somebody asked in class who was on his team, Edgar put his hand up and said ‘You’re all on my team,’ said program assistant Jason Sam. “From that moment forward, that was the class motto from Aaron, that we are all on the same team, we’re all trying to do good things,” Sam said.

For Betty Knighton, the goal isn’t teaching people what to learn, it’s about teaching them how they learn.

Knighton is a program assistant with NETP’s a-m’aa-sip Essential Skills program, which seeks to unlock each client’s learning potential by uncovering the learning mode (hands-on, visual, verbal, etc.) that best suits their intellectual makeup.

For each client, the seven-week program begins with a Structure of Intellect assessment, Knighton explained.

For Andy Callicum, the timing proved perfect: when the Nuu-chah-nulth Employment and Training Program (NETP) cast about for a new supervisor, the young Mowachaht-Muchalaht member had built up a solid resume in the private sector as an employment counsellor and had already proven his skills in a temporary role at the Third Avenue office.

For Callicum, whose late father, Andy Sr., was an addictions counsellor who worked in a succession of locations both in Canada and the U.S., home was definitely a question of where he hung his hat that day.