While hundreds gathered in the Mowachaht/Muchalaht’s community of Tsaxana for the Northern Region Games, a smaller group of a few dozen came together to continue an annual tradition in the First Nation’s ancestral home.
The Yuquot Spirit Summerfest gathering took place Aug. 1 in the village site on the southern shore of Nootka Island, where archaeological evidence shows signs of uninterrupted human habitation for at least 4,300 years. As a summer rain overcame the settlement outside, Tyee Ha’wilth Mike Maquinna shared a meal with some of his muschim and guests in Yuquot’s church. Originally built by the First Nation in 1956, the church is one of the few remaining structures from when the remote village served as Mowachaht/Muchalaht’s main reserve community before they relocated to the Gold River area in the 1960s.
Before eating four men filled the church with song, prompting Maquinna to reflect on how he recalls seeing them as small children singing with their parents as they learned the traditions of Nootka Sound’s Indigenous culture.
“Yuquot brings that out of us,” said Maquinna.
The Summerfest gathering has been held since 1992, when Ambrose Maquinna, Mike Maquinna’s late father, decided to introduce new generations to Yuquot through camping and celebration at the site during the summer. Yuquot once served as a central economic settlement for tribes in the Nootka Sound region, as certain Mowachaht members hunted whales passing by the coastal location to provide sustenance for their community.
More than 50 years after the First Nation was moved to the Gold River area, the Williams family are the only household to remain at Yuquot, besides pairs of lighthouse keepers that take turns managing the Canadian Coast Guard complex on the shore. But each July and August clusters of tents appear by the old church, as members of the First Nation seek to reconnect with where their ancestors came from.
This summer transportation to the site was further challenged by the unavailability of the MV Uchuck III, a converted World War Two-era minesweeper that normally makes regularly scheduled trips through Nootka Sound. The Uchuck is currently undergoing repairs.
“A times like this we have to improvise for transportation without the Uchuck being here,” said Maquinna. “The iconic Uchuck has always been here to help over the years and we hope that it gets back in the water again.”
Around the time that the Summerfest tradition began the Land of Maquinna Cultural Society was established. During the gathering on Aug. 1 among those acknowledged was Robin Inglis, a teacher and historian who contributed his expertise to the society over the years. Inglis died on June 19, 2024 at the age of 82.
“He was quiet, but strong,” said Margaretta James, president of the society. “We learned from each other.”
In his career Inglis wrote about European exploration of the Northwest Coast, and was considered an expert in the Spanish presence in the North Pacific. In his later years he worked with the Land of Maquinna Cultural Society, helping to restore Yuquot’s church, which was officially deconsecrated in the 1990s when the Catholic church withdrew its authority from the structure. The church now houses large, colourfully painted totem poles and carvings made by Mowchaht/Muchalaht artists, which are replicas of sacred carvings by the Maquinna and Jack families.
“Robin was a giant in his field,” said Richard Inglis, an anthropologist who has specialized in Yuquot for decades, during the gathering on Aug. 1. “He was a facilitator. He was not in it for himself; he was in it for giving back.”
