On Wednesday, May 12, Damon Rampanen, Nuu-chah-nulth Education Worker (NEW), and Madison Lucas, grade eight student at ADSS, set off to make traditional Nuu-chah-nulth invitations to the NTC Executive for the ADSS class of 2023 graduation ceremonies.

For Lucas, this wasn’t her first invite, she had done many invitations with her father for her Coming of Age potlatch, held on April 8, 2023.

“My father and I used to go potlatches and just go invite the chiefs of all nations to come participate in my coming of age,” said Lucas.

The Port Alberni RCMP are investigating a late-night fire that swept through the notorious Wintergreen Apartment building, claiming the life of a Nuu-chah-nulth man.

In a statement released May 19, 2023, the RCMP say they were called to a residential building in the 3600 block of Fourth Avenue on May 18, at approximately 11:12 pm.

“Officers assisted Port Alberni Fire Department to ensure residents were out of the units while the fire was extinguished. A body was located in a unit of the building and the site is secured for investigation,” reads the statement.

Every Thursday and Friday, for the last six weeks, students of Tsuma’as Elementary School have been gathering during lunch to learn and perform two songs for SD70’s and Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal council’s Spring Festival.

The first class had roughly sixty students, and six weeks later there are around thirty students that attend the drumming and singing practice consistently, shared Jean Thomas, Nuu-chah-nulth Education Worker (NEW).  

– It’s been about three years since the last baby welcoming celebration at the Port Alberni Friendship Center, thanks to crowd gathering restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic. So this years group of new young faces was not only larger than normal but also a little older.

Ahousaht Ha’wiih started their 2023 tourist season in grand style as invited guests joined them for an excursion to the place formerly known as Maquinna Park. The day began with a departure from the docks just behind Ahous Adventures, in Tofino, where visitors boarded for either a zodiac, or covered boat. The boats are part of a fleet managed by Ahous Adventures, owned by Maaqtusiis Hahoulthee Stewardship Society (MHSS).

IslandLink, a Nanaimo-based passenger bus service, is pleased to announce that it is meeting the demand for increased bus service from Port Alberni to Tofino and on other Vancouver Island routes, thanks to the purchase of more buses.

“We knew there was a need for year-round bus service on this route and the enthusiastic response over the last three months is proof,” says Phillip Morgan, owner of IslandLink. “We are thrilled that travelers in the region have accepted us as a provider of reliable and efficient bus service and we thank everyone for continuing to book seats with us,”

It’s been more than four decades since a new hotel opened in the Vancouver Island city of Port Alberni. But that will be changing in the near future.

That’s because it was announced in early May 2023 that the Huu-ay-aht Group of Businesses (HGB), the economic arm of Huu-ay-aht First Nation, has entered into a partnership with Tseshaht First Nation and MasterBUILT Hotels Ltd.

The partnership group is planning to build a Microtel Inn & Suites by Wyndham in Port Alberni.

A young Ahousaht University student recently returned from a trip to South Korea, where he saw similarities between their culture and his, and he saw ways in which improvements can be made at home in terms of food security.

Daral ƛahayašištuuł Campbell, age 22, said he was originally invited to South Korea in 2020 as part of a group representing Ahousaht’s Chah chum hii yup tiic mis, also known as the Holistic Centre. Ahousaht’s new wellness centre is nearing completion on the site of a former residential school in the village.

For Lil’Star Frank, daughter to Lillian Jack, when Trevor Jack passed away from an overdose nothing would stop her from being with her family to mourn the loss of their loved one. 

She found out about her brother’s passing when she had gotten a call at 4:00 a.m., from Anita Baker, Trevor Jack's mother, and who Frank considered another mother.

She drove from Ahousaht and waited in the Kennedy Hill construction so that she could be with her family in Victoria.

At the time she had been caring for 10 children.

It has been a tough three years since the loss of her son, but Anita Baker summoned the strength to gather her family to celebrate the lives of her son, Trevor, and mother Margaret Jack of Kyuquot, BC.

Margaret Jack, born May 1, 1940, lovingly raised her family from her home in Kyuquot, then, later in Campbell River. She was the daughter of Emile and Sophie Jules, connecting her to the Tyee Ha’wilth of Kyuquot, Christine Cox. She married fisherman Leo Jack, raising seven children together.