The First Nations Health Authority is informing front-line workers about its Quality Care and Safety Office, offering support to Indigenous people as they navigate through the health care system in the province.
“The goal of the First Nations Health Authority’s Quality Care and Safety Office is to improve health and wellness programs and services for First Nations people across B.C.,” wrote the FNHA in an email to Ha-Shilth-Sa.
With only two weeks until the Port Alberni Shelter Society’s (PASS) contract ends to operate Our Home on Eighth, a new provider for the shelter has yet to be named.
BC Housing terminated PASS’s contract to operate the shelter and supportive housing facility earlier this year, ending the contract as of March 31. BC Housing then invited Indigenous-focused housing and shelter providers to submit proposals to operate the facility and services at Our Home at Eighth.
In a building that was formerly part of the Alberni Indian Residential School, a place where speaking Nuu-chah-nulth was banned among the children who had attended, eight-year-old Jesse Maquinna spoke in the ancestral language to traditionally invite the NTC executive to a cultural sharing event.
Nuu-chah-nulth Education Worker Marsha Maquinna and her daughter, Jesse, traveled from Gold River to present a cultural invitation to the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council’s executive director, president and vice-president on March 13.
This was Jesse’s second traditional invitation.
A transportation Safety Board investigation is pointing to the combination of dense fog, instrument failure and fatigue from an overworked operator as factors that could have led a water taxi to crash into a rock during a routine trip from Tofino to Ahousaht.
The federal agency released its report today, with details leading up to the crash involving the Rocky Pass in early 2022. Four of the five people aboard the water taxi were seriously injured when it hit a rock in a shallow area between Tofino and Ahousaht on Jan. 25, 2022, including skipper Chris Frank.
The consumption of herring by marine mammals and fish off the west coast of Vancouver Island is giving the species little chance to rebuild to a higher volume, according to indicators recently presented by a Nuu-chah-nulth-led research project.
The amount being consumed by predators – particularly hake, humpback whales and stellar sea lions – is coming close to what the herring population in Nuu-chah-nulth territory is able to support, said Jim Lane, acting manager of the Uu-a-thluk fisheries program, during a Nuu-chah-nulth Council of Haa’wiih Forum on Fisheries on Feb. 24.
Feb. 21 was International Mother Language Day and the First Peoples’ Cultural Council (FPCC) celebrated the occasion by releasing its Report on the Status of B.C. First Nations Languages 2022. Contained in the report is information about revitalization strategies and how they are progressing.
FPCC is a crown corporation launched by the government of B.C. in 1990 to fund, develop and administer programs that assist the province’s First Nations in their efforts to revitalize languages, arts, culture and heritage.
On March 10 a small group from Ditidaht Community School traveled the long bumpy ride from Nitinaht Lake to Port Alberni in their school bus to invite seventh-grade Haahuupayuk School students to their Paddle Days.
CJNY 106.3 FM hit play on Friday March 3 when it launched at Hoobiyee Ts’aamiks Vancouver with a ceremony. Serving Coast Salish and First Nations in B.C., the Vancouver classic rock will feature Indigenous artists, and plans to host several cultural shows.
To kick off the programming, The Good Medicine Show, hosted by Ashley Pimlott, launched on March 6. With half an hour aimed at health and wellness, this show airs every Monday at 6 p.m. and is rebroadcast on Sundays at 4 p.m.
Since 1992, women have been gathering on Valentines Day in the Downtown Eastside for the women’s memorial walk in honor and remembrance of the missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, and gender diverse peoples (MMIWG2S+).
According to the Native Women’s Association of Canada, British Columbia holds the highest number of MMIWG2S+ cases. Of the 582 missing or murdered cases that the NWAC gathered, 160 were in British Columbia, making up 27 per cent of the organization’s database as of 2010.
The Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation will be holding an event, called naaʔuu, on various evenings throughout March. Naaʔuu, which is a Nuu-chah-nulth word, translates to “come together” and “feast,” which is exactly what the nation is inviting people to do.
Running in conjunction with the Pacific Rim Whale Festival, naaʔuu will be held at the Best Western Plus Tin Wis Resort in Tofino. The three-hour event will be held in a conference room made to look like a traditional longhouse.