The biggest threat to wild salmon you’ve never heard of. That’s what the Coastal Restoration Society calls the invasion of the European Green Crab in Pacific coastal waters.
“Invasive European Green Crab are being found up and down the West Coast in larger numbers than ever. These crabs outcompete native species and destroy sensitive and ecologically important habitat,” they say.
Informed by Nuu-Chah-Nulth histories, legends and traditional carving techniques, contemporary artist Ha'wilh Way'anis, Joshua Watts, has transformed the Victoria Arts Council's main gallery to look like a longhouse as a way of honouring his cultural teachings, while commenting on current societal topics.
The Victoria Arts Council is commissioning this work for exhibition, along with an artist book created by Watts with his partner, Kwakwaka'wakw poet and activist Linnea Dick.
t’s been a couple weeks now since the school year started with guidance on how schools in the province should be fighting the spread of COVID-19. Picking up with the same restrictions put in place following spring break last year, schools are required to have communicable disease plans in place, but many of the original restrictions are a thing of the past.
Canal Beach was full of Nuu-chah-nulth-aht on Sunday, as about 300 witnessed a traditional marriage proposal that came after a 16-hour canoe journey from Tofino.
Wesley Frank ventured into Tseshaht territory on Sept. 18, landing at Canal Beach at the south end of Port Alberni to meet Kyra Sam and her large family. Frank came with family and friends who paddled two canoes the day before down from Esowista and up the Alberni Inlet to China Creek Marina, which is located south of Canal Beach.
Huu-ay-aht played host to dignitaries on a beautiful late summer day at their House of Huu-ay-aht to celebrate the unveiling of the official plaque that identifies their ancient village site, Kiix̣in, as a National Historic Site of Canada. The event took place on Sept. 20, 2022.
Since September of 2003, Sproat Lake Elementary School has been closed to the public. Now, in September of 2022, progress is officially being made to remove the rapidly deteriorating and graffiti-covered building from the land it sits on.
In mid September Tseshaht and Hupacasath fishers were casting their nets in the Somass River, taking advantage of the last days of a large chinook salmon run.
In recent years Fisheries and Oceans Canada has stressed the growing challenges facing Pacific salmon. The department’s 2019 State of the Canadian Pacific Salmon report stressed the environmental impacts of a warming climate on the fish, which normally thrive in cooler waters. The report stated that chinook are declining throughout their range, while some southern B.C. sockeye populations face imminent extinction.
Vancouver Island University (VIU) hosted its annual All-Nations feast at the Nanaimo campus yesterday, featuring dancers and speakers from the Nuu-Chah-Nulth, Kwakwaka’wakw, Métis, and Coast Salish, representing all four Indigenous groups from the Island.
Jennifer Christofferson is an Education Advisor in Services for Aboriginal Students, who says that after this many years, organizing the event is like a well-oiled machine.
Plans to build a tiny house village on lower 4th Avenue have been delayed due to planning and approval processes, according to Port Alberni Friendship Center Executive Director Cyndi Stevens. There have also been unforeseen cost overruns that are concerning to the PAFC executive director.
The City of Port Alberni announced that it is moving ahead with plans to provide better homes to people living in run-down trailers on 4th Avenue, known locally as “The Ghetto”. They partnered with BC Housing and the Port Alberni Friendship Centre to provide a safer housing alternative.