The Royal B.C. Museum (RBCM) has announced a number of in-person and online public engagement sessions to discuss the future of the provincial museum. Over the next few months, members of the public are invited to join the museum’s ‘multi-year, province-wide engagement plan to listen to the people of B.C. and gather feedback’, according to the museum’s website. This engagement comes six months after the province suspended controversial plans for a $789-million rebuild and multi-year closure of the downtown Victoria institution, following a public outcry and criticism by First Nations.

Cindy Ross is hoping experience her players gained at the 2022 Junior All-Native Tournament (JANT) will pay off at this year’s event.

Ross is the head coach of the Tla-o-qui-aht Qu?usin’mit, a boys’ under-17 squad that is expected to fare well at the 2023 tourney, scheduled for March 19-24 in Nanaimo.

Snunymuxw First Nation will play host to the event, which will feature Indigenous squads from across the province competing in both girls’ and boys’ divisions at the under-13 and under-17 levels.

In what is considered the first legal test of B.C.’s Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People’s Act, the Ehattesaht/Chinehkint and Gitxaala First Nations are challenging the province’s system of granting mineral claims.

A boulder that blocked the westbound lane of Highway 4 on Sunday fell from the surrounding mountainside, according to B.C.’s Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure.

Witnesses from the scene recalled boulders that fell towards the road at the west end of Sproat Lake on Jan. 8.

Two of these large rocks took up part of the highway, just before the Taylor River Rest Area. The ministry stated that the two boulders fell on Highway 4 at approximately 4:30 p.m. Mainroad Mid Island Contracting responded and removed the rocks from the road by 5:20 p.m.

After years of negotiation, and a two-week meeting in Montreal, 196 countries came to an agreement on the future of global biodiversity. With 23 targets aiming for 2030 and four goals set for 2050, the global community will work towards protecting and restoring biodiversity across the globe in partnership with local Indigenous communities.

With a history that goes back 6,000 years, Hupacasath is regaining ancestral land, formerly known as Gill School.

Over the period of the last year Hupacasath Chief Councillor Brandy Lauder had been in conversation with the Ministry of Education and Child Care, the Ministry of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation, as well as the new superintendent of School District 70, among others, to which they unanimously agreed to the sale of the land back to Hupacasath, explained Lauder. Gill Elementary School ceased operations in 2015 due to declining student numbers.

Just as west coast residents began scrambling for alternative transportation after Tofino Bus announced suspended services last month, Islandlink comes to the rescue.

“Islandlink will start offering bus service between Nanaimo and Tofino three times a week starting on January 30, 2023,” they stated in a news release dated Jan. 12.

This comes as welcome news to residents of outlying communities who rely on the bus service to get to medical appointments in the region’s cities. The bus will also stop at intermediate points in Ucluelet and Port Alberni.

This past holiday season saw what seemed like endless snow filling communities throughout Vancouver Island. As the snow fell, the social services sectors worked hard through the month tending to weather and holiday needs of vulnerable people.

Among some services that were needed was the Salvation Army’s emergency weather response program, which provides extra mats in shelters to meet the demands of unhoused folks.

A routine Sunday drive home from Port Alberni to Macoah could have turned tragic, were it not for two men who remained at the site of a rock fall that left an enormous boulder blocking a lane of Highway 4 near the Taylor Rest Area.

Robyn Rea was traveling westbound on Highway 4 along Taylor Flats at the west end of Sproat Lake when she noticed an oncoming vehicle flash its lights at her.

“First I checked to make sure my high beams were off then I prepared for whatever could be up the road,” said Rea.

A longitudinal project delving into the factors that determine a person’s lifelong health has received a large grant to study the early years of Nuu-chah-nulth participants.