Reflecting on the new Pacific Rim School District 70 Land-Based Learning (LBL) program that set sail at the beginning of the 2024-25 scholastic year, Alberni District Secondary School (ADSS) teacher Sarah Williams spills over with joy. 

She says attendance records for LBL students increased dramatically, their marks went up and, overall, they were happier and feeling better about themselves.

“I am living out my professional dream,” said Williams, who took a one-year leave of absence to help bring the vision of the LBL program to life.

Bamfield neighbours and students from the Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre joined the Huu-ay-aht locals at the beach in Anacla for their annual National Aboriginal Day celebrations on Friday, June 20.

Huu-ay-aht organizers made sure there was plenty for the children to do with games set up on a grassy area. Some children played in the sand by the river, flying kites, chasing bubbles or just playing in the sand and water.

Aboriginal day festivities started early this year, with events in different corners of Nuu-chah-nulth territory.

Recognized on June 21, National Indigenous Peoples Day falls on a Saturday this year, prompting events to be held the day before in some communities.

ḥakaƛ, Chrissie John, began speaking Nuu-chah-nulth at home at a young age; it was her mother’s first language before being taken off to residential school

“We were the first generation raised with English. We grew up knowing animals, kinship, terms of endearment, things like that but we didn’t speak fluently” ḥakaƛ shares.

ḥakaƛ has five siblings, and like other Nuu-chah-nulth people, grew up knowing different words tied to the language. ḥakaƛ’s thirst for learning began to grow, and it has become a passion. 

For a midweek standard room in July at Long Beach Lodge Resort overlooking Cox Bay: $659, plus tax.

Best Western Plus Tin Wis Resort: $649, plus tax and there’s a nightly minimum, depending on the day.

Wickaninnish Inn on North Chesterman Beach: $980, with a four-night minimum.

Oceanside suite at Pacific Sands: $699, with a three-night minimum.

For a king bed at Hotel Zed: $714, plus tax and the two-night minimum.

IslandLinkBus has cancelled their service from Tofino and Ucluelet to Port Alberni.

In a rather confusing string of emails, Islandlink says passengers riding between Tofino and Ucluelet must first go to Nanaimo’s Departure Bay Terminal, even though the bus stops in Port Alberni in front of the Casino en route to Nanaimo.

A one-way ticket from Ucluelet Junction (the pick-up spot is Ukee Poke) to Departure Bay is $75. The cost for a bus ticket from Tofino to Departure Bay is $85. It’s $45 for a ticket from Departure Bay to Port Alberni.

This Pride Month, the Coastal Queer Alliance (CQA) is calling on Clayoquot Sound’s businesses to update washroom signs to be gender-inclusive.

The CQA’s Swap the Signs Campaign is being launched in partnership with Tourism Tofino and Surfrider Pacific Rim as an effort to make the region more accessible. 

“There’s [transgender] people in our community that we care about that don’t have the same access to the same things that other people do, and this is an opportunity to remedy that.” said CQA Director Sully Rogalski, who uses the pronouns they and them. 

Amid a growing number of Aboriginal students earning their secondary diploma, this month Nuu-chah-nulth-aht are celebrating a generational shift towards formal education – a development that elders see as strides ahead of their residential school past.

“We’re our ancestors wildest dreams,” said Damon Rampanen, a cultural support worker at Alberni District Secondary, during a two-day celebration of graduates and scholarship winners that was held at the high school June 6 and 7. 

Last year’s provincial funding for Indigenous food security has benefited several Nuu-chah-nulth nations and individuals, allowing them to build on projects and businesses that support local communities. 

In a May 24, 2025 statement, MLA Josie Osborne said the funding, which comes from the province’s New Relationship Trust, helps to strengthen Indigenous food security in the Mid Island – Pacific Rim.

Children playing “Tla-o-qui-aht warriors” paddled in cardboard cutouts of dugout canoes around the wooden pirate ship play structure at Tofino’s Village Green to recount the fate of the Tonquin. The 269-ton American trade ship sank to the bottom of Clayoquot Sound in 1811 after being overwhelmed by the warriors – and blew up.