Serving Huu-ay-aht, Ditidaht and Hupacasath, Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council (NTC) home care aids are filling a gap for isolated communities.

The newer home-care program started with just one care aide in September 2020 and grew to three full-time workers and one casual in January of this year. The professionals support elders and their families with managing mobility impairments, chronic illnesses and acute health care needs in their home.

Award-winning Indigenous producer and director Steve Sxwithhul’txw was in Ahousaht during the first week of May shooting a new documentary focussing on the life-saving work of four Vancouver Island First Nations as Canadian Coast Guard auxiliaries.

According to IMDb, Sxwithhul’txw (Swee-thult) is a former police officer and member of the Penelakut First Nation. He went back to school to study broadcast journalism and launched Kwassen Productions. He told Ha-Shilth-Sa that he also has roots in Snuneymuxw and Cowichan Nations.

Nurses highly trained to assist others in crisis suddenly found themselves helping fellow nurses on the dock in Tofino one afternoon last fall.

Skipper Chris Frank was returning to Tofino with passengers from Ahousaht when a floatplane attempting to land suddenly collided with the Rocky Pass.

“We got word that nurses were supposed to be on that boat,” recalled Catherine Gislason, acting nursing manager at NTC.

“The boat had two of our nurses aboard,” she added. “They were both hurt. Both had soft-tissue damage and head injuries.”

With Dontay Lucas’ father sitting next to them, Port Albenri RCMP announced they “turned every stone” while investigating the death of the six-year-old.

The young boy died under suspicious circumstances on March 13, 2018, shortly after he was found in medical distress at a Port Alberni home. Four years later, police announced the arrest of two people with charges of first-degree murder.

Nurses have been called “the backbone of health care,” but more support and recruitment is needed for the profession to overcome increasing workloads and staffing shortages.

Meanwhile on the west coast of Vancouver Island, the nurses who have shouldered the last two years of a pandemic remain committed to their close relationships with Nuu-chah-nulth communities, despite building stress and fatigue.

Two people were arrested May 6 and are both charged with First Degree Murder in the March 13, 2018 death of six-year-old Don-Tay Patrick Lucas.

In their public statement issued May 7, the Port Alberni RCMP said they arrested a local 29-year-old man and 28-year-old woman for the murder of six-year-old Dontay Lucas that occurred on March 13, 2018.

“On May 7, 2022 Ms. Rykel Frank (Nee Charleson) and Mitchell Frank were charged with the First Degree Murder of Dontay Lucas. The investigation continues,” stated the RCMP.

Over a hundred walked through the pouring rain today in recognition of the many missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, gathering near a spot where an Aboriginal woman died under suspicious circumstances just a month ago in Port Alberni.

At 3:30 a.m. on April 23, Thomas Ambrose’s closest family and friends gathered outside his house in Duncan to pray.

Ambrose’s father, Vince, led the prayer asking for strength. His soft voice penetrated the morning’s silence, fuelling Ambrose for the day ahead.

After stocking up on protein and water, Ambrose set out on a 255-kilometre bike-ride to Long Beach, near Tofino.

It was a trip he had been planning with his 15-year-old daughter, Edie Canute.

Qaamina and Ruth Sam are demanding that vodka be banned from the village, following disturbing incidents of pre-teens being found extremely intoxicated and the death of a young family member due to alcohol-related liver damage.

Two days before she died in 2020, Helen Frank, a young mother, called her aunt Ruth, asking them to keep working hard to ban “red cap” from the village. Not knowing what she meant, Ruth later learned that red cap meant a popular brand of vodka that comes in a bottle with a red lid.

Organizers are hoping that what is traditionally known as “the creator’s game” will see more interest among Port Alberni youth now that COVID-19 restrictions are easing.

After being held off for two years due to the pandemic, the Alberni Valley Minor Lacrosse Association is bringing back its spring Novice tournament, with help from a design by a Nuu-chah-nulth artist.

The tournament is being held over the weekend on May 6-8 at the Alberni Valley Multiplex for eight and nine-year-olds.