Community-based kidney health assessments resume in early May, an early-detection strategy against a disease twice as likely to affect Indigenous people.

The screening is part of a preventive health initiative that began two years ago before it was interrupted by the COVID pandemic and travel restrictions.

Matilda Atleo, community health promotion worker for Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council (NTC), said three screening sessions are planned so far: May 2 at Port Alberni Friendship Centre, May 3 in Anacla-Bamfield and May 5 at Hupacasath First Nation.

One year after a favourable court ruling, changes are underway to give Nuu-chah-nulth fishers a role in the crab fishery near Tofino - but help from existing commercial operators has been necessary for the transition into an expensive and potentially dangerous industry.

Three years ago First Nations across British Columbia celebrated the first payment of their newly designated share of the province’s gaming revenue. But as COVID-19 closed casinos the following year gambling proceeds dried up, forcing many Indigenous governments to put their community projects on hold.

Huu-ay-aht First Nations have a relatively small territory, yet they hold big ambitions in forestry.

Notched out of the Island’s west coast, Huu-ay-aht-owned land spans 8,200 hectares of the Sarita River watershed along Barkley Sound’s south shore while the nations hold additional rights in their larger ḥahuułi, including Tree Farm Licence 44.

Regenerative ocean farming is taking place in Barkley Sound in the traditional territory of the Huu-ay-aht First Nations to maintain the sustainable creation of ocean products like oysters and clams.

Aquaculture company Nova Harvest has been operating out of Bamfield since 2011, producing oyster and clam seed for local shellfish farmers while applying innovative, science-based solutions to support the development of the shellfish industry in the province.

The provincial government announced it will provide $3.3 million to support Vancouver Island University’s expansion of Shq’apthut, it’s gathering space for Indigenous learners.

The building, located on the Nanaimo campus of VIU, is a home away from home for Indigenous students where cultural, academic, recreational and social activities are promoted and celebrated.

In two and a half months salmon farms throughout the B.C. coast are due to expire, with no firm commitment yet from the federal government to renew these licences.

But as uncertainty hangs over the controversial industry, the man speaking for Ahousaht’s Tyee is standing in support of aquaculture in his territory, with a claim that a failure from the government to support salmon farms in Ahousaht waters will betray commitments to reconciliation with First Nations.

On a crisp, spring morning children from Haahuupayak Elementary school danced on the site where, generations before, their ancestors were housed at the Alberni Indian Residential School.

A basketball court is nearly complete on the location where Peake Hall once stood, a structure built in 1954 to serve as a dormitory for the assimilationist institution, which took in First Nations children from across the West Coast and B.C.’s Interior. After being run for most of a century, the residential school closed in 1973, followed by the demolition of Peake Hall in 2009.

A woman found deceased on street near Victoria Quay in the early morning hours of April 2 has been identified as 30-year-old Nicola-Cree Belcourt. It appears she had been fatally injured due to an incident involving a vehicle that was not at the scene when police arrived.

According to the RCMP, on April 2, 2022, at approximately 2:30 a.m. police came to find an unresponsive woman near the intersection of Roger Street and Victoria Quay.

The provincial Minister of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation, Murray Rankin, arrived in Ahousaht April 13 to sign an historic agreement with Ahousaht Ha’wiih and elected council. The agreement, called AHP-CII-UK, is an MOU (memorandum of understanding) that took about 18 months of negotiations between the provincial and Ahousaht governments to craft.