In the aftermath of a court injunction that generated over 1,100 arrests in Pacheedaht territory this year, the First Nation is reiterating an earlier request, asking protestors to leave the Fairy Creek area.
A film featuring Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation master carver Joe Martin will have its world premiere on Wednesday, Oct. 6.
But Martin will not be at the screening, which will be shown at the Vancouver International Film Festival, which began Oct. 1 and continues until Oct. 10.
Though he was also one of the writers for the short film titled ƛaʔuukʷiatḥ (Tla-o-qui-aht) Dugout Canoe, Martin has yet to view the finished product, which is 10 minutes long.
It seemed like a glimmer of hope in the dark days of pandemic – the federal government offered free money in the form of CERB (Canada Emergency Response Benefit) to help Canadians who lost income. The application process was easy and many people across the country received the benefit in 2020, including some pensioners.
Those eligible could have received $500 every seven days for up to 28 weeks. But what they may not have known is the CERB is taxable income and, if it was later determined that the recipient was not eligible for the CERB, it would have to be repaid.
An official opening ceremony of an innovative new commercial food production service opened at Port Alberni’s waterfront on Oct. 1, 2021.
Several dignitaries were on hand for the ribbon cutting ceremony of The Dock+, located at 3140 Harbour Road. The former fish processing plant has been reinvented and now offers a commercial food production facility with a focus on local, sustainable foods.
Ditidaht First Nation has released a kid’s video game that takes players on a cultural journey by canoe through the nation’s traditional territory, off the coast of Vancouver Island.
The game was designed as a tool to prepare children aged 3 to 6 for attending kindergarten at Ditidaht Community School (DCS), where they begin taking diiʔdiiʔtidq language classes.
A sea of orange shirts could be seen walking from Harbour Quay to Maht Mahs parking lot on Tseshaht territory today to honour both Orange Shirt Day and the first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.
Orange Shirt Day, held on Sept. 30, is an Indigenous-led grassroots commemorative day that honours the children who survived residential schools and remembers those who did not. The National Day for Truth and Reconciliation honours the lost children and survivors of residential schools, their families and communities.
Gathered around the totem pole outside the Best Western Tin Wis Plus Resort in Tofino, dozens of community members from Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation and the surrounding area stood in silence for 2 minutes and 15 seconds.
As the 215 children who never made it home from the Kamloops Indian Residential School were commemorated, only the sounds of nearby waves crashing onshore permeated the silence.
In a shift away from recognizing a past leader who stood for “a white British Columbia”, the name of a Port Alberni elementary school has been changed to honour the river that connects the community.
Today A.W. Neill was dropped from the school on Compton Road, which is now called c̓uumaʕas (Tsuma-as) Elementary. Pronounced ‘tsu ma-as’, the new name gives a nod to the local First Nations who have lived off of the Somass River for generations.
Port Alberni’s 2021 homeless count shows a drop in the number of individuals who identify as homeless, but of those, a significant increase was reported in people who identify as Indigenous.
Marcie DeWitt, Alberni-Clayoquot Health Network coordinator, told Port Alberni city council on Sept. 27 that this year’s 24-hour homelessness count recorded 125 individuals who identified as homeless, both sheltered and unsheltered. This is down from the 2018 24-hour count that saw 147 homeless individuals.
An ongoing outbreak of COVID-19 has pushed the start day of Ahousaht’s elementary and high schools back to the second week of October.
On Friday, Sept. 24, Ahousaht administration issued an update stating that there were 18 confirmed cases in the village of Maaqtusiis, with an addition four cases away from home. One of those cases was reported to be hospitalized.
On Monday, Sept. 27, the First Nation reported 19 active cases in the village with another 8 members testing positive for COVID-19 away from home.