Tla-o-qui-aht Chief Councillor Elmer Frank (Hyou-sin-up-shilth) is asking community members to be diligent about locking doors, especially at night, after a “scary situation” unfolded on Sept. 29 involving an attempted child abduction.
That evening a seven-year-old boy was taken from his home and carried through Ty-Histanis and left at the basketball court in Esowista, reads a memorandum released by Tla-o-qui-aht on Sept. 30.
In what has become an annual tradition, staff of ADSS (Alberni District Secondary School) along with the Indigenous Leadership Team threw a barbecue dinner as they welcomed new students for the 2025/26 school year.
According to Deborah Potter, who is an Indigenous Support Worker (ISW), the barbecue was held at ADSS on the evening of September 25.
More than 750 rural households on Vancouver Island and surrounding coastal communities will soon gain access to high-speed internet, thanks to federal and provincial investments.
The Ministry of Citizens’ Services announced that 11 rural communities will receive last-mile fibre and transport infrastructure.
The project includes services for 123 households in the rural areas of Texada Island, 129 households on Piers Island, and 500 families in Jordan River, as well as the Pacheedaht First Nation communities of Gordon River 2 and Pacheena 1.
A group of researchers led by the University of Victoria (UVic) are investigating the possible impacts of overuse on the B.C. coastal mountains and its connection to climate change.
Environmental researchers are collaborating with the Squamish Nation and BC Parks on their Alpine Horizons research initiative. B.C.’s alpine region is an understudied area, says lead researcher Dr. Noémie Boulanger-Lapointe, a UVic assistant professor in the Department of Geography.
Tiicma Fisheries Inc., a venture of Ka:’yu:’k’t’h’/Che:k:tles7et’h’ First Nations (KCFN), is in the process of applying to the Ministry of Transport for a tenure site and licence to operate a sablefish facility in Kyuquot Sound on the west coast of Vancouver Island.
The proposed aquaculture finfish facility is located 11.5-kilometres from Houpsitas, a KCFN village, and about 12-kilometres from Fair Harbour, the marina facility owned by the nation.
Pinnace Channel is the presented waterway for the site, which will be floating adjacent to Hohoae Island.
J'net Ayayqwayaksheelth had an inkling that one day she would join forces with a fellow Nuu-chah-nulth relative on a professional working basis.
That time has arrived as it was announced on Sept. 23 that Ayayqwayaksheelth, a member of Ahousaht First Nation, has been hired to be the new managing director of the Indigenomics Institute.
Hesquiaht Nation member Carol Anne Hilton, who has more than two decades of experience working in Indigenous economic development, coined the term Indigenomics in 2012.
Tseshaht First Nation tween Taiaha Watts has one epic summer story to share on the playground.
On Aug. 25 the 10-year-old boy from Port Alberni was attacked by a river otter while floating at a family swimming hole along the Somass River.
Taiaha’s dad Len Watts was playing cards on the beach when the shocking incident took place.
“This otter comes five feet in front of my son - usually they will look at you and go away - but it looked at him and went right for him, tried jumping on his face and chest,” Watts said.
At the top of the hill overlooking Tofino’s First Street Dock, Nuu-chah-nulth elder Tom Curley, 86, paused for a moment to catch his breath.
He couldn’t find his orange shirt for the annual Truth and Reconciliation Day Walk, but Tla-o-qui-aht gave him a new one, which he tucked in his jacket like a scarf.
Curley spent 15 years as a ‘student’ of Christie Indian Residential School. He says it wasn’t the type of place you went to get into university.
On Sept. 30 the annual tradition continued in Port Alberni with a march of orange through the small city’s streets, but this year the procession began at the former site of the Alberni Indian Residential School, walking away from where the institution once stood.
There was a time when Canada’s Indigenous children were gathered up and placed in residential schools, where they were forced learn the English language, nearly losing their own mother tongue. Now, in 2025, hundreds of children from schools in Port Alberni came together on a school field in their orange shirts to sing našukʔaƛin - and they all knew the lyrics, singing loud and proud.