A new Community Situation Report released by the First Nations Health Authority (FNHA) reveals the disproportionate impact COVID-19 has had on Indigenous people on Vancouver Island. 

Despite representing only 7.6 per cent of Vancouver Island’s population, Indigenous people account for 34.9 per cent of COVID-19 cases.

The rate of positive cases for the Indigenous population was 1,323 per 100,000 compared to 202 per 100,000 for the non-Indigenous population, according to the FNHA. 

As a teenager, Lisa Robinson lived in denial and repressed her emotions.

She could not name what was causing her pain, so she kept silent while living among all of her sexual abusers.

The loneliness and shame propelled her into a black hole.

“There were times where I felt like I didn’t want to live,” she said. “Because I didn’t have the guidance to help me [through] it.”

Robinson attempted suicide for the first time when she was in residential school at the age of 11.

“I was screaming for help,” she said. “But I didn’t have the words.”

Indigenous community groups and organizations across B.C. have outlined their concerns and frustrations about the new proposed travel restrictions in a letter addressed to B.C. Premier John Horgan.

On Monday, the province announced new travel restrictions prohibiting people from leaving their local health authority. The new order means that people could face a fine for non-essential travel, enforced through a roadside checkpoint program.

In January 2020, Robyn Samuel, youth navigator with Nuu-chah-nulth family and child services, found out she had fatty liver disease; a diagnosis that propelled her into a wellness journey that continues today.

According to WebMD, fatty liver disease occurs when someone has extra fat built up in their liver. Usually the first line of treatment for fatty liver disease is to lose weight, keep cholesterol down and exercise more.

The tide was out in the early morning as Genevieve Mack ran towards her grandmother who was carrying a burden basket loaded with wood.

While returning home on the east end of Vargas Island, they walked past a row of canoes that neatly lined Yaksis, otherwise known as a white-sandy beach.

All of the old growth on the surrounding mountains remained intact and there were no speedboats driving by or airplanes buzzing overhead.

“It was so peaceful,” she said. 

Now, when the 77-year-old travels from her home in Ahousaht past the island she feels “homesick.”

Nearly two kilometers of boardwalk and staircases are being replaced as Maaqutusiis Hahoulthee Stewardship Society prepare for an uncertain 2021 tourist season while the COVID-19 pandemic drags on.

According to John Caton, general manager of Maaqutusiis Hahoulthee Stewardship Society (MHSS), BC Parks awarded the $1 million capital project to MHSS in late 2020.

Ahousaht, through MHSS, has a contract with BC Parks to maintain and operate Maquinna Provincial Park in Hot Springs Cove.

It’s been more than a year since one of the two former day school buildings that stood on Ahousaht’s front beach was demolished. With the debris removed and the ground bulldozed, community members gathered on a sunny April 19 to let go of the painful memories of the Ahousaht Day School.

Nathan George was pleased to see some serious action being taken.

But George, the acting manager for the Mowachaht/Muchalaht First Nation fisheries department, believes much more still needs to be done to curtail illegal activity in the Nuu-chah-nulth First Nation.

George had mixed reactions following a press release issued last week that detailed information about three American residents who received fines, forfeitures and fees totaling more than $70,000 for an incident that dates back to September 2019.

In a decades-long legal battle to allow their people to pursue a livelihood on the water, five Nuu-chah-nulth nations are celebrating a decision from the B.C. Court of Appeal on fishing rights.

A remotely operated vehicle revisits a Nootka Sound shipwreck this week to probe for a permanent solution to an especially challenging oil spill.

Four months after an all-out spill response got underway, officials are counting on a two-week technical assessment in waters off Bligh Island to yield critical information on fuel still seeping from the 50-year-old sunken wreck of the freighter Schiedyk.

“It’s what we’ve been building up to for the last few months to really ascertain what is down there,” said Gillian Oliver, a Coast Guard incident commander.