At the height to Tofino’s tourism season, a large crowd gathered by the beach at Tin Wis on Aug. 27 to witness the raising of a totem pole. 

Standing 23 feet above the ground, the new totem accompanies another pole of equal height that was raised years ago in honour of former Indian residential school students. The Best Western Tin Wis Resort is owned by the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation, standing on the last location of the Christie Indian Residential School. 

Braving an intense August heat wave, British Columbia elders made the journey to Vancouver’s Canada Place overlooking the Burrard Inlet for the 49th Annual First Nations Elders Gathering on Aug. 26 and 27.

Spirits soared as the boom of traditional drumming filled the air for the Grand Entry, a parade of nations led by cultural hosts the Squamish Nation Elders (Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw Siiyúxwa).

Carl Edgar recalls a time, at the age of 14 or 15, when an epiphany came. He was on the southwestern edge of Vancouver Island, camping at Cheewaht, when his father’s friend Rob Archer delivered words at the campfire that would remain with Edgar for the rest of his life.

“He said, ‘Carl, if you can find out what people need, what people want, if you can do it, do it’,” recalls Edgar, who is now 70. “Here I am.”

More than 30 First Nations across Vancouver Island and coastal British Columbia are calling for sweeping changes to the Island Coastal Economic Trust (“the Trust”), saying the time has come for equal decision-making power in shaping the region’s economic future. 

Nuu-chah-nulth artists Dennis Hetu and Ivy Martin teamed up with the Clayoquot Biosphere Trust (CBT) on the west coast of Vancouver Island to bring traditional teachings to new welcome signage peppered throughout the region.

Installed near the Tofino-Ucluelet Junction, Hetu’s latest carving titled Eclipse of the Hunter’s Moon – a project he worked on with his students from the Toquaht Carving School – can be viewed from the multi-use path.

Power has returned to the Bamfield area and Nitinaht, but the road to the communities will remain closed longer than anticipated “due to unsafe conditions” caused by the Mount Underwood wildfire, says the province.

The effects of a wildfire have once again highlighted the insufficiency of relying on a series of logging roads that lead to remote communities on southwest Vancouver Island, says the Ditidaht First Nation.

Since Aug. 11 the road from Port Alberni that leads to Bamfield, Anacla and the Ditidaht First Nation village traditionally known as balaac̓adt at Nitinaht Lake has been closed, as crews battled the quickly spreading Mount Underwood forest fire. Now classified as “being held”, Mount Underwood is no longer growing, but life in balaac̓adt is still stressful.