A pair of carved wooden masks that have been sitting in storage at a California university have finally returned home. A small delegation from Yuułuʔitʔatḥ (Ucluelet First Nation) arrived at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) on May 20 to pick up the precious cargo.

It was in April 2024 when Ha-Shilth-Sa Newspaper shared the story of the masks and UCSF’s desire to return the items, amongst others, to original owners where they can be identified. 

Yarrow, also known as bloodwort, soldier’s wort or +astpapt, is a native plant that has been used by nearly every culture in the world for medicinal purposes. It’s been used for so long is there is no exact record or its origins, with some traditions dating back to ancient times. 

Just over six months after 53-year-old Darlene Smith was critically injured after being run over by a vehicle while sleeping in a tent, a Campbell River woman has been charged with multiple offences related to the shocking incident.

It was just after midnight on November 10, 2024, when a vehicle came racing through a quiet downtown alley in Campbell River. It is a place where some of the area’s unhoused set up tents when they can’t find space in a shelter, and that is just what Smith was doing. 

For mułaa (pronounced mu-thla) Rising Tide Surf Team, the love of surfing runs in tandem with learning how to say surfing – and all the surf words – in Nuu-chah-nulth language. 

Anyone can come along for the ride too; mułaa worked with Gisele Martin at the Tla-o-qui-aht Language Department and Samantha Touchie from Yuułuʔiłʔatḥ Government to create a surf map that showcases the traditional names of surf breaks from načiks (Tofino) to Ucluelet. 

“Reconciliation in B.C. is having a near-death experience,” says a First Nation leader after the Legislative Assembly passed two bills this week designed to fast-track projects.

Thick hair hanging in a dark cloak to cover his boyish face, young Darryl McCarthy crouches on the forest floor over a pile of wood shavings. For several minutes he’s been scraping pieces of steel together, patiently trying to arouse fire from the sparks. Next to him sits ƛuupin, a boy of similar age, tapping a knife edge with wood, driving it down the grain of cedar pieces to feed the fire they hope will soon appear. Wearing a camouflage cap, Jordan Touchie comes with a cup full of wood shavings, silently helping the younger boy to produce the necessary eruption of sparks.

There is a heart fence in Port Alberni that memorializes some of the loved ones who have died due to the illicit drug supply in the past few years. The Heart Project features brightly coloured wooden hearts hanging from a chain-link fence at Dry Creek Park off of 4th Avenue. 

The provincial government announced a $45 million investment in new funding for preserving Indigenous languages in its Budget 2025. Spread over three years, the new funding would go to the First People’s Cultural Council (FPCC) to support Indigenous language preservation and revitalization work.

In a written statement, the province said this investment nearly doubles its past annual allotment to First Nations-led language programming. 

The FPCC says this is the first time it has received a long-term funding commitment for programs from the province. 

Opposition is growing against legislation set for a final vote this week in Victoria, a bill that appears to give the province power to override the authority of municipalities and First Nations if a development is “designated as provincially significant”.

Bill 15, the Infrastructure Projects Act, was introduced in the legislature on May 1 with the aim of speeding up approvals for large developments in British Columbia, eliminating “unnecessary and costly delays,” said Premier David Eby. 

Small town whispers about an orca swimming into a fish farm near Tofino are true.

On the morning of Feb. 18, 2025 a killer whale swam into the infrastructure at Creative Salmon’s Baxter Islets facility in Clayoquot Sound, states a May 23 email statement from Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO). 

“The animal safely swam back out shortly after on the same day,” said the department, which is responsible for the conservation and protection of marine mammal species in Canadian waters, as well as managing licences for aquaculture operations in B.C.