After a 7:30 a.m. push off from Long Beach on July 23, three Ahousaht canoes and one Hesquiaht canoe cruised into the Yuułuʔiłʔatḥ (Ucluelet First Nation) community of Hitacu around 1 p.m.

On their way to Hitacu Hesquiaht skipper Vince Ambrose said his crew of mostly women hugged the shoreline while the other Ahousaht canoes went offshore.

“It was easy pulling. There was no wind. The ocean was pretty calm,” said Ambrose on day four of a 12-day canoe journey.

Losing her father in early 2022, Amanda Large thought the grieving process was behind her - until disturbing news came from the BC Coroners Service last year. 

Philip Peter Billy’s brain had been misplaced, and was sitting in the back of a fridge at Victoria’s Royal Jubilee Hospital until it was found more than two years after his death, according to correspondence Large had with the Coroners Service.

There’s a lull on Saturday morning and Ben Howells finds himself with time to be loquacious. 

He’s relaxed after the game of “human Tetris” his crew played to negotiate over 700 festivalgoers plus roughly 150 volunteers into Huu-ay-aht’s Pachena Bay Campground was completed early Friday evening. 

Moreover, he shared that whales swam into the bay on Thursday afternoon during his own DJ performance, which stirred a feeling of significance. 

In the early morning of Sunday, July 20, a Canadian crew of mostly Indigenous women will push off from the shores of Hesquiaht Harbour, marking the start of their roughly 350-kilometre Paddle to Elwha 2025 Canoe Journey.

Navigating the highway of their ancestors, the Hesquiaht First Nation’s crew of eight expects to land on the shores of the Elwha Klallam Tribe on the north coast of the Olympic Peninsula in Washington, U.S.A. on July 31. 

The economic arm of a Nuu-chah-nulth First Nation is now calling the shots at its headquarters.

That’s because Tiičma Enterprises recently purchased the Campbell River building which had been serving as the home for the group of businesses as well as the administrative offices of the Ka:'yu:'k't'h'/Che:k'tles7et'h' First Nations (KCFN).

Tiičma Enterprises owns a number of businesses in various industries including forestry, fisheries, aquaculture, hospitality, tourism, property management and management services.

People living in the west Vancouver Island communities of Toquaht Nation and Salmon Beach will soon be getting better access to high-speed internet.

The BC Government announced on July 11 that it would invest up to $700,000 through the Connecting Communities B.C. program, administered by the Ministry of Citizens' Services. The Government of Canada is also investing up to $700,000 through its Universal Broadband Fund. CityWest will contribute approximately $835,000.

Some West Coasters say it reminds them of herring spawn. Others say it mirrors the milky blue of glacial waters or the warm palette of a tropical lagoon. 

The phenomenon taking place off the coast of Vancouver Island is called a coccolithophore bloom, and according to researchers at Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) Institute of Ocean Sciences in Sidney, B.C., it’s happening more frequently since the heatwaves and El Nino events that started in 2015.

Pollution from the Gold River Pulp Mill continues to effect Muchalaht Inlet a quarter century after the closure of the facility – but the degree that marine life is contaminated remains to be determined.

The seeds of an idea that was once planned to become a Nuu-chah-nulth cultural centre have been returned to the tribal council, two and a half years after the passing of the project’s famous designer. 

Three young, adult male black bears were executed by B.C. conservation officers this week in the Ucluelet area to ensure public safety. 

One of the black bears was killed on Wednesday, July 9 after multiple reports of over several days of the animal accessing garbage and non-natural food from a campground, including accounts of the bear breaking into tents to access food, according to BC Conservation Officer Service (COS).