Tleḥpik Hjalmer Wenstob, a recipient of the 2022 YVR Art Foundation Scholarship, has two steam-bent hinkeets masks on display at the Museum of Vancouver in their “Creation Stories: Carrying Our Traditions Forward” exhibit, which opened on June 19.
B.C.’s fish farms now have five years to get open net-pens out of the water – a federal directive that has evoked opposing reactions from coastal First Nations.
Since 2019 a deadline has loomed over the industry, when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau gave a mandate to have a plan by 2025 to transition away from the open-net pens that have long been the standard for finfish aquaculture. On June 19 it finally became clear where that plan will lead, as Fisheries and Oceans Canada announced that all open net pens will be banned in British Columbia waters as of June 30, 2029.
The Alberni Valley is now home to a new peer-facilitated bereavement group, held on the last Monday of each month, to support those who have lost a loved one to the toxic drug crisis.
Healing Hearts bereavement group, which is sponsored by an organization called Moms Stop The Harm, is facilitated by Maureen Therrien-McKinnon, who lost her son to the toxic drug crisis.
Large portions of forest in Clayoquot Sound will be protected this month, a development that the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation is calling a “major step” in the provincial government recognizing its Tribal Parks.
Today the province announced 76,000 hectares of conservancies in Clayoquot Sound. When these protected areas come into effect on June 26, they will comprise almost 60 per cent of what is currently under a forestry tenure tied to TFL 54, the only tree farm licence in Clayoquot Sound.
The Dock+, a thriving seafood hub in the heart of Nuu-chah-nulth territory, has secured roughly $4 million in funding to break ground on an exciting 3,000-square-foot expansion project that includes the integration of High Pressure Processing (HPP) technology.
A partnership between the Port Alberni Port Authority (PAPA), Nova Harvest Ltd. and Huu-ay-aht First Nations (HFN) Fisheries LP, the expansion project received a $2,995,786 grant from the B.C. Ministry of Agriculture and Food, with the three partners contributing a combined $1 million in equity to top the project off.
Volunteers headed up by a team from BC Marine Trails (BCMT) descended on Vargas Island for the third year in a row to collect trash that has either been left there or washed ashore.
According to Sam Cutcliffe, BCMT communications and stewardship coordinator, 12 Super Sacks of marine debris were collected over three days in late May.
In early April, BC Hydro issued a competitive call for power for projects that include, for the first time, 25 per cent First Nation equity. But projects must meet a requirement of 3,000 Gigawatt hours per year, creating a gap for many smaller-scale Indigenous energy initiatives.
“This call for power is 3,000 [GWh/year] you have to have a minimum of 40 megawatt producing power in your project,” said Judith Sayers, Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council president. “It's unlikely that any of the Nuu-chah-nulth nations have that large of a project.”
A group of Māori people have returned to Nuu-chah-nulth territory, in the first cultural exchange between the two Indigenous groups since the 1990s.
On Thursday, June 13 the visitors entered the Hupacasath House of Gathering in Port Alberni, calling out in their ancestral language. The 11 Māori were then treated to a series of performances by Nuu-chah-nulth groups, while a dinner of salmon was cooking outside on traditional cedar sticks over a fire.
With a few weeks left before British Columbia’s fish farm licences expire, the federal government remain tight lipped about the future of the industry.
All of the 85 finfish licences off the B.C. coast are due to expire on June 30, and renewals are being sought for 66 of the sites - most of which raise Atlantic salmon in the Pacific waters. With 52 of the active farms off the west coast of Vancouver Island, most of the sites are in Nuu-chah-nulth territory, evoking intensely divisive opinions from those who call the region their ancestral home.
On June 20, one day before National Indigenous Peoples Day, Ḥaa’yuups of Hupačasath will be sharing his knowledge of ‘Tlikuulth’s, also known as Sproat Lake, with a focus on petroglyphs and the progression of ceremonial curtains.
“I've been interested in painted screens, curtains, petroglyphs, [and] ceremony in a general sense since I was a boy,” shared Ḥaa’yuups. “I wanted to share some of what I've learned in over 50 years of studying.”