Movable Feast Indigenous music and culture tour kicks off on Aug. 25 at the ‘Namgis Big House Field in ‘Yalis (Alert Bay) then on Wednesday, Aug. 28 the tour will barge all their equipment to Flores Island for performances in Ahousaht. Stop three and the last leg of the tour is on Aug. 31 in Toquaht Nation’s village of Macoah.

The Maggie Lake Forest Service Road (Toquaht Bay Road), located about 10-kilometres northwest of Ucluelet, and the Canal Main Forest Service Road (FSR), which runs for about 38-kilometres parallel to the Alberni Inlet south of Port Alberni, are getting upgrades.

Work includes widening and realigning the roads in multiple places, building new bridges to replace narrow ones and improving road surfacing, reads an Aug. 6 news release from the BC Ministry of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation (MIRR).  

Orange painted rocks line the main stretch of road in the heart of Huu-ay-aht First Nation (HFN) territory like memorials for every child that didn’t make it home.

HFN was a population of 2,800 in the late 1700s, but by 1881 the nation was decimated by a smallpox epidemic and colonization; parents were forced to send their children to Indian residential schools, it became illegal for HFN to sell fish and the Indian Act imposed rules that made it illegal to host cultural ceremonies like potlatches.

Campers at the Pachena Bay campground recently got a harsh lesson in how quickly the tide can change when they were stranded on the other side of the rising river.

On Aug. 17 during low tide the campers walked across the Pachena River, which runs from Panchena Bay and by the Huu-ay-aht village of Anacla. But as night fell Huu-ay-aht member Stella Peters said it became apparent an emergency was unfolding, as they hadn’t crossed back to the campground side of the river. The tide was rising, making the river too deep to cross.

It’s been an action-packed mid-August for the Alberni Valley Rescue Squad (AVRS).

On Friday, Aug. 16 hundreds packed Tseshaht’s Maht Mahs gymnasium to mark the passing of the First Nation’s eldest member.

At the age of 93 Cody Gus passed of natural causes on Aug. 7, still living on the property that had been in his family on the Tseshaht reserve for as long as he could remember. He was born March 16, 1931 to Gladys and George Gus on Nettle Island at the northern end of the Broken Group, which is recognized as the origin site of the Tseshaht.

Jenna Pearce, coordinator for the West Coast Community Resource Society’s (WCRS) Sexual Assault Response Program (SARP), hopes “more than anything” that survivors living in the Clayoquot region “feel seen and heard” when seeking new support services.

“I want them to feel safe,” she said. “And like they're not alone because they're not. There's so many people that are here for them and want to support them in whatever way that looks for them.”

When a wildfire broke out near Tseshaht’s main reserve on Aug. 6, elected Councillor Leisa Hassall says she could almost instantly smell the smoke.

“My house is actually 1.6 kilometres away,” said Hassall. “We have infrastructure that is close too, like the Maht Mahs (Gym), the NTC building and a few other buildings are all within less than two kilometres (of the fire).”

It is said that, “when the tide is out, the table is set.” Aquaculture is and has always been a lifeline for First Nations people. Sadly, climate change and environmental factors are threatening their safe, sustainable marine resources.

Albert Lara has always felt some sort of a connection with Indigenous peoples. As a boy he was drawn to totem poles. In his professional life he worked with Aboriginal organizations in California, and while with the California State Retirees he became chair of its Indigenous Peoples Committee.