Elected Huu-ay-aht Chief John Jack is praising two citizens for keeping a fast-moving trailer fire from spreading to a neighboring residential home.

On the weekend of April 19 to 22nd, Jack said several fires were set in areas around lower Anacla village by someone believed to have been suffering from mental health distress.

“There was a total of six fires but there was one big one in an RV (recreational vehicle) in the lower village,” Jack told Ha-Shilth-Sa.

“The rules are not enforced uniformly, our people are over-policed, and the federal government is pouring plenty of resources into enforcement of their policies,” said Dr. Andrea Reid.

Reid is a co-founder of the Fish Outlaws project. Funded by the National Geographic Society, the project explores the history of criminalization of Indigenous fishers in the Salish Sea Bioregion and how destructive colonial fisheries management and environmental practices have compromised First Nation’s fishing rights and community well-being

A new research project is underway in the Comox to Deep Bay region that strives to pinpoint the source of fecal pollution in marine waters used for shellfish harvesting.

Current surveillance methods in B.C. can only detect the presence of fecal bacteria in the water, but not the source — human or animal.

Andrew Sheriff, fisheries program lead at Malahat Nation, highlights the significance of shellfish to Coastal First Nations.

“They are local, healthy and available year-round and have deep cultural ties both historically and today,” he wrote in an email.

The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) has reached out to the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council executive in an effort to identify the origins of two carved masks in their collection.

At least one of the masks may have come from a Nuu-chah-nulth grave. Under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act the university is required to return the items once identified.

It’s been just over two years since the Royal BC Museum closed its third-floor galleries to the public so that it could begin the process of decolonization of the exhibits. The floor is home to the First People’s Gallery, the Our Living Languages – First People’s Gallery and Becoming B.C., also known as the Old Town Gallery.

The Nuchatlaht are celebrating a victory amid a recent court decision recognizing Aboriginal title over a portion of its traditional territory, although it appears the small First Nation’s legal fight to gain authority over the whole claim area is far from over.

This spring Mowachaht/Muchalaht First Nation (MMFN) will be opening the doors of their new hotel, Baymont by Wyndam, previously known as the Gold River Chalet, alongside new tourism information services aiming to bring more visitors to the region.

Gold River Chalet closed its doors in April of 2023, according to the hotel manager Rohinton (Roy) Kharadi. Over the last year the building underwent “complete renovations,” he noted.

“Total wow,” said Kharadi, when asked what past hotel visitors can expect with new renovations. 

In early April the provincial government introduced legislative amendments to the B.C. Land Title and Property Law Act, that, if passed, will remove barriers for First Nation bands to acquire, hold and register land.

“Many people in Canada do not know that First Nations could not own land in the province of British Columbia,” said Hugh Braker of the First Nations Summit. “Many people don’t know that in British Columbia, other provinces and in the federal system there are still laws that discriminate against Indigenous people that are founded in racism.”

The team overseeing the rescue of a stranded killer whale is rethinking its strategy, after previous attempts have not managed to move the young orca from a lagoon near Zeballos.

A change in federal funding parameters is causing the end of the Nuu-chah-nulth Education Worker program after 36 years of operating, forcing school districts to adapt to stay on track with their Indigenous students.