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.”

Concerns are re-emerging among Nuu-chah-nulth leaders about the presence of Métis amid the assertion of Indigenous rights in British Columbia.

The issue came up during a recent Council of Ha’wiih Forum on Fisheries, which was hosted by the Tseshaht First Nation in Port Alberni June 4 and 5. During the meetings Tseshaht member Hugh Braker, who serves on the First Nations Summit Political Executive, encouraged Nuu-chah-nulth nations to sign a letter to the federal government that clarifies their rights to territorial resources.

On May 31, the notorious serial killer who preyed on the vulnerable women of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside (DTES), Robert Pickton, took his last breath.

Convicted of six counts of second-degree murder, he received the maximum sentence under Canadian law.

Pickton murdered Sereena Abotsway, Mona Wilson, Andrea Joesbury, Marnie Frey, Georgina Papin, and Brenda Wolfe. But the names of his victims were many more than these six. Pickton was charged with 26 counts of murder, while 20 were stayed. 

It has been more than a month since the last confirmed sighting of the orphaned orca kʷisaḥiʔiis (Brave Little Hunter), but hope remains strong that the two-year-old Bigg’s killer whale is heading toward her family pod.

It was on March 23 when catastrophe struck for the young killer whale. That was the day kʷiisaḥiʔis and her mother, known as Spong, entered a shallow lagoon near Zeballos, likely hunting seals. Spong stranded in the shallow waters and drowned when the tide rose.

Management measures by the federal government have been announced to protect southern resident killer whales who face imminent threats to their survival and recovery.

According to the Government of Canada, protecting the whales, that have important cultural significance for Indigenous peoples and coastal communities in British Columbia, requires comprehensive and immediate action.

The three primary threats to the remaining 74 southern resident killer whales are reduced prey availability and accessibility, acoustic and physical disturbance and contaminants.