Students of Haahuupayak elementary school shared songs and dances around the fire of Tseshaht’s longhouse, expressing gratitude for at least $1,500 in donations received for their Grade 7 graduation. 

Haahuupayak elementary’s class of 2024 is the largest Lena Ross, the school’s intermediate Nuu-chah-nulth studies teacher, has seen. A total of 26 Grade 7 students will move on to the Alberni District Secondary School (ADSS).

The leadership of Ahousaht and Tla-o-qui-aht First Nations have reached tentative land use agreements with the provincial government, which set out both conservation areas and industrial forestry sections in Clayoquot Sound. The province is now entering a public consultation process that began March 12 and is expected to wrap up April 10.

The province, the B.C. Ministry of Forests, Ahousaht and the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nations are proposing to establish 77,000 hectares of new conservancies under the Park Act.

Tla-o-qui-aht’s Hannah Frank takes on the role of Mary Robins in Scenes from the Nanaimo Indian Hospital, a play which marks a “confluence” of Nuu-chah-nulth, Hul’q’umin’um’ and Kwak’wala languages as the audience follows a friendship between three girls in attendance at the hospital.

“To represent Nuu-chah-nulth is to show that we're still here,” said Frank, who is a Grade 11 student at Shawnigan Lake School. “The schools or the hospitals didn't take us away.”

After nearly three years of planning and preparation, Ahousaht will soon release the results of their searches of the grounds around two Indian residential schools that were located within its territories.

The Uchucklesaht Tribe is celebrating 10 years of being a voting member on the ACRD, looking back on a decade marking a shift towards First Nations gaining a larger voice in regional governance.

The First Nation was recognized by the Alberni-Clayoquot Regional District on March 6, before a scheduled board meeting. The ACRD was the first regional district to make First Nations full voting members when the Huu-ay-aht and Yuułuʔiłʔatḥ joined April 1, 2012, followed by the Uchucklesaht on Feb. 1, 2014 and the Toquaht in 2016.

Nuu-chah-hulth youth are getting ready to shine at the Junior All-Native Basketball Tournament (JANT) March 17 to 22 in Terrace, B.C.

Hosted by Nisga'a Nation, the youth basketball tournament will showcase 88 teams and 1,400 Indigenous athletes from all over the province. Mike Davis, JANT committee manager and member of Nisga’a, says the tournament is spread out over six facilities.

On Friday afternoon of March 8th Tseshaht First Nation had a grand re-opening of their newly renovated cultural centre on Watty’s Road. Members came for tours of the building on the First Nation’s reserve by Port Alberni and were served a lunch of sandwiches and wraps with tea, coffee and juice.

Originally built in 1974 the cultural centre underwent a lengthy overhaul to repair almost all facets of the building.

Tourism Tofino has become a Biosphere Committed Destination with the Responsible Tourism Institute and will now pursue Tourism Biosphere Certification.

The Responsible Tourism Institute’s (RTI) Biosphere Program is a globally recognized sustainability management and certification system that aligns with the United Nations’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Ahousaht Tyee Ha'wilth Maquinna (Lewis George) and grandson Jaiden George are preserving the history and knowledge of their people by video recording extensive interviews with elders.

In early spring 2023 they launched the project with elder Harold Little and have since sat down with 15 others. They have about eight more Ahousaht elders left to go on record with, offering up priceless “Haahuupa” (continuous teaching with care) about Ahousaht culture, history, and the region.

The youth of the Alberni-Clayoquot region will soon reap the benefit of a Foundry Centre, a hub service space that aims to increase access to health care, mental health, sexual health, and substance use services for youth ages 12 to 24.

With an award of $1.5 million, Port Alberni will join 25 communities throughout the province who have or are developing a centre in support of their youth, reads a press release.