On Nov. 16, Tseshaht First Nation and the federal government announced $2.7 million in funding to continue work locating and commemorating missing children who attended Alberni Indian Residential School (AIRS), with a total investment that now amounts to over $3.2 million.
In early October, Clayoquot Action organized a showing of a new documentary, Mi’ma’omakw: People of the Salmon, showcasing the phase-out process of 17 fish farms in the Broughton Archipelago, followed by a panel discussion.
The Tin Wis conference center was filled with people from coastal communities to discuss fish farms, including members of the Ahousaht, Tla-o-qui-aht and Hesquiaht First Nations.
On Nov. 9, Clayoquot Biosphere Trust 2023 vital signs report was launched, revealing an over five-dollar increase in the living wage for Vancouver Island’s west coast communities.
The living wage grew to $26.51 per hour, while in 2021 it was $21.25.
According to Living Wage BC stats, Clayoquot Sound’s living wage is the highest in the province.
“The rising cost of food, shelter, and transportation were the most significant contributors to the increase in the living wage,” said Rebecca Hurwitz, executive director of CBT.
In an effort to rekindle a sport that for over a generation packed Maht Mahs with a particularly intense style of ball hockey, a tournament was held at the Tseshaht gym for the first time in four years.
Celebrating 30 years since the team was founded, the Thunder hosted a ball hockey tournament on the First Nation’s reserve Nov. 11. The competition attracted seven teams, with players coming from as far as Port Hardy, Ladysmith and Ahousaht.
The Province of B.C. is making systemic changes to improve outcomes for Indigenous students from kindergarten to Grade 12.
Indigenous people will soon have more input into the decisions and processes affecting the education of Aboriginal children and youth in B.C. public schools.
The newly expanded WCGH emergency department, complete with its own entrance, is now complete.
While the renovated department has been operating for several months, the $6.95 million expansion completion was celebrated by Island Health at a ribbon cutting ceremony held Nov. 10, 2023, at the main hospital entrance.
The latest WCGH opened in 2001 with 52 in-patient beds. According to Island Health, the emergency department saw 25, 715 patient visits in 2022. WCGH serves Port Alberni and surrounding west coast communities from Hot Springs Cove, Ahousaht, Tofino and Ucluelet.
In the wake of a silver medal win at the 2023 Pan American Games, Tseshaht member Shalaya Valenzuela and the rest of the Canadian women’s rugby sevens team is gearing up for another elite competition in Dubai and Cape Town this December.
Valenzuela, who grew up in Abbotsford and has family in Port Alberni, said that although her team didn’t take top spot at the Pan Am games, held in Santiago, Chile on Nov. 3 and 4, they were more than happy with making the podium with a second-place win.
From 1988 to 1992, Lorraine Mundy of Yuułuʔiłʔatḥ served in the U.S. navy as an electrician.
It was after high school when she went to visit her aunt in Los Angeles who was married to a U.S. navy sailor and who was neighbors with a naval recruiter. Mundy’s aunt told the recruiter of the young woman's interest in joining the navy.
“Ever since I was 16 I just wanted to get off the reserve and go do something,” she said, adding that at the time she didn’t feel like college was for her.
On Oct. 30 Canada’s Ministry of Environment and Climate Change sent a letter to Eric Angel, project manager for the Mowachaht/Muchalaht First Nation’s Salmon Parks initiative. This confirmed over $15 million in funding for the project, payable up to March 31, 2026.
Nine Nuu-chah-nulth people were joined by family and friends as they celebrated the completion of their Heavy Equipment Operator Program. The celebration was held at Port Alberni’s Lawn Bowling Club on November 9, 2023.