It’s the final countdown to the 64th annual All Native Basketball Tournament in Prince Rupert, B.C. on Feb. 11 to Feb. 18, and three Nuu-chah-nulth teams are fired up to take to the court this year.

Ahousaht is sending the Kakawin Cheelth, an intermediate boys team coached by Devin Robinson, and the Maaqtusiis Ravens senior women’s squad managed by Courtenay Louie. The mighty Hesquiaht Descendants women’s team, captained by Mariah Charleson, will also vie to best their sixth-place finish from 2023.

The new year started off making a mark in history when Lily Gladstone, who grew up on the Blackfeet reservation, became the first Indigenous woman to win a Golden Globe as Best Female Actor in a Drama for her performance in Killers of the Flower Moon.

“We all cried,” recalled Chad Charlie, an Ahousaht writer and producer, who was watching the Golden Globes with his fiancée and daughter. “We all cried because it's a historic moment.”

With the hope of reversing the effects of a “broken system” that has resulted in a growing wave of incarcerations for B.C.’s Indigenous people, two justice centres will soon be opening on Vancouver Island.

Vancouver Island’s snow pack is extremely low, averaging just 39 per cent of normal as of Jan. 1, but hydrologists with the River Forecast Centre (RFC) say there’s still lots of time in the season for conditions to improve.

The provincial snow pack is also low, averaging 56 per cent of normal across British Columbia, according to a snow survey and water bulletin by the RFC. Last year, the provincial average was 82 per cent on Jan. 1 and 62 per cent for Vancouver Island.

“There’s lots of Indigenous restaurants but none really capture the west coast,” says Kuu-us Café’s head chef Brandy Robinson.

Kuu-us Café & Gifts opened to the public on Jan. 15 in Port Alberni, offering up a menu filled with fish and game meats typical of a traditional Nuu-chah-nulth diet.

“We want to showcase west coast Indigenous food,” Robinson told Ha-Shilth-Sa. “So, we feature seafood, natural meats instead of just bannock tacos.”

A young college graduate answers an ad in the Alberni Valley Times. The West Coast District Council, an early incarnation of the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council, was launching a newspaper and needed staff.

“As I recall, the ad stated that they were looking for a reporter to start a monthly newspaper to serve the people of the 13 west coast tribes,” said Jan Broadland, one of Ha-Shilth-Sa’s first reporters.

It was late 1973 when Jan and her husband, Ken, began looking for work after the couple moved to Port Alberni from Duncan.

The Alberni District Secondary’s Sr Girls basketball team placed second to Pacific Christian School (PCS) 41-73 at Totem 68 after a fast-paced game of battling up and down the court, using their sense of teamwork and communication to their advantage.

“I was hoping we were [going to] get to this spot,” said Hayleigh Watts of Tseshaht, before going on court for her final game on Saturday, Jan. 13.

Going into the game Watts, who was awarded All Star for Totem 68 alongside her teammate Ella McDougal, knew it would be tough playing PCS.

The whole gymnasium of Alberni District Secondary School (ADSS) was filled shoulder to shoulder erupting in cheer as ADSS Sr Boys Basketball team fought for third place in Totem 68. Both teams played as though every second counted, battling to the very last, but ADSS stole the win 76-71 against Ballenas.

Vancouver Island is facing record-setting freezing temperatures, raising concerns for the safety of the homeless population.

On Thursday, Jan. 11, the first night of the cold snap, bone chilling temperatures began dropping before sunset. By 7 p.m. Port Alberni’s warming centres were offering hot drinks and a place to get out of the bitter cold, but people were still milling around on the streets with the temperature at minus 3 C. By morning, the temperature dropped to minus 10 C with wind chill factoring in at minus 19 C, according to local weather reports.