The first discovery Cook made on Vancouver Island was slavery

. . . there is no evidence of cannibalism

That's right, Canada. You say you were never a slave nation. You're a liar.  You were an active slave nation well into the 1900s. That's a fact.

This is what set me on course to square the facts.  I object to calling the arrival of Europeans in North America an act of 'colonial dispossession.' when the act of arriving turned into saving a lot of people from their worst nightmare. The facts don't exactly agree with the existing narrative. 

Aren't Indigenous freed from a form of entrapment? Shouldn't there be a celebration or at least a sense of gratitude for the changes wrought by newcomers? After all, there is only so much to celebrate about being Indigenous before Europeans arrived.

A completely overlooked fact was what Captain James Cook discovered when he landed in Nuu Chah Nulth Nation on the west side of present day Vancouver Island, Canada, which he did in 1778. 

 (It's ironic that Cook would next discover cannibalism when he was eaten in Hawaii, not all of him, just the parts the Hawaiians removed. I grant you there are revisionists disputing whether the purloined parts were eaten.)

Cook discovered slavery in the land to become known as Canada. Hard core slave economics were underway across the entirety of North America, formidably underway, and I say this because I hear a lot about how dreadful colonizers were to form Canada  and one presumes their descendants are equally wretched. 

Now of descendants of Indigenous people, we hear a different story, the modern narrative ignores the wretchedness of slavery. Today we hear the coastal nations were hapless victims of a heartless juggernaut rolling over and stopping them in their tracks. 

Stopping them from conducting slavery.

The reality is the British didn't get around to banning slavery until 1833, building up to the ban starting in 1807: "Great Britain banned the slave trade in 1807 with the Slave Trade Act, which prohibited the buying and selling of slaves within the British Empire. Slavery itself was abolished in most of the British Empire with the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833, which came into effect on August 1, 1834. This act freed enslaved people in the colonies, with some exceptions like Ceylon and India, where slavery continued until later. Full emancipation, including transitional arrangements, was completed by 1838 for most territories."

I wrote to the historian, as a response on X:

Hi, Historian! and this was what I said:

Do you have a copy of the Indigenous constitution, Historian, declaring which tribes make the best slaves? How long are slaves supposed to be enslaved before they are executed in the territories under the slave masters authority? Any idea of the menu this week in the Big House? Are we cooking neighboring tribes? Or are we settling for leftovers?

The fact is, the Potlatch was eventually outlawed on the west coast because they learned the purpose of this cadastre of art, imagery, and boundary was to record, and a keep record of accounting for the slave-based economy, therefore burning the art, the paintings, the masks, the carvings, the totem poles meant freeing vassals from bondage.

The design and contents of the drumming, dancing, whistling, snotting, singing (chanting) pointed to who was a slave. The potlatch, with masks, and totems, and welcome poles, and imagery in all pointed to the slave trade, which composed up to 40 percent of a village in some cases, and was a major part of the economy on the west coast from Alaska to Oregon, recorded details of ownership in the Potlatch and Hamatsa artist renderings, which made a legal statement everywhere they went in this civilization. 

Hamatsa society, the Cannibal Society as it is sometimes called, kept the slave economy functioning. It was their surveillance and authority keeping this economy alive, in a sense, they were a functional equivalent to lawyers under the Magna Carta, and it was Hamatsa recordings in these images, which, to repeat, they composed as the artifice, statements of the cadastre, the legal binding of what kept  slaves in place and doing what they were told.

In fact, this slavery was a functional system until  the 1900's, some of it operating in secret. But by then the decimation of population by disease had radically altered the demographics of these nations. 

Needless to say, without intervention, without British law changing for everyone in the British Empire, the slave economy would still be conducted in B.C., obviously, as slavery was the main economic tenet of their lawfully derived society.

Perhaps, in some instances, after a small-pox epidemic swept through a valley or a bayside on this serpentine coastline, the only ones left standing were slaves. I presume this was a liberation if ever there was one. Who knows?

Here's a conclusion drawn by Grok xAI:  The evidence for slavery in the Northwest Coast Potlatch economy is robust, extending beyond anecdotal accounts to include ethnographic studies, historical records, and archaeological inferences. Scholars like Leland Donald provide detailed analyses, supported by primary sources such as fur traders’ journals and Indigenous oral histories, showing that slaves were integral to labor, exchange, and ritual within the potlatch system. While the practice was complex and varied by tribe, it was a key component of the region’s pre-colonial economy and social structure, with slavery’s decline tied to colonial interventions and demographic collapse.

There is no evidence of cannibalism.

Mid-afternoon visit from a woodpecker

Goodbye My Friend Beau Dick

 We will treasure your art and I will treasure my memories of your great spirit.

One of the top contemporary Indigenous artists in the world, Beau Dick, famous Aboriginal artists, collectors, and others recognize his renown for representation of ancient Indigenous art, has passed away in 2017 on Canada's west coast.

This generous spirit was

Born: November 23, 1955, Kingcome Inlet, B.C.
Died: March 27, 2017, Vancouver, B.C.

I came upon this fellow Beau Dick in a place where people are steeped in stories of soul travel and soul capture, and witchcraft, and that is the old way, they say, which just so happens to be relatively preserved one ferry ride beyond 'the last outpost.' At times, to my way of thinking, "it's the only way."  Even with all this goodness to draw upon, the majority wear the yoke of modernity around their neck, so they eschew their own medicine, but Beau Dick was a man who set himself apart from modern beliefs.Beau Dick, Indigenous artist of the North West Pacific Coast tradition, was a leading proponent of the collective experience when it comes to builders and artisans cooperating on big projects. Beau saw a shared burden strongly reflecting the traditional life of Indigenous communities of the North West Pacific Coast. 

"The time-line in the experience is all shared," he explained, about working on cultural projects. Beau was a man with strong connections to the coastal past, born in 1955 and raised in Kingcome Inlet, B.C. (an inlet flowing deep into the mainland coast) there to grow up with a lot of culturally-grounded individuals.

Beau lived his first few years surrounded by extended family including Elders, uncles and aunts, and others who maintained the society of Big House Potlatch culture. They lived in personal contact with pristine surroundings of Kingcome Inlet, rooted in history, sustained by hard work and preserving a once-thriving culture by manufacturing various arts and crafts. 

Beau's early years were spent fully immersed in Kwakwala, the language of the nation. Beau sat amongst carvers, father, grandfather, and uncles, and listened to histories, legends, laws, jurisdiction, in Kwakwala, and learned the way things came to pass. Beau became vigilant about maintaining and passing along that knowledge for the rest of his life.

Beau was still young when the family took him to Vancouver to get serious book learning. He described a culture shock that lasted for a few adolescent years. Upon return to the Pacific North West the family was separated from Kingcome Inlet and Beau settled in Alert Bay, B.C., on Cormorant Island. His early life lessons began to percolate. 

Beau was a hereditary chief in the Kwakwaka’wakw society called Homatsa. It is the warrior society in coastal clans holding jurisdiction in this part of the world.

In 2009, Beau was at a culture camp on Yukusem (Hanson Island), a semi-remote site 15 km south of Alert Bay accessed by boat. It was an informal project supported by a lot of volunteers from the beginning of July through the month of August that year.

The island’s other occupants include the year-round Cultrally Modified Tree anthropology study area in the island's heights occupied by David Garrick. Also, Orcalab whale research station occupies the south-east corner; and a logging license is held over 70 hectares on the north east side around Dong Chong Bay. 

International kayak tours stopped beside the Yukusem culture camp at a lightly used campground to breath in the surroundings of Deep Bay. By the time tourist season arrived the Yukusem Culture Camp was in full bloom offering lessons to adventurous world travellers.

The culture camp on Yukusem was the brainchild of Beau Dick and the product of many hands. "It's a lot of teaching, cajoling, and inspiring, and convincing people the way forward is found by going through phases of knowing the past," explained Beau, willing and able to describe his extraordinary connections to the coastal past. Beau had worked with carvers of international reknown over the course of his life, Bill Reid included. 

Beau became a world-recognized carver of the Kwakwaka'wakw tradition and had the right to carve a Haida coat of arms and other styles because of his bloodlines from Tongass, Alaska. His great-grandmother was a high-ranking hereditary chief of the Tlingit and married a Hudson's Bay Factor who took her to Port Rupert, north end of Vancouver Island.

Oolican is an important fish to Indigenous people of the Pacific North West, a fish people use for many purposes, dietary and often healing. The oil is something they call 'gweena' and those of coastal bloodlines often have a bottle of oolican grease. "My grandmother inherited the right to first harvest of the oolican up Kingcome Inlet," said Beau, one balmy afternoon in the centre of the culture camp on Yukusem. "My great grandfather had inherited the right to 'first fish' from this river because his great grandfather brought the oolican to Kingcome Inlet." 

Brought the oolican to Kingcome Inlet? Beau's ancestor took two canoes out to sea and paddled to Bella Coola. Once there he obtained oolican fry and eggs which he carried in his second canoe and returned south (and east up the distinctively remote Kingcome Inlet) to seed the river with oolican. That gave family rights to the first fruits in perpetuity, a valuable asset. The claim is recognized in a large copper in Beau's possession as the physical testament.

Beau recounted stories passed down generations in relation to first contact with Europeans on the Pacific North West coast. One of these stories described the fate of the first domesticated cat, another, the chiefs reaction to the rum custom of the British Navy.

The Spanish sailed up the Pacific North West coast and explored the islands and archipelago as early as the mid-1500s. But the domestic cat made its first appearance at a Kwakwaka’wakw ville in the Pacific North West in the mid-1700s when the Spanish landed inside the Kwakwaka'wakw nation to begin conducting business.

This Kwakwaka'wakw nation of houses, clans, and villages occupies the mainland, several archipelago islands, and the top of Vancouver Island on both sides. When the Spanish sailed up to one of the well-populated villes they were immediately visited by the chief who greeted the ship’s captain with a cordial welcome to the Kwakwaka'wakw nation. At this first meeting the chief saw a cat capering onboard the Spanish ship.

The Kwakwaka'wakw chief was enthralled with the creature and the animal was brought before the chief for closer inspection. After playing with the cat the chief believed he had received possession of it.

Beau ascribes the captain’s devotion to his pet as enormous, and the captain of the Spanish ship refused to relinquish the cat. A couple of intrigues later, and the Kwakwaka'wakw chief was in full possession of the cat.

The infuriated captain of the Spanish ship soon unleashed a furious cannonade on the shore at the Kwakwaka’wakw community blowing apart war-canoes parked on the beach in front of the bighouses. Canoes were never in short supply in a Kwakwaka'wakw community and a few minutes later a flotilla coursed toward the Spanish ship.

The Kwakwaka'wakw surrounded the Spanish ship and returned the cannon balls. They demanded the Spanish perform this excellent feat again. They were not, however, returning the cat.

The Spanish sailed away and left the chief in possession of the curious animal and he announced a special event to be held in his bighouse. Soon a gathering of chiefs and clan members was assembled and the stage was set to unveil the cat.

The chief reached into a large cedar basket and grabbed the terrified cat and threw it some distance against a wooden post where it stuck. Everybody oh'd and ah'd while the cat did a couple of frantic loops and took off never to be seen again.

The Spanish spent a number of years exploring and mapping the Kwakwaka'wakw nation, said Beau. They left the territory with a legacy of sketches of people, villages, ship’s log entries, and a few Spanish place-names.

Soon the Spanish were usurped by the British who brought something other than a cat. Beau said the British Navy began snooping around the territory occasionally gunning the Spaniards out of the region and often stopping at houses of the chiefs of Kwakwaka'wakw communities.

The British had a custom of ending each occasion with the protocol of a shot of rum. At first the chiefs were kind of 'taken' but not all were happy with the custom and some were offended by the British insistence at imposing the bitter tasting liquid on these special occasions. Indeed a large argument ensued among the chiefs about whether to allow the British to stay. The argument that prevailed was, "Ah, let them stay. What harm can it do?" 

"Lineage is the most important part of our social structure," explained Beau. On Yukusem, conversation was supported by a chorus of nature, birds, crickets, frogs. "Talk about jurisdiction, I can describe the great divide. The Hudson's Bay Company conducted a slaughter of Haida people in the mid-1800s with poisoned blankets at the same time as the upper classes of England were amusing themselves by eating mummies," the remains of dead Egyptians.

The efforts of ‘blanket merchants’ failed to kill off the coastal people and small pockets of culture and Potlatch law continued to exist in tiny enclaves like Kingcome Inlet. By the 1930s the Kwakwaka’wakw were repeatedly jailed for Potlatches in hidden Big House societies, "My people were real rebellious. The Kwakwaka’wakw were tenacious about keeping their ways alive."

The rebellion would take dramatic form at times, for instance, when Beau's uncle Jimmy Dawson raised a totem pole for King George V, "as a celebration of the king’s coronation. And at the time of the event, the question was simple, What are the authorities going to do about that? Nothing. There was nothing they could do."

Beau credits his forefathers for being adept at the art of deception and using double entendre to send a message, "The pole stands beside the Anglican Church in Alert Bay today," he said, "along with the commemoration plaque for the English king."

Those days and weeks spent with Beau at Yukusem were highly instructive. I had visited the area before, and left and did not return for a few years. When I did, I found myself living like Bakwis, wildman of the woods, and perhaps I had become one of those. I stayed with a politically astute fellow named George, on Atli Road. Atli means bush or forest. George explained how the community exists under a communications embargo, what George called 'Coercion by economic sanction.' 

I stayed a few nights with George, which dragged into a couple of weeks but repeated visitations by a few party animals wore me down. That's when I took another refuge with Beau Dick, in his house/carving studio/classroom/crossroads on the beach. Instead of night owls and other faeries, I hung around artisans and culture mavins. They continue to carve a language that says a couple of things to God in statements that have no meaning to anybody but Him anymore. So the statements are not exactly meaningless, but who knows the mind of God?

Well, there is one fellow out in the territory possessing some deep insight. The study of Culturally Modified Trees (CMTs) is the study of human beings organized around rainforest resources. What David Garrick, anthropologist, uncovered on Hanson Island (Yukusem) is the "transgenerational" management of forests by Indigenous people at the northern entrance to the Inside Passage. 

This transgenerational management of forests was comprised of a complex arrangement of separate preserves under jurisdiction managed to both maximize and distribute essential resources. Social groups conducted specialized horticulture within groves of cedar on Yukusem’s 16 sq. km..

One aspect of the cultivation involved shaping cedar trees to produce tree bark in surplus while keeping the tree alive. They maximized cedar bark production stripping bark lengthwise up a trunk, thus allowing the tree to heal, thrive, and produce surplus bark. This strategy illustrates how cedar bark was a staple. Cedar bark was produced for an apparently endless array of manufactured goods. The rule was to cultivate cedars into giant sources of raw material for production of manufactured goods. In the transgeneration aspect, people of Yukusem 1,350 years ago cultivated a grove of trees to furnish Beau Dick with raw material in 2009.

Beau's Alert Bay studio involves a lot of interaction with local artists and carvers. A couple of these artists are devoted to Jesus. I might have tried to explain that I do, really, believe in Jesus. In order to steal this continent and launch a genocide they needed an inside job. That's how Jesus enters. He's the inside job. 

Beau finds this line of reason amusing but my friendship with Wayne becomes elusive at the point when I am demonstrating heresies in a couple short, disturbing arguments. I rarely feel friendship in the morning hours until Wayne has had a gallon of coffee to derail his brain. 

There is considerable interaction and especially rancorous moment during which I say things like, "I cannot get divinely inspired by a manager of a sheep abattoir," and Wayne replies about ghosts not supposing to have voices, while painting messages in all kinds of uninterpreted ways, language being used like a sharp detailing knife. Wayne reiterates I should inhabit the vicinity like a ghost.

During the drunk and smoke fuelled evenings up Atim Road, George called the Kwakwaka'wakw communities part of a League of Autonomous Collectives, formerly tight competitive, industrious organizations oriented to acquire by trade. 

"And warfare," according to Beau, who informs me the organization was codified in Wakashan, composed in a legal motif hieroglyphically rendered, a language emanating coast-wide (which Wayne describes as "the longest coast-line in the world.")

The archipelago was home to people cultivating immense riches. They had growing populations, educated in craftsmanship like house building, canoe-making, weaving, carving, resource extraction, a group of nations thriving on abundance. 

I am tempted to suggest the hieroglyphic language carved on poles, painted on house fronts, sewn into chilkat blankets, was on the verge of a continental breakout. "There is a strong desire to build something but an awareness that others have standards which may be too high to be met by the revival of a cultural experience," Beau explained.

The culture camp on Yukusem had been a collective of builders and artisans volunteering to live rustic, practically remote, and, says Beau, "The question was, are you a camper? Camping is by definition a completely interdependent experience. The burden is shared and activities are shared. The time-line in the experience is all shared."

Beau returns to story-telling, "The Bella Coolas were primarily Salishan people who over a period of time had occupied the area up Burke Channel, halfway along the B.C. Pacific coast, and after this came a period of encroachment upon the Kwakwaka’wakw territory," Beau explained, for Bella Coolas had long been envious of Kingcome Inlet resources, he said.

It was therefore predictable to Homatsa society a large party of Bella Coolans would arrive at the entrance to the territory at Gilford Island. The arrival of the lead Bella Coolan party was made in peace and bearing gifts, a disarming presentation drawing the Homatsa society into a lull, while a second party descended and destroyed the Gilford Island settlement and left many heads on sticks and took Kwakwaka’wakw  women away to Bella Coola.

Beau continued, "These women retained their names and their titles, but only gradually did the truth about their origins begin to emerge." He explained family status in a coastal nation is paramount and hierarchy composing the society is immutable. "Eventually the elevated status of those women and their offspring emerged and altered the face of a Salishan principality."

Mamalillikullu and the Haida were accustomed to crossing the Kwakwaka’wakw  waters every year during the summer to conduct trade missions with the Cowichan and Salishan nations. When Hudson Bay Company arrived and a fort was established at Fort Rupert the HBC immediately set about usurping Kwakwaka’wakw jurisdiction. This made peace untenable, said Beau, once Haida traders arrived at Fort Rupert and bypassed traditional protocol of stopping at the clanhouses of Kwakwaka’wakw chiefs. Instead they opted to gather around the HBC fort and ignore customary exchanges with Kwakwaka’wakw.

In response to this diplomatic snub Kwakwaka’wakw messengers spread word and soon Homatsa society arranged their own reception. The Haida were intercepted as they continued a southward journey through the Inside Passage. The interception occurred at modern day Kelsey Bay deep in the present day Johnstone Strait. It was here they were surrounded and slaughtered. The heads of the Haida chiefs were taken back to Fort Rupert to the women who stood on the beach holding out their aprons.

As the Kwakwaka’wakw rowed past they tossed the heads ashore, said Beau, onto the aprons of the women. The head of one Haida chief tore through the apron of his wife and rolled along the beach, and the story is told, he was still trying to get away from the Kwakwaka’wakw.

Language was extinguished in an onslaught of flames and reeducation. The systemic racism remains intact via modern schools. Dissidents are held inside internment camps and gulag reservations are filled with dissident elements of a remaining population, some of those governed by a re-constituted national identity expunging traditional values, others suffering the lash of authority but defying all descriptions of servitude.

Friendships for me are illusive but people on this Indian Reservation come in waves to visit and work and confer with Beau Dick. It is a multi-user art studio, Wayne's, Marcus', Sean's, and tonight Thomas Bruce paints here. I once stayed at Beau Dick's two or three months a year previous. I have been here several times. I've been hanging around since the 90s. Several people are acquainted with me. Sean carves and paints a modern version which Beau Dick encourages as avant garde, and they are saleable pieces.

As I sit around, Sean tells me he is leaving shortly to spend Christmas in Port Hardy, a neighbouring town. Wayne inhabits the workplace daily but with the permanence of a sphinx. Beau Dick produces several pieces at a time, ruminates on new ones, uses a vast library and historical record in his designs. The library includes Beau Dick and Wayne's own knowledge orally transmitted and accompanied by images.

I am making my fifth, sixth, journey to the territory. It is now December 23. My activities this visit included scrapping with George's gang (testing my aptitude for listening), but Beau Dick and his immense Homatsa knowledge keeps the warcanoe on an even keel, his strength, and endless rounds of conversation in a circulating fashion in the studio, makes the stay worthwhile, such as when Wayne says, "There are six species of wolf on the north west coast. They can swim. They eat brains." I restrain myself from saying, "I guess you're safe."

On this Christmas Eve I am ending the visit to the Indian Reservation. Beau has been aloof my whole visit. This last evening was one of the rare occasions we are alone in the house. I am leaving in a few minutes. "I had a dream the other night and in this dream I was in Kingcome. I held a spear and several of us were holding spears. We had a big black cat in front of us. Eight of us circled around this cat and we weren't attacking. We were cornering the cat to put it in a cage." 

"One night in the 1970s," I replied," I did a hallucinogenic drug, some organic mescaline, and 'transformed' into a puma. I had been injured the year before and the experience stuck with me, because, ya know, Beau, a wounded animal wants to kill every in sight."

Beau went to another room in the tiny house and came back with a t-shirt, smiled broadly, and he held it up, "This is you." It says, 'Ruined.' We laugh under a cloud of smoke. I leave a minute later to catch the last ferry of the night. It was the last time I ever saw Beau Dick. He was my friend. May he Rest In Peace.

Beau's daughter Kerri Dyck

In Memory of Marcus Alfred; Second Video Features his Dad, Wayne Alfred, Two Important Alert Bay Artists of the Potlatch Tradition

Art of Marcus Alfred from Malcolm McColl on Vimeo.

The Art of Wayne Alfred from Malcolm McColl on Vimeo.

Tla-o-qui-aht’s Canoe Creek Hydro a work of reclamation and restoration

Sayo Masso is liaison officer for the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation in one of their major initiatives, the Ha'uukmin Tribal Park, including the Upper Kennedy watershed, as a place of cultural and economic importance, "We conducted ceremonial gatherings and visited sacred sites," said  Masso.  "Pools in the river provided an abundant fishery to families and there was a village at the mouth of the Kennedy River."

The tribal park contains (in part) the Upper Kennedy River, "Our people moved through lakes in the winter and returned to the ocean in season," said  Masso. "We lived on the coast during summer and as a whaling people we observed the migration patterns of gray whales." Potlatch culture is hereditary and Nuu-Chah-Nulth communities like Tla-o-qui-aht are linked by close families, common meetings at winter feasts, and a lot of kinship with other coastal communities; interestingly, said  Masso, "Some of our closest ties are with the Makah Nation in Washington State."

Bringing the Ha'uukmin Tribal Park to life on behalf of Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation "seemed to take forever," said  Masso, "and years of research was followed by years of implementation including the last couple of years of serious dialogue. We had to study the area closely in terms of hydrology and fish habitat, institute a stream keeper’s course, and begin teaching members to be park guardians and stream keepers. We're really happy this is happening as we speak."

The Tla-o-qui-aht desire to share the magnificent lands and waters of their heritage is not carte blanche; visitors will be made aware of Tla-o-qui-aht stewardship, said  Masso, "Self-determination is on the horizon. We have focussed the initial effort on the Upper Kennedy before we construct new hatcheries," Chinook salmon and sockeye to be reared in separate hatcheries, Chinook hatchery to be built first.

The Tla-o-qui-aht place name for Kennedy River Basin, Haa'uukmin, is "roughly translated as Feast Bowl." The Kennedy Basin is about 60 km from Tofino and the Canoe Creek Hydro project presents the administration with an infrastructure opportunity to create wider visitations to their tribal park. "We are planning to establish a family-oriented picnic area by the Canoe Creek Run-of-River hydro generating station and we have envisioned our land use plan for long-term development in outlying forestry, gravel pits, and out-posts for adventure tours. Guardian and stream keeper courses are giving the administration a professional presence in our tribal park 

He added, "In upcoming phases of the Tribal Park, we will be providingrangering services and safe transit through a network of trails, and access fees will contribute to building and implementing tribal park objectives. We are examining carbon credits to value our trees while they're standing. Tla-o-qui-aht faces systemic issues in Canadian forestry," and will use every means to circumvent the slaughter of forests, "Carbon Credits help us assert a role in using and managing the watershed in a manner that reflects Tla-o-qui-aht Laws of Iisaak, (~Respect), and Hishukish Tsawaak, (Everything is one ~interconnectedness of Life)."

Tla-o-qui-aht implemented two land use zones in their traditional territory; one is entitled Uuyaathluknish Management Zone, which means 'We take care,' and  Masso said, "This is a management area that needs gentle impacts and restoration plans. Use and access must be sustainable and not negatively impacting water quality objectives and fish stock objectives." Qyaasinhap, the second management zone - Leave as you've found it, is generally allocated to the Old Growth Forest corridors in Clayoquot River Valley and Clayoqout plateau.

Uuyaathluknish is already impacted and needs rehabilitation, which is being done in part through the Canoe Creek Hydro project, "We promoted the hydro development in the rehabilitation area, an area already impacted by the highway and logging," an area that requires careful management for the multiple uses that are visioned. "On this side is the low-impact sustainable use area our plans says, Let's deliver fish out of this watershed."

Qyaasinhap is putting wider stewardship back in the local area of the central westcoast and Tofino, said  Masso. 'Leave it as you found it' means the Clayoquot Arm and Plateau Preserve will continue to serve as ground zero for research in climate change and education-oriented relations with colleges and universities. There is a research Centre up Clayoquot Arm and we working with the University of Victoria and with other education institutions to college-certify training in stewardship, and other research partnerships.

"Meanwhile we have two forest licenses in our territory," said  Masso, "and the thinking is that we have to do whatever is needed to move forestry to be more sustainable for our grandchildren and to create a 150-year rotation on harvesting rather than the present 80 rotation. We will examine timber uses and plan the harvest ourselves. We will evaluate the forest companies by how many jobs they create for how many trees they take, not by how many millions it makes."

History contains a couple of important drivers for the established tribal park. "Families quarantined themselves back in the Kennedy watershed during the introduction of plagues," and later, "The Meares Island court case acknowledged the Island in Clayoquot Sound as Tla-oqui-aht TitleLand in 1984, which laid the groundwork for the Hawiih (hereditary chiefs) to work on establishment of the Meares Island Tribal Park declaration.  This declaration formed the framework for the Tribal Park at Kennedy Lake."

As a matter of purely cultural concern the nation requires a quantity of old growth fir and cedar to carry on traditional practices of the potlatch, "We have canoe carvers and totem poles and Long Houses to build."

Carpenters also build 'capacity' in Coastal First Nation communities

John McNestry set up the Discovery Community College Mobile Training and Apprenticeship program, and the key word is mobile. These training courses are delivered everywhere from Bella Bella to Tofino to Ahousaht, and Alert Bay. Discovery Community College is taking the courses up and down the B.C. coast to meet a huge demand for skilled building trades people.

The first mobile carpentry course finished in December 2010, and, in the program, “Students are engaged for about 8 months total because we added some elements to the course, including a module on remodeling, drywall installation, and cabinetry-making.” These are additions to the basic carpentry skills and DCC goes even further. 

“We give them the basics in a year-one carpentry curriculum, foundation program, and go much further with training on roofing and siding ,so they can do housing maintenance in the communities.” As it stands, “Right now we have trained over 100 carpenters. Why is demand so high? “They’ve been  in training for carpentry because while the country is in a recession we are seeing continuous building of housing on-reserve. The demand for housing is huge, and the demand for skilled trades to build the housing is immeasurable.

Graduates are coming in numbers like twenty-three in Namgis First Nation, twenty in Ahousaht, eleven in Bella Bella  (plus 17 on second program that has recently commenced), and similar numbers for Opitsaht and Tofino. “I have a huge number of carpenters ready for the job,” says McNestry, “no less than 127 First Nations students.”

The program has an urgent need for funding, “We have to find more money now and any publicity about our success will be helpful. We want to go to the MP, Minister of Indian Affairs, and an island representative in Parliament, “It’s not just for tuition and tools. We have students that need support for rent and food for themselves and their families.”

DCC’s mobile carpentry program may be a raging success indeed, however, “We’ve run out of funds. We have the opportunity to create life-changing and life-affirming career,” and, “The thing is that out of these numbers we will see dozens of red-seal carpenters in communities where there are none today.”

None? That’s appalling, isn’t it? Anybody who has seen a First Nation Pacific Coast carving knows one thing: the people work in wood like nobody’s business. “Carpenters could be apprenticed in their own communities. We want to develop a bunch red-seal carpenters on the coast within First Nation communities.” The goal is to educate within self-sustaining communities where apprentices can find opportunities never before available on-reserve.

“A red seal tradesperson can apprentice people into the trade. We are becoming more First Nation specific to carpentry than any other college.” DCC has three mobile carpentry units. “All the training is done in community. We have double the success rate of programs that see the students coming into Campbell River to the college campus. At home in community they have their support systems, including family, local culture,” and the hope of future autonomy by institutions delivering education and training to their midst.

McNestry says, “It makes sense to deliver it local. There’s a lot of work going on. The whole idea is to make sure missing skill development starts to happen. All the letters I receive from people in Ahousaht speak to more program delivery or this sort.”
'

Europeans found  a thriving log and carving culture woven into the societies of the west coast, and wood-working culture remains integral to community life, even though, says McNestry, “They were left out of the surging growth that surrounded themselves. They have no trained people, no red seal trades living on-reserve.” 

The only way into the mainstream economy is to get the red seal certification into First Nations communities, to make apprenticeship a readily available career path. The communities will benefit immensely, “Money that currently leaves the community will stay.” McNestry says it’s a lot of money, “Of a $5 million housing project, 70 percent of the work is done in carpentry. By providing wood-working skills, it’s brings a myriad of benefits. For one thing, wood fibre is out there. Trades people could develop businesses that work in dimensional  cedar and fir.”

DCC has put $2 million put into this mobile training initiative. “The graduates are all heading into their second year apprenticeships. They are graduates of a framing technician’s program and now they need 1,000 hours of employment in the trade to achieve year two.” A red seal carpenter is a four-year apprenticeship and training program.

Carpentry careers can proceed many different ways, and at DCC in Campbell River, “We have a full woodworking and millwork shop, so, when they are ready to advance their skill sets further, we have the programs.”

Mobile training is increasing community-capacity for self-sufficiency in more ways than carpentry. Community Support Worker is another eight-month study program at DCC that is graduating qualified community personnel, and they are also training hands-on in their own community. A CSW program is underway in Namgis First Nation (Alert Bay) a few days away from commencing as spring approaches. 

McNestry says, “The CSW Program is a self-healing program,” and as it is dealing with social issues from infant to elder, including substance abuse, spousal loss, abused women,  at-risk teenagers. “Several months ago we began to realize this may be a healing program for the students. As we found the eight month program proceeding, we found they have internal challenges that the students tend to work out in their studies.”

McNestry believes this aspect to the CSW is going to gain recognition. “Programs deal with every conceivable issue in life, and when you have the history of Residential School suffering and loss of a verbal culture passed down by generations, the healing of the healers is paramount in importance.” McNestry hopes to see a clinical study of the program healing the healers. CSW in Ahousaht will be closely observed and monitored for the program’s propensity for healing the students.

Saratoga Beach on Vancouver Island

Resort on Saratoga, Vancouver Island, B.C. A resort on the beach in Canada, in winter. The Inside Passage of British Columbia.

Huu Ay Aht constructing new administration and community facility

The Huu Ay Aht administration building is under construction in the First Nation community in Bamfield, B.C.. Charlie Clappis is project coordinator for Huu Ay Aht, "They poured the footings on the site Jan. 16, 2010," says Clappis. "It's 1,352 sq. m. (14,500 sq.ft.) on two floors. The building is heated by geothermal. It's going to have nice warm floors."
     

The facility is the difference between night and day for the community. Island West Coast Developments is the general contractor, Cobalt Engineering is the designer, and Ground Source Drilling is drilling the geothermal array. Clappis says, "Geothermal is definitely the way to go. We had a $4 million contribution ffrom INAC to the energy side."
     

Clappis says, "It's going to have a great location on a high point," affording a view of the Pacific Ocean, "and enough altitude to survive a tsunami," he jokes. The Huu Ay Aht Long House is on the site. It holds community events for 150 residents. The new admin-building also overlooks picturesque Pachena Bay Campground, the busy seasonal facility owned by Huu Ay Aht.
     

Clappis says the facility will hold a number of important community offices, administration, health and dental facilities, and offices for fisheries, forestry, aggregate mining, economic development, youth, Elders, education, and housing. "We started digging in November. The construction involves employment for Huu Ay Aht and skills development will be delivered."
     

Reid Longstaffe is the Island West Coast Development project manager on the project, "It's a beautiful location set up on a hill looking over the ocean. Construction began in November, and it's a bit of slow going with the winter weather conditions," says Longstaffe. "We poured concrete on the weekend. It was sunny, and the sun is still hanging in through the early part of the week."
     

The building contains two floors and a basement for the utility services. "It's a geothermal project with a lot of energy efficiencies," says Longstaffe. "We are doing some nice wood beams and using Douglas Fir doors, with full-length glazing on the back-side (facing the ocean)."  Longstaffe says the building should be done by the end of 2010.
     

INAC and Health Canada put money into project. The design phase goes back a couple of years, done by David Nairne and Associates. IWCD recently finished their own building in Nanaimo with geothermal installed in a horizontal loop.
     

Goran Ostojic is the engineer from Cobalt Engineering that is designing the building and geothermal array. "It's a sustainable project that came in reasonably priced with a few nice features in Douglas Fir, beams, and glazing. It is designed to have specialized health and dental services delivered in the building. It started in November and has proceeded below the initial budget projections."
     

Ostojic says he started to work on Huu Ay Aht's building design about 18 months ago. "It has design features like windows to use solar heat in winter and deflect heat in the summer. The whole build is designed for sustainable use." Cobalt has done the design work on a number of First Nation projects, "We encounter specific requirements from each First Nation tribe from different historical and cultural aspects."
    

 Cobalt will be working start to finish on the Huu Ay Aht facility that should be open in the spring of 2011 at the latest.

Kiteboarding the Inside Passage in winter