INTERESTING NEWS Canada’s Oldest First Nations Newspaper - Serving Nuu-chah-nulth-aht since 1974 Canadian Publications Mail Product Vol. 49 - No. 23—December 1, 2022 haas^i>sa Sales Agreement No. 40047776
Uchucklesaht’s first community Flu closes canoe in generations takes shape Ahousaht Since January, cedar log has been carved into 45-foot canoe for cultural connection By Alexandra Mehl Local Journalism Initiative Reporter Port Alberni, BC - At the beginning of January, Hipolite Williams began carving a 35-foot canoe for Uchucklesaht Nation. Through winter, spring, summer, and fall, he and his apprentice, Cooper Styan, worked daily toward carving the red cedar canoe. The log, chosen by Williams and sourced from C̕awak ʔqin Forestry, was 45 feet long, 5 feet at the base, 3.5 to 4 feet at the top, weighing 16, 000 pounds, said Ryan Anaka, director of Lands and Resources for Uchucklesaht. “This one had a perfect half moon kind of shape on one side,” said Williams, who is a member of the Huu-ay-aht First Nations. “Each log, even if it looks perfect on the outside, changes when you open it up.” Williams, who’s been carving since 1995, said that with the logs that are available currently it’s difficult to get what would have been chosen traditionally. But with what is available today, the primary focus is to choose one with less knots. “All the knots you see are going to come out on one side,” said Williams. “We make sure we flatten the bottom, find the bottom…and then we take all the knots out of there afterwards.” When picking a tree in the forest Hipolite said that the side with fewer branches would become the base of the canoe because there would be less knots. Williams’ favorite part of the project was using the adzes to dig out the canoe. At the bow of the canoe is a thunderbird, carved from the strongest and heaviest part of the log. Having the weight of this piece here functions to carry the canoe forward, said Williams. Designed along the canoe is a sea serpent, and a killer whale to tell the Uchucklesaht origin story. In October, Williams and Styan tested the canoe in the water. “With just the two of us paddling, it was really fast, really stable …and went straight,” said Williams. “Ticked all the boxes.” “When they lifted it up, it weighed about 1,000 pounds, so they took about 15,000 pounds of material away,” said Wilfred Cootes, executive of Lands and Natural Resources for the Uchucklesaht Tribal Government.
schools
Influenza outbreak drops a"endance to 17 per cent By Denise Titian Ha-Shilth-Sa Reporter
Photo by Alexandra Mehl
Hippolyte Williams carves the Thunderbird as the bow of the new canoe at Nucii in Port Alberni, the former site of the Redford School.. With the addition of seats, the canoe is “I’ve pretty much never really worked expected to weigh roughly 1,500 pounds, on carving before. Other than just fidaccording to Cootes. dling around with knives when [I was] Cootes said it’s rewarding to see the younger,” said Styan. youth tour onsite and meet Williams and Styan said it was important to him to be Styan while they bring this to life. involved in this historic project. He plans “I absolutely love walking into the tent to continue carving after it’s done, and and smelling the cedar and it really brings has ordered his own carving tools. so much joy,” said Cootes. “And to see “It’s been an ongoing wish for the nathat the cultural aspect of our people tion to do this,” said Anaka, who was come back alive again.” tasked with sourcing the tree, organizing Styan, who is a Uchucklesaht member, grants, and contracts for the project. is Williams’ first full-time student. Anaka said that in speaking with elders “I figured it’s my duty to learn to teach,” it could have been 50 to 75 years since said Williams. “That’s my favorite part, is Uchucklesaht has last seen a community teaching. I want to teach more and more.” canoe of this caliber to gather around. Williams said that Styan had been “We’re hoping to participate in the learning about adzing and shaping, and canoe journeys, as well as trying to nearing the end of the project got into the reconnect our citizens and our youth, knives, learning how to carve designs. especially our youth, to the lands and Styan didn’t think that carving would especially the waters,” said Cootes. “To be something he would become involved give them those skills and bring that part in until he saw the opportunity in the of their culture back to the children has Uchucklesaht Newsletter, he said. always been a dream.”
Inside this issue... Housing project for abused women underway...............Page 3 Watchdog clears officer in Opitsaht shooting.................Page 5 Festival hosts traditional canoe steaming.......................Page 7 Feed the People returns to in-person event...................Page 11 Washington state bans fish farms..................................Page 15
Ahousaht, BC – Students and staff of Maaqtusiis elementary and secondary schools were sent home Monday, Nov. 28 due to high numbers of flu cases. Of the 238 students attending both the elementary and high school, only 41 showed up for school on Monday. “Unfortunately, Ahousaht has been hit hard with this nasty flu bug and has affected the attendance in our schools. We closed last week due to low attendance in all departments of the school system,” said Education Director Rebecca Atleo. She went on to say that only 18 of the 139 elementary students showed up for school on Monday. Of the 99 high school students, 23 made it to school. One parent said that, in one case, there was only one student in the classroom. Teaching staff were not spared from the flu bug. Atleo says at least a dozen of the staff members are sick. The school closed Thursday, Nov. 24 due to high absenteeism. “We directed the custodial staff to do a deep sanitizing of all of the buildings and hoped that people would be better this week. That is not the case as attendance was lower this week than last week,” Atleo told Ha-Shilth-Sa. Residents are also reporting that pharmacy shelves in Tofino are bare in the cold and flu remedy aisle. Terry Smith of Tofino Pharmacy confirms that they’ve struggled to get children’s cold remedies for months. “There’s a Canada-wide shortage there’s been nothing available for a couple of months,” she said. Cold and flu remedies are being imported from the US and Australia, but it is not known when the shipments will arrive. “When the shipment arrives it will be for all of Canada, so the big box stores will probably get it before the small markets do,” she said. She said pharmacists are doing whatever they can to help. In the absence of flu remedies in the store, Smith advises parents to speak to the pharmacist about what they can do to help their children. Atleo has reached out to leadership for further direction. She said there are a high number of residents sick with the flu. As for the schools, “we will reassess on Wednesday to see how it plays out.”
If undeliverable, please return to: Ha-Shilth-Sa P.O. Box 1383, Port Alberni, B.C. V9Y 7M2