Tag Archives: Village Commons

Food

Cortes Food Bank Needs $35,000 For A More Perminent Home

The Cortes Food Bank is trying to raise the $35,000 needed to relocate their base of operations to two sea-cans in the Village Commons at Manson’s Landing.

Operations Manager, Angelica Raaen, explained, “We have raised $14,000 so far, and we have a generous donor who’s offered to match donations up to $10,000. So we’re hoping that by the end of this month we can get $10,000 in community donations to match the $10,000 this donor has offered.”

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Business, Community

First Days At The Nook; Final Touches

A lot has happened in the five months since Tommaso Biasiolo became the Outreach and Admin Coordinator for ‘the Nook’ in Cortes Island’s Village Commons. The Grand Opening was on June 27, 2025, but there are still small projects to complete. Two special small rooms need to soundproofed; the Nook’s kitchen has not been installed. The original vision was to create a space where nonprofits can work and hold their meetings, but these spaces are now available for individuals as well.

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Arts, Indigenous Nations History

Kwakwaka’wakw artist Ernest Puglas explains how carving saved his life: ‘This is powerful’

As a new welcome pole is raised on Klahoose, Homalco and Tla’amin territories, its maker describes how, through art, ‘I have recreated myself’

Editor’s note: The author of this profile sits on the board of the Cortes Community Foundation, which commissioned Puglas’s welcome pole. IndigiNews is honoured to share Puglas’s story.

By  Forrest Berman-Hatch, IndigiNews,, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Standing before a crowd of roughly 50 people on “Cortes Island,” carver Kuma’inukw (Ernest) Puglas first acknowledges his Kwak’wala lineage.

Then, he thanks the Klahoose First Nation for hosting him and for the honour of carving on its territories (the island is the traditional lands of Klahoose, Homalco and Tla’amin Nations), before unveiling his newest cedar welcome pole in a public ceremony.

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Arts

Folk U: Awakeneers Live in Studio

Jemma Hicken/Folk U – On June 20th, 2025 guest host Jemma Hicken was joined by the Awakeneers, a 6-person, mostly-sibling folk band, for a short live set and interview. Tune in to listen to some fiddle and folk, hear about the upcoming grand opening of the Village Commons on June 27th, and learn quite a lot about beans.

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Arts

Michael Keith (Part 2): on Cortes Island 

Originally Published on July 13, 2023

Michael Keith was ‘blown away’ when he visited Hornby Island twenty years ago.

“I was like, ‘Wow, imagine living in a place like that.’ I remember going back to Toronto and telling my friends, ‘they don’t even lock their doors there. It’s incredible!’”

He was enamoured by the spectacular seascapes at Tofino, when he played there a few years later. 

Keith went through a divorce, sold his house, and then hooked up with a professor at the University of Toronto.  

“My new partner who I’ve been with for 10 years,  introduced me to Cortes because she would come here for getaways from Toronto. I was gigging two or three times a week, and teaching in Toronto. She wanted to move here. I came, checked it out and just fell in love with the land. We were fortunate enough to get a tiny little place.”

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