National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Many Indigenous tourism providers in B.C. are still in limbo waiting for more information from provincial health authorities before making any concrete decisions about whether they’ll open or operate this summer. But others are forging ahead and cautiously optimistic as they bank on domestic tourists to tide them over until borders shuttered by COVID-19 open again.
Continue reading Indigenous tourism sector banks on domestic touristsNational Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
A massive canvas canoe adorned with sweeping bold lines of red, black and royal blue swallows up the space around it.
Artist KC Hall has little room to step back and get perspective on his latest work housed in a temporary workshop on Quadra Island a week before Christmas.
Hall, renowned for his synthesis of graffiti, manga and Northwest Coast art, is finishing up a central piece for the Sacred Journey travelling exhibition, slated to launch in Campbell River on Vancouver Island this spring.
Continue reading An Artistic Sacred Journey: The Pacific Northwest’s canoe culturethe Discourse, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
How are coastal families dealing with the ongoing pandemic? | Part One
Living in a remote coastal community accessible only by boat or air has its unique challenges, but pandemic-related restrictions have intensified barriers, forcing these families to get creative and lean on each other more than ever.
Continue reading Heiltsuk Families come closer together during COVID timesBy Marc Fawcett-Atkinson, Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
As a kid, Delbert Good remembers that he would come home from a day of picking potatoes to find a meal made from the fruits of his family’s garden.
“While I was growing up, we were pretty self-sufficient,” said Good, economic development officer for the Gitanyow Band and a lifelong resident of Gitanyow, a community northeast of Terrace, in northern B.C.
“We had garden plots everywhere. Our family stuck to growing potatoes — we had about 100 rows of potatoes every year — but everybody shared in the community and everybody had their own strengths when it came to growing vegetables.”
Not anymore. In the past hundred years, a suite of colonial policies suppressed traditions that were essential to many Indigenous people’s access to food, including agricultural ones that were practised for generations. For Good, reawakening them could help pave a better-fed future for his community.
Continue reading First Nations reawaken ancestral agricultural practisesthe Discourse, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
As of July 31, the percentage of First Nations individuals living on reserve reported positive for COVID-19 was one-quarter of the rate of the general Canadian population, according to Indigenous Services Canada (ISC). “The work that communities have done, to ensure the safety of their citizens, of their Elders and of their communities generally has been phenomenal,” says Dr. Shannon McDonald, who is the Chief Medical Officer at the First Nations Health Authority (FNHA). McDonald is Metis and Anishinabe, and introduces herself as a guest on Tsawout territory. But as COVID-19 cases continue to increase across B.C., several First Nations have also announced increasing numbers of positive COVID-19 cases.
Continue reading First Nations grapple with COVID-19
