The damages caused by what appears to be a slipshod legal petition, that fourteen Cortes Island residents filed in the Supreme Court of British Columbia on January 2, 2019, continue to spread. One of the first casualties were the two referenda, for First Responder funding and a Community Hall Service tax, which had once been tentatively scheduled for Saturday, February 16, 2019. Though Cortes Island is in the midst of a comprehensive zoning bylaw review and on the verge of updating cannabis legislation, it still does not have an Advisory Planning Commission. This body was to have been appointed at the January 24, 2019, Strathcona Regional District Board meeting, but the decision was deferred “until the implications of the legal petition filed by Cortes constituents is fully understood by the Board.” Regional Director Noba Anderson submitted a revised list of candidates at the March 13 session, but the Board is still hesitant. The Klahoose Nation are the latest victims of this petition.
In my second interview with the candidates for Cortes Island’s Regional Director, I became aware that they have a very different vision of how the island should be governed. The current Director, Noba Anderson, portrays herself as an instigator, who “convenes conversations that would not otherwise happen.” Many of the island’s best known projects came about through her direct intervention. Though George Sirk chalked up a similar list of accomplishments during the nine years he represented the island (1996 – 2005), he stresses the idea that there should be more of a separation between the Regional Director and specific business projects. In this morning’s episode, I ask, why re-elect George Sirk as Regional Director?
British Columbia is known for its totem poles. Examples of a less known artwork have surfaced in more recent years. Aborglyphs are carved into living trees. One was discovered a few years ago, two hundred kilometres north of Vancouver in the midst of a clearcut in Toba Inlet. The Klahoose Arborglyh has been moved to the band’s multipurpose building in Squirrel Cove, Cortes Island. Deep Roots story producer Roy L Hales interviewed Michelle Robinson and Ken Hanuse, from the Klahoose First Nation, and local historian Judith Williams about the arborglyph that survived into modern times.
Its almost 550 km from Squirrel Cove, on Cortes Island, to Puyallup, Washington by car, but centuries by canoe. In 1884 the Canadian Government joined in a conspiracy to destroy the canoe traffic that had been plying coastal waters, from Alaska to California, since the beginnings of oral tradition. First Nations people were restricted to their reserves and had had to obtain permission to leave. The reawakening started almost 30 years ago, in what has since become an annual event.A different nation hosts the gathering every year and this summer the gathering is at Puyallup. The Klahoose canoe Tl’emtl’ems left Squirrel Cove at 10 AM this morning.
