Tag Archives: Roisin Cullen

Education, Indigenous Nations

‘It was created for settlers by settlers’

Editor’s note: Indigenous students are not the only ones who do not feel they fit into the normal educational system, but there are high school and post-secondary alternatives. The Cortes Island Academy offers a high school accredited program based on experimental, project-based education. (Both ‘Indigenous’ and ‘settler’ kids are welcome.) Some Indigenous schools offer land based learning. I suspect that the ‘normal’ school experience can vary a great deal as well. The Cortes and Quadra Island elementary schools appear to have highly innovative programs. It is also interesting to read about the Vancouver Island University’s attempts to become more culturally sensitive and the Kwak’wala language revitalization at UBC.

By Roisin Cullen, Pique Magazine, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

A young person’s first week in university should be an exciting and equally nerve-wracking time, but for 22-year-old Aiyana Kalani of the Lil’wat Nation, it was an eye-opening experience.

Kalani went to Vancouver Island University (VIU) in 2021 to major in digital marketing and minor in journalism, but found the experience incredibly isolating. She has since returned home and does not plan on continuing her studies.

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Animals

Wild, Wild horses

Editor’s note: Pemberton is about 140 kms east of Cortes Island as the crow flies, or 382 km by car.

By Roisin Cullen, Pique Magazine, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

If you’re looking for a picture-perfect postcard of Pemberton, you could do far worse than the image of wild horses grazing in a field on a sunny summer’s day. For many, the sight of these magnificent creatures roaming free is a sign of the ways Pemberton, in spite of its rapid growth, has maintained its deep connections to the bucolic ways of life that have been so engrained here over generations as an agricultural hub.

As the years passed, Pemberton’s wild horses have become a potent symbol of that age-old clash between progress and nature. There have been countless Facebook posts of frustrated motorists crawling down Highway 99 on foggy evenings to make way for them, hoping for the best and calling for a collective solution. Cultural differences, multiple jurisdictional boundaries, drivers disobeying speed limits, an unwanted highway, and debates over where these majestic animals belong have divided the community.

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Indigenous Nations, Politics

Pemberton pauses Official Community Plan process to build ‘deeper’ relationship with Lil’wat Nation

Editor’s note: A possible model of how rural communities and First Nations can cooperate.

By Roisin Cullen, Pique Magazine, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The Village of Pemberton (VOP) is pausing its Official Community Plan (OCP) review process so officials can focus on building a “deeper and more meaningful” relationship with the Lil’wat Nation, the VOP announced at Pemberton’s Sept. 12 council meeting.

Continue reading Pemberton pauses Official Community Plan process to build ‘deeper’ relationship with Lil’wat Nation →