Tag Archives: Squirrel Cove

Indigenous Nations, Women

Two Klahoose Women’s Journeys To Womanhood

Originally published on Cortes Radio.ca, as part of the Deep Roots Initiative, Season Two

When a girl approaches puberty, her culture’s attitudes toward women and sex come at her in new and often intense ways, both by what is said and also by what is left unsaid. Elder Helen Nora Hansen was raised in a residential school that treated coming of age with the silence of shame. Michelle Robinson’s parents raised her in the bush in Klahoose traditional territory and gave her the traditional teachings about coming of age. From their dramatically different experiences, these woman have great advice on how to support our girls as they make their way toward adulthood.

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Forests

Cortes Community Forest’s First Five Years

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British Columbia’s old growth forests fertilize themselves as efficiently as a farmer looking after his fields. The tree plantations that are fast replacing them lack this ability. If this trend continues, the province’s vast forests may be a memory in the next two or three centuries. The inhabitants of one tiny island are trying to change this. In this morning’s program one of the directors, Bruce Ellingsen, tells me about Cortes Community Forest’s first five years of operations.

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Community, Indigenous Nations History

Connected To Her Roots

Originally Published on Cortes Radio.ca, as part of the Deep Roots Initiative, Season Two

Settlers and immigrants in coastal BC are like driftwood tossed onto a shore where trees still stand. We came from afar to live among First Nations still connected to their roots. Some of us wonder what it’s like to be connected to the place of one’s ancestral roots and how ancient traditions nourish current generations. In this edition of Deep Roots Island Waves, Michelle Robinson tells story producer Carrie Saxifrages her experience of coming of age

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Animals, Indigenous Nations History

Humpbacks Return To Cortes Island

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Humpback whales were passing through our area long before Europeans arrived. The first colonial settlement was named Whalteown and Whaletown Road run across the island to Squirrel Cove. There is also a “Whaling Station Bay,” on Hornby Island and “Blubber Bay,” on Texada Island. However up until a few years ago, there have been no humpback whale sightings since 1871. This morning’s broadcast consists of a series of interviews about the humpbacks return to Cortes Island.

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Rivers & Oceans

How The Basil Creek Culvert Project Is Over The Top

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By the time you hear this, the Ministry of Transportation crew will have left Basil creek. As Cortes Streamkeeper Cecil Robinson observed, prior to this “if the fish came early and the rains were late, they just simply couldn’t get through the old culvert. They died right there.” Now more of them will swim upstream to their spawning grounds. Then he proceeded to describe how the “Basil Creek culvert project was over the top from the very beginning. Everything that needed to be done, is done: and then some more, always some more.”

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