Windspeaker, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
A blackened column carved with children’s faces, representing lives lost at Indian residential schools, has been created by acclaimed Kwakwuitl carver Stanley Hunt.
The pole will soon travel through Vancouver Island, beginning June 16, making its way to the installation place in Vancouver on Indigenous People’s Day, June 21.
Continue reading Residential school memorial pole will make stops on Vancouver Island before installation in Vancouver
By Anna McKenzie, The Discourse, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter.
Days after International Missing Children’s Day, I revisited a recent report issued by the province’s Representative for Children and Youth (RCY) about missing children in government “care.”
Alarmingly, Jennifer Charlesworth’s research suggests that nearly 470 children in care are reported missing to B.C.’s Ministry of Children and Family Development (MCFD) one or more times each month.
Continue reading Indigenous girls, failed by MCFD, are going missing in the child welfare system
Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Federal fisheries officers descended in force to raid a sustainable seafood company in Vancouver Friday afternoon, seizing the catch of an Indigenous fish harvester and alleging it was illegally caught.
But enforcement officers are taking an unnecessary and heavy-handed approach to what seems to be a bureaucratic error caused at least in part by the Department of Fisheries’ (DFO) own licensing branch, said Sonia Strobel, CEO of Skipper Otto community-supported fishery.
Continue reading DFO raids seafood company, possibly over federal agency’s own paperwork error
By Tom Summer, Alaska Highway News, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Development and preservation of the Tse’K’wa national historic cave site at Charlie Lake is continuing to grow with the installation of new interpretive signage and more.
Tse’K’wa Heritage Society Executive Director Alyssa Currie says she’s excited to share the signage and is aiming to reopen to the public sometime in June. The signs will act as a self-guided tour for patrons.
“Each sign encapsulates a different Dunne-za teaching, as well as an archaeological artifact found at the site. So, it gives our visitors a chance to walk the landscape that has been occupied by the ancestors of the Dunne-za and to hear about the significance of that landscape from their perspective,” said Currie.
Continue reading Construction underway at Tse’K’wa heritage site
TELUS started construction Monday, May 29, exactly two weeks after they notified Cortes Currents that Tla’amin First Nation had given them the go ahead to build a cell tower on their land.
It has been two and half years since the communication giant informed the Strathcona Regional District (SRD) that they planned to construct three cell towers on Cortes Island and two more on Quadra.
The SRD refused to give their approval unless TELUS held public meetings. So TELUS approached First Nations, who are not under SRD authority. They built a cell tower on We Wai Kai land in Drew Harbour, Quadra Island, in February 2022. TELUS also approached the Tla’amin First Nation, about building on the parcel of land they own in Mansons Landing.
Continue reading TELUS started construction on Cortes Island
