Our final sail of the year into the homeland of the ‘Namgis brought us to “Alert Bay,” or ‘Yalis if you’re into traditional placenames and not those coined by a surveyor’s ship in the late 1800’s. Pockets of rain and bright sunshine danced over us and the U’mista Cultural Center. There we viewed the once-forbidden Kwakwaka’wakw potlatching regalia “ransomed” (u’mista) back from Canadia 30 years ago. Just outside we met with local carver Bruce Alfred, the world’s leading bent-wood-box maker, “dry bags before there were dry bags.”
He shares all this in the shadow of a bright orange shirt statue that stands tall on the grounds of the old Saint Michael’s residential school, part of the sordid history of government-sanctioned cultural genocide that once ripped through Alert Bay.
But just as the sun poked out from the clouds during our stay, it’s a new day in ‘Yalis. Indeed, we were greeted at the big house for our final celebration of the year with the T’sasala cultural group. The community shared their once-illegal dances to preserve a through-line of the culture that has lived on this land since time immemorial. Gilakas’la to all of the ‘Namgis, and see you next year!
