Johnstone Strait and Alert Bay, British Columbia
A gusty spring morning in the upper reaches of Johnstone Strait offered sun, clouds and endless green island vistas as we explored the Broughton Archipelago. A turn into Blackfish Sound and the surrounding swirling currents were dotted with feeding Bonaparte’s gulls, marbled murrelettes and our first bald eagles of the trip perched in nearby cedar trees! A large eagle’s nest decorated the upper reaches of a snag, and huge Steller sea lions jousted and growled on a rocky haulout.
Alert Bay, a village of about 1500 inhabitants on Cormorant Island, opened their “Box of Treasures” for us this afternoon. U’Mista Cultural Center houses a very special collection of carved cedar masks and regalia that was repatriated to the town after being confiscated by government officials during a 1922 Potlatch ceremony held on nearby Village Island. In the beautiful western red cedar museum, our local guide, Lillian Hunt, described how the masks would be danced in a Potlatch ceremony.
In the Kwakwala language, t’sasala means “to be determined.” Up in the traditional bighouse, we witnessed the T’sasala Cultural Group perform some of the dances central to the Kwakwaka’ wakw Potlatch. The precision and beauty of the young dancers in their vibrant regalia was captivating, while their leaders’ pride in the youth and belief in the value of passing on this amazing cultural heritage was clear. We were treated as honored guests….entertained, educated and offered a feast of traditional foods: salmon and bannock with homemade preserves.
Our minds and hearts are filled with the generosity and kindness of our First Nation hosts; and we head north in to the Great Bear Rainforest with a new appreciation for a culture that is so informed by the land and the sea that shaped it.
