At early morning slack tide the Sea Bird slipped northbound through Seymour Narrows, the thinnest passage on the east side of gargantuan Vancouver Island. Swirling eddies, rips, and huge smooth surface boils painted the surface of Johnstone Strait as we passed deeper into the Pacific Northwest's native and natural allure. Surface-bursting Dall's porpoises, skeins of scoters, perching bald eagles and even a hummingbird crossing the channel were detected by outdoor observers. Naturalist and Pacific Northwest cultural expert Sharon Eva Grainger melded beautiful slide images and notions of mythical creatures, potlatch dances and totemic lineform design in preparation for our visit to a native village of the Kwakiutl people.

Alert Bay on Cormorant Island is home to the Nimpkish tribe of the Kwakiutl nation. Here the world's tallest totem pole stands at 173 feet tall outside the newly dedicated Big House. Inside this cedar structure, our guests observed and participated in traditional native dances around a burning fire. Ceremonial costumes, drums, chants and smoked salmon accompanied potlatch dances. The people of Alert Bay recently recovered important artifacts of the era when the potlatch ceremony was banned. Eighty-year old dancing masks tell stories of old in U'mista Cultural Center today. Hikers traipsed through Gator Gardens, a swamp forest of fruiting skunk cabbage, mating damselflies, improbably tall sentinels of cedar and draping old man's beard lichen. Near the Sea Bird's dock, several mortuary totem poles stand in a beachfront cemetery memorializing Alert Bay ancestors and longstanding traditions that continue into the future.