The National Geographic Sea Lion continued her journey south in the Haida Gwaii Archipelago heading towards our morning anchorage of Sgang Gwaii, situated on Anthony Island. This small island is located on the southwest, ever so slightly exposed side, of the Haida Gwaii Archipelago. Sgang Gwaii’s given Haida name means “Wailing Town Island,” taken from the sound of wind and sea through a set of rocks on the beach just south of the village site.
Zodiacs began bringing people to shore just after breakfast. We were divided into many groups of 12 people each. This was the regulation for Parks Canada and this particular part of the park called Gwaii Hanas which means “Islands of Beauty” and encompasses the entire southern half of the Haida Gwaii Archipelago. Once on shore we were greeted by two Haida watchmen, James and Kelsey. Our group of 24 split in two and sent off in opposite directions. One half headed into the forest that backed up behind the old village site. The other half headed down to the beach and directly into the old Haida village site. Sgang Gwaii was once a village site of 300 people. Today, human occupation and use is evident and visible in the forms of midden sites, upright and fallen poles, house pits, and standing posts and beams of big houses. At the peak of SGang Gwaii occupation there were 20 big houses built just above the beach, along with memorial, frontal poles.
We arrived at low tide and visible on the beach were the remnants of ancient canoe runs dug deeply into the sand and rocks of the beach. In 1981 SGang Gwaii was named a Unesco World Heritage Site allowing for tremendous protection. Today our visit would be a chance to view mortuary poles and the internal big house structures that remain standing from a village that was abandoned in 1878. Inside the village site we learned the meaning of each mortuary pole along with the significance of its placement within the village. All poles faced towards the sea, a way of telling the story to all visitors and announcing the different families who lived in Sgang Gwaii. In this way any visitor would know if he or she were welcome and how and where they might find hospitality. Not every door would be open and being able to “read” the poles that were in the front of the village would explain just how much entree a visitor could expect.
Forest walkers made a circle starting at the back of the island completing a near circumnavigation of the entire island where SGang Gwaii stood. Following regulations, each group exchanged and began their mutual walks in the opposite direction from their morning starting point.
The light was gorgeous. Warm sunlight filtered through the forest decorating its thick carpet of moss, as each group made their way along the narrow, well-worn trail. Those of us in the village site enjoyed warm sun, reflections of poles on water, a chance to photograph the changing light and hear the stories passed down by ancestors to our hosts, the Watchman, in this place that has been stopped in time. The Watchman spend much of their summer season taking care of the poles by removing lichens, moss and small plants that begin to take hold...the natural way of the coastal temperate rain forest. The kindness and generosity we all continue to experience throughout Haida Gwaii has left an impression. Our Haida host Linda Tollas and the watchmen were no exception. From the two young Haida we spoke with, we saw the dual world they inhabit. The ever present stance of one foot in the physical world, one foot in the spiritual world. Through their eyes we experienced the importance of a living culture based on ancestral knowledge which creates a foundation to build a future. Skill is taught by observing and doing; from that foundation a future can grow that includes an ever changing technological world whose foundation for the Haida, is a living culture. As guests we saw the importance of bearing witness to this accomplishment, and it would be easy to return home and share the stories of what we saw in the Haida’s thriving and beautiful corner of this planet.
