Ha-Shilth-Sa November 21, 2019

INTERESTING NEWS Canada’s Oldest First Nations Newspaper - Serving Nuu-chah-nulth-aht since 1974 Vol. 46 - No. 22—November 21, 2019

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Smudging trial underway in Nanaimo A Port Alberni mother challenges SD70 over whether Indigenous cleansing ceremonies should take place in public schools Denise Titian Ha-Shilth-Sa Reporter Huu-ay-aht First Nations photo

On Nov. 14 Premier John Horgan travelled to Anacla to meet with representatives from the Huu-ay-aht First Nations, the B.C. Ministry of Transportation, the City of Port Alberni, the ACRD, Western Forest Products, Mosaic and MLA Scott Fraser,.

Premier directs ‘action group’ to upgrade Bamfield Road Two months after the UVic tragedy, Horgan travelled the logging road to meet stakeholders in Anacla on Nov. 14 Anacla, BC — Significant improvements are coming to the logging road that Anacla and Bamfield residents rely on. This was the message given when Premier John Horgan travelled the 78-kilometre passage for a meeting in the Huu-ay-aht village of Anacla on Nov. 14. While there Horgan directed staff with B.C.’s Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure to formulate an “action group” to plan upgrades for the road, according to a press release from the Huu-ay-aht First Nations. Bamfield Main serves as an essential road linking Anacla and Bamfield to Port Alberni and other Vancouver Island communities. Part of the road is also used by residents of the Ditidaht First Nation’s community by Nitinaht Lake. Huu-ay-aht Chief Councillor Robert Dennis Sr. said his nation is optimistic the dirt and gravel road will be chip sealed, which is a process of solidifying through the use of asphalt and fine aggregate. “Together we have the tools we need to make significant upgrades to the road. We have met in a respectful way, and it is clear we are all committed to take the necessary steps to reach our nation’s top goal of chip sealing the Bamfield road,”

said Dennis in the release. “By visiting our community, the premier has a better understanding of how important it is to ensure this vital link is safe for all who travel the road.” For decades the Huu-ay-aht have been lobbying for the road to be upgraded, and in November 2018 representatives from the First Nation and the Alberni Clayoquot Regional District met with Minster of Transportation Claire Trevena and Scott Fraser, MLA for Mid Island-Pacific Rim and minister of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation. Chip sealing the road was discussed, but with an estimated cost of $50-75 million, no commitments were made - although an engineering study had begun by the time the latest tragedy occurred on Bamfield Main Sept. 13. Biology students Emma Machado and John Geerdes, both 18, died when their bus fell down an embankment partway down the logging road. They were on a two-day trip to the Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre with a group of other University of Victoria Students, a trip the university has undertaken for the last 18 years. On the month after the tragedy, UVic followed through with plans to send another group on a trip to the Marine Sciences Centre – but this time Bamfield Main was avoided. On Oct. 25 the group of students travelled by chartered bus from Victoria to Port Alberni, then boarded the MV Frances Barkley for a three-hour boat ride down the Alberni Inlet to Bamfield.

Inside this issue... Cellular service comes to Ahousaht...........................Page 2 Call to bring back the seal hunt..................................Page 5 Simon Lucas potlatch............................................Pages 8-9 ‘Accidental’ residential school death....................... Page 11 Examining killer whales with drones.......................Page 15

“UVic will consider information from external investigations by the RCMP and Transport Canada, along with its own review, to inform decisions on future trips,” wrote Denise Helm, the university’s director of media relations and public affairs, in a statement sent to Ha-Shilth-Sa. Since Bamfield Main opened in the 1970s the Huu-ay-aht have also lost eight members on the rugged passage, including Tayii Ḥaw̓ił Art Peters. Peters’ grandson Tayii Ḥaw̓ił ƛiišin, Derek Peters, was present at the recent meeting in Anacla, where he said the premier honoured the nation’s elders and the sacred principles of ʔiisaak (Utmost Respect), ʔuuʔałuk (Taking Care of….), and Hišuk ma c̕awak (Everything is One). The Huu-ay-aht showed their appreciation to the premier by giving him the traditional name Yačuk ma tašii (Yatsuk ma tashii), which means “he who walks the path.” MLA Scott Fraser also attended the meeting, as did ACRD director Bob Beckett, Port Alberni Mayor Sharie Minions, Western Forest Products and Mosaic. The road is owned by forestry companies that use the area, a complication that provincial officials have said has delayed improvements. Back in 2008 a report from Roger Harris, B.C.’s forest safety ombudsman, issued a warning about the public regularly using a road that was originally intended for industrial use. The ombudsman recommended a new public highway designation for resource roads like Bamfield Main. “As with many communities’ relationships with their logging roads, the Bamfield logging road is far more important, valuable and useful now to that community than when it was first constructed,” wrote Harris.

Nanaimo, BC — The trial between Candice Servatius and School District 70 (Alberni) began Nov. 18 in the Supreme Court of British Columbia in Nanaimo, with an examination of practices that some believe will determine the extent that Indigenous culture is presented in the classroom. Servatius, a Port Alberni mother, is challenging SD70 on allowing the practice of Indigenous cultural ceremonies like smudging and the recitation of First Nations prayers in school. SD70 says they are mandated by the province to include Indigenous culture in the curriculum and they deny that the activities that took place in the classrooms in 2015 were not religious, but cultural. In 2015 Candice Servatius had two children attending John Howitt Elementary School in Port Alberni. In September that year she was alerted by letter from the school that JHES would be hosting a “Traditional Nuuchah-nulth Classroom/Student Cleansing” performed by a Nuu-chah-nulth member in the school’s classrooms. When she called to ask questions about the event she learned that it had, in fact, already taken place and that both her children had been involved – against their will, according to Servatius. The mother claimed that when her daughter asked to not take part in the smudge ceremony she was told it would be rude to decline and that everyone must participate. Counsel for Servatius argue that the school imposed the ceremony on the children, who are being raised according to Pentecostal Evangelical Christian faith, and therefore infringed on their right to freedom of religion in the school. They say their client’s belief system is different from what they were subjected to; “they are not believers in Nuu-chah-nulth spiritual practices.”

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