Eric Plummer

The value of working together was emphasized with a plan on how the province will adopt UNDRIP – but this might be hard to believe for members of the Nuchatlaht, as the First Nation fights for Aboriginal title in court.

On Wednesday an action plan was released, listing a wide variety of initiatives in the provincial government’s effort to realign laws and policy with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Among the plan’s main goals is enabling Aboriginal people to “to own, use, develop and control lands and resources within their territories in B.C.”

Although it took more than two years to produce since the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act was passed in Victoria, First Nations leaders are calling an action plan released today “a step in the right direction”.

The Nuchatlaht’s fight to gain Aboriginal title over the northern half of Nootka Island is expected to be in the B.C. Supreme Court for months.

But the trial doesn’t have to take that long if the court looks at the groundwork set out by the Tsilhqot’in Nation decision in 2014, says the Nuchatlaht’s legal team.

On Jan. 20, 2017 the late Nuchatlaht Tyee Ha’wilth Walter Michael stood before the B.C. Supreme Court, declaring his small First Nation’s efforts to seek rights and title over land they had called home for thousands of years.

More than five years after that statement of claim was filed, his son Jordan Michael, who now holds the head hereditary seat for the Nuchatlaht, stood on the same steps this morning. It’s the first day of a trial to determine the First Nation’s Aboriginal title over its traditional territory on the northern part of Nootka Island.

As part of the Tseshaht First Nation’s larger ʔuuʔatumin yaqckwiimitqin (Doing it for our Ancestors) initiative, memorial items were removed from the bridge over the Somass River on Wednesday.

In a statement from the First Nation, the Tseshaht referenced how it is working to deal with the legacy of having a residential school in its community for most of a century.

Over 100 shipping containers have been missing off the west coast of Vancouver Island since they fell off the Zim Kingston in late October, but in the coming weeks the ship’s owner plans to conduct a sonar scan to locate any of the wreckage remaining on the ocean floor.

Excitement came from the only remaining household in the ancient Mowachaht village site of Yuquot today, as residents encountered the richest herring spawn in years.

“The whole bay has been spawning for two days,” said resident Ray Williams, who has lived in the Nootka Island village for most of his life. “The whole bay is just completely white, all the way to outside the cove.”

A plan is in place to ensure high school graduates have a better understanding of the ancestral history of British Columbia, with a requirement to complete coursework that focuses on Indigenous culture.

Announced by the B.C. Ministry of Education on March 4, this development would begin for high school students in the 2023-24 school year. To earn a Dogwood Diploma, all high school students would need to complete coursework with an Indigenous focus among the 80 credits they currently earn to graduate. A typical, one-semester course earns four credits towards the diploma.

As the government tightens restrictions on salmon farming, an aquaculture company on the West Coast is relying on technological advancements to meet a growing global demand.

Getting open net-pen fish farms out of the ocean appears to be more complicated than it sounded when this plan was promised by the Liberals in last fall’s federal election.

This year Fisheries and Oceans Canada is consulting with First Nations across B.C., a mosaic of coastal communities with diverse connections to the controversial industry.