A grade 12 student from Ontario was one of the guests of honour at a recent Kyuquot Elementary Secondary School potlatch, held May 29.
Brenden Boyle attends St. Jean de Brebeuf Catholic Secondary School in Hamilton Ont. and was one of 17 students spending a week in Kyuquot as part of a cultural awareness class.
Boyle is taking part in a credit course that gives him access to the Catholic Leadership Interdisciplinary Program, also known as CLIP.
According to Filomena Tassi, one of the founders of CLIP, students are learning about Aboriginal history and culture in the classroom. The CLIP program allows them the opportunity to spend a week in an Aboriginal community to take part in experiential learning.
“They take their classroom work with them as they live and work with the people and it gives them an opportunity to meet and learn from people from different cultures and backgrounds,” said Tassi.
CLIP started in 2009 and exchange students spent time in Kyuquot that year.
Tassi said exchange communities were applied for and selected online from the SEVEC website. SEVEC is a Canadian non-profit society that facilitates educational student exchanges.
CLIP students have been to Kyuquot before but this is the first group in three years to go there.
“The idea is to expose us to things developing around the world, to expand our borders,” Boyle said.
The group learns about culture and issues the communities face while there and when they get back to the classroom the learning continues as they discuss their experiences.
“Our main trip we all get to do is to the Dominican Republic,” said Boyle, who added that their CLIP mission statement is to think globally, act locally.
One of the projects his class is working on is a UNICEF water project aimed at purchasing and distributing water pumps to places they are needed. “We’ve raised $200 so far, but our goal is to raise $1,000,” said Boyle.
So what are the glaring differences between Kyuquot and Hamilton?
Kyuquot is remote, accessible only by boat or float plane, surrounded by wilderness and ocean with a population of about 200 when everybody is home.
Hamilton is a sprawling, modern city on the edge of Lake Ontario with a population of more than half a million and it is nearly 5,000 km from Kyuquot.
The exchange group flew together from Hamilton, Ont. to Comox, B.C. where they boarded a bus for the four-hour trip up island to Fair Harbour. From there they took water taxis for the final leg of the trip into Kyuquot.
When asked about his impressions of the community Boyle immediately said, “Family – the people here include everyone; the sense of community is great and it’s fantastic to see it on such a large scale, where people come together and support one another.”
Since being in Kyuquot the group has spent their days hiking and camping. “We’ve been to Spring Island and went to Ahktis to collect the shells and driftwood needed for the potlatch gifts,” he shared.
One of the highlights, said Boyle, was when the group was taken out fishing and caught a Chinook salmon.
“I’d like to say a special thank you to KESS Principal Jeff Rockwell who allowed the students into the cultural classes where they learned from Gramma Daisy (Hanson) about potlatches and food plants,” said Boyle.
The group stayed in Kyuquot for one week, leaving on June 1.
“I will take back with me a sense of community and how everyone helps each other out,” Boyle said.
“Three towns came here today and that’s fantastic, and the young people here, half my age, are so wise,” he noted.
“I’d love to come here again,” he said.
