Alert Bay and Johnstone Strait
“Home of the Killer Whale” is painted on a carved orca at the Cormorant Island ferry landing that welcomes visitors to Alert Bay. Those magnificent and exciting animals danced through our day among the dances of the wonderful First Nations people and the magnificent animals that inhabit this beautiful and productive area. As we docked this morning the island rose out of the mists and skies began to clear as we made our way up to the ecological park above town or to the program about the Kwak’waka’wakw potlatch collection housed in the U’mista Cultural Center.
The huge red cedar big house perched above the town is the centerpiece of traditional culture for this region’s 14 bands of Kwa’kwala speakers and frequently hosts Potlatch ceremonies - literally, “to give.” Potlatching was outlawed in the late 1800’s and a raid on a nearby island resulted in arrests and the loss of many valuable pieces of regalia. Thankfully, most of those masks and pieces have been returned and now reside in the cultural center.
We gathered under the carved house posts of the big house to enjoy a program of dances performed by the T’sasala Cultural group—young hamatsas, a weather dance (it worked!) and a peace dance showed the precise movements of these dancers performing them in the same way for thousands of years. After a taste of barbecued sockeye salmon and bannock, we were off in search of wildlife in Johnstone Strait.
Killer whales showed up before we had finished our midday meal! A large group spread across Blackfish Pass and into Johnstone Strait. These whales are “residents” or fish-eaters and are well known to the local whale-watch boats. White rooster tails of Dall’s porpoise also flashed across our bow several times as our magical afternoon progressed. And more was still to come—perhaps three hundred Pacific white-sided dolphins came rushing up to the bow, leaping, riding the wake and at times, it seemed they could fly. What could be better?
