Village Island & Alert Bay
Human and natural history intertwine here in the Broughton archipelago. We boarded our Zodiacs and stepped back in time to visit an old village site of the Kwakwaka’waka people and were greeted by two beautiful black bears perusing the intertidal in search of tasty bits, just as they and their ancestors have done for thousands of years.
Around the next island two black-tailed deer were calmly grazing on this spring morning. Perhaps they remember the many people in their cedar canoes that moved through these channels, as the animals showed only curiosity toward us. Around the next island were views of tumbledown houses and a set of traditional house posts still standing sentinel near the water’s edge. The people here left their villages when their children were put into a residential school in the nearby community of Alert Bay.
In December of 1922 Chief Dan Cranmer hosted an infamous potlatch here on Village Island – this traditional cultural practice had been outlawed and the dancing and feasting were interrupted by the local Indian authorities. Forty-five people were arrested, many taken off to jail and nearly all of the regalia was confiscated and later sold to museums and private collections.
Viewing the repatriated Potlatch Collection at the U’mista Cultural Center felt very personal after our visit to Village Island. Lillian Hunt guided us through the order of the dances and told some of the stories of the old days, while half the group learned more about this complex culture from the film ‘Box of Treasures.’
Under the gaze of the huge carved thunderbirds that hold up the cedar big house, the dancers were silhouetted against the fire and the drums and movements brought us into the heart of passing on the traditional dances. I guess Andrea Cranmer was right about the weather dance as we departed the big house into bright sunshine, and headed home to the National Geographic Sea Lion to contemplate the day.
