Tla’amin Elder Gladys speaks at Simms Park in Courtenay on May 5, 2024. Photo courtesy of Indigenous Women’s Sharing Society Sunday, May 5 was the National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and Two-Spirit people (MMIWG2S+).  I first spoke to Patti Alvarado, executive director of Indigenous Women’s Sharing Society for a story on Indigenous Winter Festival back in November. I reached out to her again to ask about the May 5 event that Indigenous Women’s Sharing Society co-hosted with Miki’sew Métis Association at Simms Park in Courtenay.  Hundreds of peo ..read more

The NOAAS Miller Freeman, an American fisheries and oceanographic research vessel at Deep Water Recovery headquarters on April 29. Submitted Photo Deep Water Recovery, the company that has been dismantling derelict vessels in Baynes Sound since 2020, has received another out of compliance warning from the province.  In an April 22 letter from the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy, environmental protection officer Katie Howatt writes that Deep Water Recovery (DWR) was out of compliance with three sections of a pollution abatement order that was issued to the company on M ..read more

Award-winning Gitxsan investigative journalist and national bestselling author Angela Sterritt joins Vancouver Island Regional Library for a virtual talk about her book Unbroken: My Fight for Survival, Hope, and Justice for Indigenous Women and Girls. Photo submitted When Angela Sterritt’s book Unbroken hit the shelves it was an instant national bestseller and a finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award and the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction. But it also represented a deeply personal journey. From the Wilp Wiik’aax of the Gitanmaax community within the Gitxsan Nati ..read more

Save Our Forest Comox Valley is a volunteer organization that partakes in old growth and urban forest advocacy. Photo by Madeline Dunnett/The Discourse Holding a wake for a forest may not be the most common way to spend a Saturday morning, but some Comox Valley residents gathered to do just that last weekend.  The wake was hosted by local, volunteer-run Save Our Forests Comox Valley (SOFT-CV). It invited people to come together on the unceded traditional territory of K’ómoks First Nation to mourn a patch of second growth forest off of Pritchard Road that was recently logged for developme ..read more

Takao Tanabe’s 1964 painting, Sun Over Swamp forms the title piece of Nanaimo Art Gallery’s exhibit, which opens Friday. Photo submitted by Jesse Birch It has been almost exactly 10 years since I interviewed Canadian artistic giant Takao Tanabe when I was a reporter at the now-shuttered Nanaimo Daily News. Back then, Tanabe was being acknowledged by an honorary doctorate from Vancouver Island University which celebrated his decades of work to become one of Canada’s most accomplished artists. This month, Tanabe is in the local spotlight again with his 1964 painting Sun Over Swamp, which forms ..read more

Youth and adults colour with crayons to reveal collagraph prints of fish as part of Project 84,000, a project to honour the thousands of fish that died in the Cowichan River last summer. Photo by Shalu Mehta/The Discourse When Jennifer Shepherd heard that at least 84,000 trout died in the Quw’utsun Sta’lo’ (Cowichan River) last summer due to environmental factors, she felt moved to do something. Shepherd, a community researcher with the Xwulqw’selu Connections project, considers the fish to be her relations, her kin — a teaching that is prevalent among Quw’utsun Mustimuhw (Cowichan People ..read more

Nanaimo Forest School owner Michael Geselbracht pulls English Ivy out of Colliery Dam Park. Photo by Michael Edwards English ivy woven into spiderwebs, native plant seed bombs, interpretive dance performances, storytelling and a salmon cookout are just some of the art and activities people can expect to see at the Pulling To Gather Earth Day celebration at Colliery Dam on Saturday, April 27. Organized by the Art Action Earwig Collective in partnership with the Nanaimo Forest School, the event is the culmination of a series of ivy-pulling work parties the collective have organized over the pas ..read more

Deep Water Recovery’s site on Oct. 22, 2023. Photo by Madeline Dunnett/The Discourse Since October 2023, The Discourse has been following the ship breaking occurring in Union Bay by a company called Deep Water Recovery.  The site along Highway 19A was previously a log sort, but Deep Water Recovery has been dismantling derelict barges and vessels at the location since 2020.  The site lies amongst a cross-jurisdictional mix of regulations and has received opposition from K’ómoks First Nation, a number of community members and the Comox Valley Regional District, who took the company to ..read more

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Last week, youth, Quw’utsun Elders and adults gathered along the Xwulqw’selu Sta’lo (Koksilah River), for Stth’lhnamut sqw’ulum, the First Salmon Ceremony. Along the banks of the river, near the Cowichan Estuary, those in attendance heard teachings from Quw’utsun Elders, welcomed salmon to the river and committed to stewarding it and the lands around it. The ceremony began with Qwiyahwultuhw, Elder Robert George, welcoming those in attendance. “We wanted to lay down some teachings to all the people about looking after our river, looking after our salmon, looking after our environment,” he sai ..read more