Before
flying off to Canada I hadn’t done my homework on exactly where I
was going but was confident I was in good hands who would lead me on
a great adventure. To rectify my lack of knowledge I started with a
visit to the Museum of Anthropology in Vancouver City on my stopover
to meeting Tara in Prince Rupert on the Canadian side of the Alaskan
border. The museum was just what I needed, explaining the unique
First Nations culture and the tour guide saying how extremely
fortunate I was to be able to visit the isolated National Park.
Canada is so much bigger than you may think including the distance
from the museum to the airport by bus and I missed my flight.
Jacomine
and Roel were still happy to see me the next day and after an
obligatory visit to Prince Rupert’s microbrewery we were off into
Fjords of the Canadian Pacific West Coast inside passage. When a
National Geographic tour boat came around a corner and waved I
realised this must be somewhere very special on our planet. After a
few days inside the passage we crossed over to the Haida Gwaii
Islands - previously known as The Queen Charlottes, until the
remaining First Nation people ceremoniously returned the name, nicely
packaged in a box, to the Canadian government.
We
explored the Northern Island with a rental car but the Southern
Islands not only don’t have roads but are a restricted National
park governed jointly by the Haida people and National Parks Canada.
A private introduction course and registration fee was required
before we could sail through this preserved group of islands. Not
only are the plants, animals and sea life protected there but also
the history of the Haida people. Like so many invaded nations the
Aboriginals were forced to stop speaking their language and practicing their customs. Many descendants of those who survived the
smallpox epidemic, which was the major reason for the population
going from 7000 on arrival of the first white “iron” man in 1835
to just 800 people 50 years later, are now struggling with alcohol
and drug abuse in the two villages that remain in the North. The
road back to a healthy community I strongly believe is through
knowing your roots and gaining pride in yourself and your original
culture.
This process had an acknowledged start when protests
succeeded in stopping the logging industry from the clear cut
decimation of the southern area now known as the Gwaii Haanas
National Park Reserve. Young people are now learning the language,
studying the history, carving new totem poles and we even met a Haida
surfer building his traditional wooden home. The corner posts alone
had taken 3 years to fell the red cedars and hand chisel to the shape
required. When we were at the home of a traditional artist who had a
fine arts university degree I was proud when his wife, who is
travelling to New Zealand next month on an indigenous people
conference, said that they saw the Maori people as leaders in
recapturing their heritage. The Haida were the first homo sapiens
into North America over 10,000 years ago as the islands were not
reached by the ice shelf of the ice age. Discussions with more Haida
people, learning their history and seeing their art I am getting
convinced of the theory that they have had pre-European contact with
Polynesians. I could see reason that they consider themselves more to
be a Pacific Island people than Canadian. There are theories that
either they had been visited by or journeyed to the more Southern
Pacific Islands, perhaps Hawaii, long before European discovery.
One
sunny morning aboard we funnily all came out with the South Pacific
island of Tonga t-shirts on, from where we first met in 2016. I think
they are looking forward to returning to swim with the whales in
Tonga again next year. Jacomine did bravely swim around the boat one
morning but surely she will enjoy the South Pacific water a lot more.
I dipped myself in the sea once. That was after stepping out of a
natural hot pool though.
The
hot pools were at one of the abandoned village sites which are now
closely guarded by a “Watchman” at each island. After calling for
permission to come ashore they meet you and walk around the old
village remains showing the Totem poles that still stood or were
being swallowed up by the giant cedar trees. Hopefully Jacomine will
write more next blog about why the Totem poles were constructed and
about the horrible effects of the clear cut logging the forest. The
old growth / virgin forest we were able to go bear hunting in are
called “salmon forests” because of their nutrient dependency on
the dying spawned salmon being carried into their forest floors by
eagles and bears. We can actually see on the rings of the cut trees
if it has been a good salmon year or not by how much the tree has
grown that year.
As
we sailed down through the park over 11 days we just keep saying
every day, wow this is so beautiful, "mooie", at each
anchorage. All the wild animals we encountered is wonderful for me as
a Kiwi. I am sure I saw a new species each day. One evening dinghy
discovery trip we watched a black bear for 30 minutes eating,
snoozing and pooing and there seemed to always be a seal watching us
in each bay. The Steller sea lions and sea otters on my last day
sailing were exciting too. The only creature I missed on my tick list
was orcas – I was compensated with one printed on my beer glass at
my last night in the pub with the locals in Port Hardy.
The
only negative comment for the Trip Advisor review of my tour is that
the rotating deck gourmet restaurant was sometimes in the shade of
the boom. I laughed when Jacomine said whilst feeling frustrated
that we didn’t get to each bay she hoped to that day “Well, you
can only be happy in one place at a time.” The next day she said
“If I ever run out of places I want to see, it is time to die.”
Thank you so very much R & J for such a great opportunity to
adventure around in the wilderness.
Sharron
Beck – Bear hunter and Whangarei Marina Manager, on a Pacific
Island further south.
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