Seawolf tours bring Kwakwaka'wakw culture alive

Michael McCarthy, For The Vancouver Sun 



K’odi Nelson eases his boat Seawolf into the wharf at Alert Bay. It’s an easy 10-minute cruise across Blackfish Channel from Telegraph Cove, where the docks are jammed with tourists waiting to go whale watching. Here on Cormorant Island, it’s a different world.

“No whales today,” he reports, tying the boat to the dock. “You never know when you might see one though. There’s lots of Orcas around.”

Kodi’s new company Seawolf Adventures is not specifically a whale watching outfit. Along with company owner Mike Willie, Seawolf has been running a water taxi service in Johnstone Straight and the Broughton Archipelago, hauling freight and kayaks and tourists, but the company is now expanding into cultural tourism. Travellers to the B.C. coast who want a deeper appreciation of First Nations culture will now be able to do so in Alert Bay, home to the Kwakwaka’wakw people for several thousand years and also home to the famous U’Mista Cultural Centre.

U’Mista is where K’odi starts our tour. Part museum, part art gallery, the walls are covered with photos and art detailing the history of the Kwakwaka’wakw. Pride of place goes to their potlatch collection, masks and other regalia confiscated after an illegal potlatch in 1921. After the ban on potlatch was finally lifted, the Kwakwaka’wakw people fought for decades for the return of their art from a museum and private collections around the world. It’s a stunning collection, well worth attending just for their beauty, but it’s the history of the Kwakwaka’wakw nation that K’odi wants to share.

The centre of the Kwakwaka’wakw culture is the potlatch, a ceremony to tell stories and to celebrate special occasions like birth, marriage, name giving, a new chief and death. In the Chinook language it means “to give.” Giving and sharing, it appears, are a big part of aboriginal life.

Next door to U’Mista stands the mighty Big House, where major ceremonies are held. We are in luck. Today celebrates a gathering of the Kwakwaka’wakw people to Alert Bay, with dancing, drumming, singing and a feast of barbecued salmon. The building reverberates with drumming and chanting, a huge crowd of invited guests riveted to the display. “Giving” stands at the heart of their culture; giving away of gifts, giving of oneself.

“Excuse me,” says K’odi, giving me a wink. “I’m also one of the drummers, so I have to go to work.”

Not far from the Big House we pass St. Michael’s, the former residential school, now a decrepit wreck waiting for asbestos removal before being demolished, testimony to how badly the Kwakwaka’wakw were treated by missionaries and the provincial government in times past.

“They tried to take the Indian out of us, I guess,” says K’odi as we pass by. “Well, it didn’t work.”

Alert Bay is home to many standing totem poles, or memorial poles as they are often called here. At the Kwakwaka’wakw cemetery on the main street, K’odi explains that this is sacred ground, where — unlike European gravesites — visitors are requested not to walk. While also works of art, each memorial pole tells the history of the clan it represents, with family crests of the Kwakwaka’wakw passed down through generations. Totem poles are carved for many different reasons and paint a picture of how the Kwakwaka’wakw regard death and birth.

K’odi drives slowly through the village, talking about the bears and eagles and Orcas that live in their territory. Kayakers who make use of the Seawolf often see them on their paddling expeditions. Seawolf will be buying a new and bigger boat soon to expand its kayaking services, he explains, dropping people off and picking them up at remote locations.

K’odi suggests we should go to Hanson Island and see the “cedar gardens,” thousands of huge culturally shaped trees that stand as living artifacts, carefully used by local First Nations people over the centuries for fibre for their regalia and clothing. That tour includes stories of the ancestors, singing, walking on trails, and learning about the significance of the trees. Why not experience a custom designed tour of pictographs, shell middens, and clam gardens?

Why not, I think. The Kwakwaka’wakw have so much to share. Giving and sharing is their ancient tradition. Yes, why not indeed?

