As we disembark from the ferry at Alert Bay, a fishing village on a smaller island just off the coast of Vancouver Island, a bald eagle stands sentinel on the curved lamp-post forming the gateway to the town. It seems an auspicious omen for a meeting with the local First Nations band of the ‘Namgis.
British Columbia is home to more than 200 First Nations, each with its own language and traditions, and their culture is woven into the fabric of modern life. Many of the chefs I spoke to in Vancouver told me that their emphasis on promoting sustainable fishing and using local produce stems, in part, from the example of the First Nations and their reverence for the land and its wildlife.
Totem poles stand in Vancouver International Airport and in the city’s Stanley Park. Haida Gwaii, chosen as one of National Geographic’s 20 Best Trips 2015, has a thriving First Nations community that makes up a third of the island’s inhabitants, whose totem poles, sculpture and artwork are of a beauty to rival even the island’s natural splendours. Canada’s new prime minister, Justin Trudeau, is an honorary member of the Haida tribe, and sports a tattoo on his left shoulder of the planet Earth surrounded by a Haida raven.
We arrive at the great hall in Alert Bay just as the Tʼsasała Cultural Group, dressed in traditional decorated blankets, are finishing a ceremony in front of a roaring open fire. The audience are dressed in their own uniform, the brightly coloured jackets of a cruise ship. As they pose for pictures and the visitors snap away, the ‘Namgis seem welcoming rather than resigned, happy to be showing off their traditions.
“We don’t just sing and dance,” the Tʼsasała Cultural Group’s coordinator, Andrea Cranmer, tells me afterwards. “We share our history, our pride in our ways, and the fact that we are still here.”
Besides, they can give as good as they get. Cranmer’s mother, 75-year-old Vera Newman, remembers a visit from the Queen in 1958, when the young Elizabeth attended a ‘Namgis ceremonial dance. “I hid my boyfriend’s camera under this blanket, and I took her picture!” remembers Vera. “I gave it to her youngest son, Edward, when he was here this summer.”
Vera proudly holds up a treasured ceremonial blanket made for her by her own mother, more than 50 years before. Adorned with antique buttons, it depicts a cedar. Known as the “tree of life”, it has great ceremonial importance as well as a huge variety of practical uses: its roots are made into hats, ropes, baskets and cooking pots; its bark into blankets, clothing and armour; its wood into houses, totem poles and masks. Striking examples of the latter are to be found in the nearby U’mista Cultural Centre museum, while directly outside the great hall stands the tallest totem pole in the world.
According to scientists, the First Nations people are likely to descend from Mongolian nomads who crossed over on a long-disappeared land bridge. Andrea will have no truck with this theory, however.
“Our ancestry starts from the beginning of time,” she says, “from when our ancestor transformed from a supernatural being into a human. When the Creator asked him what he wanted to be – a tree, or a rock – he said: ‘I want to be a river, so I can flow forever, and many salmon will come out of me to feed my people.’ So we’ve been here forever.”
Ancient as First Nations customs may be, they still have much to teach the modern world. The most important ceremony, performed at key moments such as births, deaths and weddings, is the “potlatch”. The word simply means “to give”.
A plaque in the U’mista Cultural Centre describes it thus: “Many people believe a rich and powerful person is someone who has a lot. The Kwakwaka’wakw [to whom the ‘Namgis belong] believe that a rich and powerful person is someone who gives the most away.”
For information on the U’mista Cultural Centre of Alert Bay and the Tʼsasała Cultural Group, see umista.org
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