Keeping watch in Haida Gwaii
Look at the top of a Haida totem pole and you will often see three human figures wearing tall hats, one looking ahead, the other two out to each side. These are the watchmen, whose role is to alert the people to the approach of danger. It is also the symbol of the Haida Gwaii Watchman program, which protects culturally significant sites in the South Moresby Island region now known as Gwaii Haanas, or Island of Wonder.
Today, Gwaii Haanas is a protected national park reserve and UNESCO World Heritage Site. But it wasn’t always so. In the 19th century, Haida watched in dismay as European sailors blithely carried off their treasures, including the intricately carved mortuary boxes that held the remains of their ancestors, and vowed, never again. And so they started keeping watch.
In 1981, the Haida realized that once the area was deemed a park more visitors would bring with them the potential for vandalism at sites like Ninstints, the haunting Haida village painted so memorably by Emily Carr.
And so they created the Haida Watchman program, in which volunteers camp for a season, keeping watch over the most precious sites. At the same time, they would act as guides for visitors, sharing the stories and traditions of their people.
All over Haida Gwaii are extraordinary First Nations experiences, like the Haida Heritage Centre near Skidegate, with its many totem poles and hand-carved canoes. But an afternoon spent with a Haida Watchman truly is one of the most moving and inspiring experiences one can have.
Back in the 19th century, dozens of salmon canneries lined the shores of West Coast communities such as Alert Bay, Boswell and Port Essington. They employed thousands of people, with Europeans, Japanese, Chinese and First Nations peoples working side by side. Prosperous communities of shops, bars and restaurants sprang up around them. And then it all stopped.
Today, little remains of the historic canneries but rotting ruins, except for one: The Gulf of Georgia Cannery, still perched on the pilings over the Fraser River at Steveston.
In its heyday, it was the biggest and busiest salmon cannery on the coast. Today, it is an exceptional interactive museum and National Historic Site that tells the story of Canada’s West Coast fishing industry in a lively and engaging way.
If you’re visiting the cannery, make time to check out the Britannia Shipyards, Garry Point Park with its fishermen’s memorial, and the busy marina, as well as the many boutiques and restaurants of historic Steveston village.