Haida Gwaii. You can’t get there on a whim. It’s neither quick, nor easy… nor inexpensive. But it IS stirring and complicated, rich and layered. Full of history and feeling. This year marked the 25th year since my first visit there. (In the 90s it was a yearly trek.) The people – Merle, Knud and their family – and the place, stick with me. It had been 7 years since my last visit. This trip was long overdue.
Haida Gwaii, for many years, had been called the Queen Charlotte Islands, though the Haida had never signed a treaty with Canada! In 2010 the cluster of 150+ islands officially reclaimed their traditional name of “Haida Gwaii” as part of the Haida Gwaii Reconciliation Act. Here’s the flag of the Council of the Haida Nation, depicting the Raven and Eagle Clans. (I’m connected, through Merle, to the Ravens.) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haida_Gwaii
The following is a gathering of Facebook posts during my time there this year, bringing them all together in one place. Travel with me for the week.
Haida Gwaii is waaaaay up there. On a clear day, you can see Alaska right there on the horizon.
(Click on any photo for a larger view.)
July 26, 2018 – Vancouver to Old Massett, Haida Gwaii
Vancouver B.C. Airport is filled with regional First Nations’ art (including work by Merle’s nephew, Reg Davidson). Such rich and refined artistic heritage!
4:15 PM. Been at the Vancouver airport since about 10:00 this morning. The flight over to the island was supposed to have left at 1:10. We boarded and deplaned TWICE. Allegedly, we’ll now fly out at 6:00. Hopefully they will still have an evening shuttle ferry between the islands. Merle and her husband, elders, will have driven an hour and a half and waited 6 hours for my arrival. I’m fine. I just feel bad about their discomfort and inconvenience.
11:15 PM. JUST got home to Merle and Knud’s. We finally flew out of Vancouver at about 6:15 or 6:30. Got to Sandspit on Moresby Island at 8:15. Yes, the ferry north to Graham Island was done for the night. But, typical of small communities, one kind soul ran two shuttle loads of people to the boat dock, and another loaded us up and ferried us over in his boat, leaving from the floatplane dock. Merle and Knud had long since gone home and their son Andy was there waiting to drive me home. The moon was full and coming over the horizon and the light in the sky had dimmed fully just before we got to Old Massett.
Abalone in the shell, just off the dock.
The boat to take us from Moresby Island north to Graham Island.
A drum cover sitting on the seat in front of me on the boat.
July 27, 2018 – Food Fish in Old Massett
King salmon: it’s what’s for dinner. Local Haida commercial fishermen drove through the Haida village this morning at 11:30, distributing salmon. They dropped off 2 “springs” (Kings) and 8 pinks to us. By 1:30, we had them cleaned, brined and laid out in the sun, getting ready to go into the smokehouse. I’m guarding against ravens stealing, while Merle and Knud go to cut fresh alder. The smoked pinks will go to feed the elders this winter.
Delivering fish to those in the village.
Scale. Gut. Filet. Smoke.
A mess of fish.
In the brine. Water. Brown Sugar… and enough salt to float a potato.
Fish-Cleaning aprons from Merle’s sister, Emily. They were anniversary gifts to Merle and Knud.
How do flies know so quickly when there’s fresh meat to be had?!
(I’ll give you one guess what my hands smell like.)
Home-canned smoked sockeye for lunch. And guess what’s for dinner…
July 27, 2018 – Round Two
We were just given more fish: 6 Sockeyes and 1 big King. So we cleaned them and they’re in the brine.
July 27, 2018 RECAP
What a day! The Haida commercial fishermen drove through the village giving out salmon. We got 2 kings and 8 pinks at 11:30 am. We had them scaled, gutted, filleted, brined and in the smoke house by 1:30. Just as we finished cleaning up, they came by with more salmon! This time 6 sockeye and 1 king.
We decided to have lunch first: home-canned, smoked sockeye and Knud’s homemade rye bread. We put the fish bones on to simmer and went out to clean the next batch of fish.
We needed one more cedar rack for the smoke house, so I built that from split planks. Before dinner, we took all the fish guts, bones and trimmings to the sea wall and threw them over. The eagles will get what they can before the tide comes in and washes it all away.
For dinner, I made salmon chowder with the bone broth after Merle and I picked the bones clean. Tomorrow we’ll vacuum pack the smoked pinks for the elders in the village during winter, and the rest of it for family. We’ll have salmon melts on rye bread for lunch and barbecued salmon for dinner.
(Most people go to lie on sunny, sandy beaches for their vacations. Ha! I go where I need rubber boots, rain gear and a fish cleaning apron.) This trip marks my 25th anniversary of coming to Masset. ❤️
We needed another rack for the smokehouse. Knud split the wood and I tacked it together (since I can get down to the ground more easily than he can… I’m already halfway there!
The whole village has been tossing fish guts and scraps over the seawall. Eagles will get what they can before the tide comes in.
Sockeye and king just out of the smoker. Now we’re pulling lateral bones and prepping for vacuum packing and the freezer. Sunny, north wind morning.
Freezer full of fish for the winter. Look at that COLOR!!!
July 28, 2018
Walking around the Village of Old Massett…
Street signs in the Haida Village of Old Massett.
July 29, 2018
Wandering around the old cemetery here in the Village of Old Massett, I find gravestones of whole families wiped out by smallpox. I imagine the sorrow throughout town in those years.
In the new cemetery, there’s a section for repatriated remains.
Cemetery for Repatriated Remains
Anthropologists used to steal all sorts of bodily, funerary and memorial remains from local, indigenous peoples. (All over the world!) They did this under the guise of research and historic preservation. Thankfully, in 1990, the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) was enacted. Remains have come home to Haida Gwaii and been reburied as recently as 2014.
These are the graves of the repatriated remains.
Repatriated in 2010 from the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford, England.
Repatriated in 2014 from the American Museum of Natural History, New York, New York.
Repatriated from the Field Museum in Chicago, Illinois.
While washing dishes after the post-church service luncheon, I smiled when I saw the bottom of one of the plates. “Beautiful Italy.”
Merle is always so elegant.
July 30, 2018
I got up at 8:00 this morning and Merle already had buns and a loaf of bread in the oven!
My Haida brothers, nephews and niece. (One brother missing, plus a sister and another niece and nephew)
Kaden, Tanner, Peter, Andy.
Me and Julia.
July 31, 2018
This was the fishing shack we bought in New Masset 25 years ago. It needed to be bulldozed then!!! It’s gone now. We used to sit at the dinner table with binoculars and watch the fishermen come in, seeing what they had caught. Wonderful view looking out to the docks.
(Click on this panorama for a larger image of the marina view.)
July 31, 2018 – Northeast to Tow Hill
Clambered out today to the base of Tow Hill and the Blow Hole at Naikoon Provincial Park, at north beach… one of my favorite beaches in the world (pebbles!).
In the distance, the path leading up to the top of Tow Hill.
There’s a boardwalk from the parking area all the way out to The Blow Hole at Tow Hill, ideal for all folks, especially Knud with his walker.
This is the tumble of rocks (at the right) that I clambered over to get to my favorite spot. The tide was coming in, so I had to keep an eye on it so as not to get trapped! (Seven years ago I saw bear dung on those rocks as I crossed.)
August 1, 2018
Around Old Massett and New Masset today…
(Click on the panorama below for a larger view of this wooded lot in Old Massett.)
Pride in New Masset.
South side of the post office in New Masset.
August 2, 2018 – Returning Home
Salmon’s coming home. (It matches my suitcase.)
At the Skidegate ferry dock, waiting to cross south over to Moresby Island. This sailing ship is flying the flag of the Haida Nation.
Midway along the ferry ride from Graham Island, at the north, to Moresby Island, at the south.
Seen at the airport in Sandspit, on Moresby Island (the south island).
