Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/207624
Haida youth from Masset and Skidegate paddled traditional canoes for four days to reach Windy Bay for the Legacy Pole raising. was left to log, and it is painfully obvious that if the Haida had not intervened, the end of the old-growth forest would have come sooner or later, when the forest company simply ran out of land. On Lyell Island, the story of more than 70 arrests, including the image of an openly weeping Haida RCMP officer forced to arrest his elders, generated increasing awareness for the region's natural and cultural values. The Government of Canada received more letters about South Moresby in 1985 than about acid rain, one of the most pressing issues of the day. Years of negotiation, national pressure and provincial scandal followed. After it was revealed that the then-B.C. premier and much of his Cabinet were shareholders in Western Forest Products, the company at the heart of the controversy, real change began to take root. Out of 1985's Haida-declared Gwaii Haanas Haida Heritage Site, the South Moresby National Park Reserve was created in 1988. Finally, in 1993, the Haida and the Government of Canada signed the historic Gwaii Haanas Agreement. This groundbreaking document clearly laid out the differences in opinion between the federal government and the Haida in terms of land ownership. Yet it linked the two governments in co-managing what both sides agreed was a national treasure, paving the way for an end to the 24 W e s t w o r l d p22-27_Haida_Gwaii_Pole.indd 24 >> winter 2013 conflict and the creation of a unique park. In 2010, the Gwaii Haanas Marine Conservation Area boundaries were legislated, making the region the only mountaintop-to-sea-floor protected area on the planet. That same year, the Haida gifted the name "Queen Charlotte Islands" back to the province, respectfully packed in a beautiful cedar box, and the islands are now, once again, known as Haida Gwaii. To celebrate these past 20 years of successful co-management, Parks Canada commissioned Masset carver Jaalen Edenshaw to create the Gwaii Haanas Legacy Pole. Edenshaw's father is Guujaaw, one of the leaders in the 1985 blockade, and president of the Haida Nation council for 14 years. "I was only five when the blockades were on," explains Edenshaw, "but I remember lots of excitement and energy, and my dad coming down here. A lot of the old people from Masset and Skidegate were there, both communities together." The need to protect their lands brought the Haida together for the first time in more than a century. Just off Burnaby Island's Scudder Point, a prominent feature on the central eastern edge of Gwaii Haanas, we rest our paddles on our laps as a Minke whale swims towards us. My kayak has been bumped by gentle humpbacks and southern right whales before, but familiarity does not put one at ease when it comes to close encounters with the world's largest creatures. Finally, the whale moves on, and our arms, after 30 km of paddling, direct us to the beach for a timeless campfire night, the grey-green layers of Gwaii Haanas's islands and mountains trailing into the northern twilight. The next morning we awake to the familiar "whoosh" of feeding whales. This time it comes from humpbacks. Bruce and I are left gawking, cameras in hand, one second late and one spectacular image short, as a humpback breaches 200 metres offshore in the morning light. Strong southeast winds are forecast to hold off until later in the day, so we break camp and head for the All Alone Stone, a Haida Gwaii icon rarely visited in a kayak. Light breaks through scattered clouds in brilliant arcs, and the Stone's normally wavepounded armour is gently caressed by easy swells. Pure kayaking magic. We reluctantly continue north on the 7-km crossing to Ramsay Island. The winds generously hold off until we round Ramsay Point to Hotspring Island, the most-visited site in the park until recently. We stop at Hotspring only out of curiosity. Last October's 7.7-magnitude earthquake, the second-largest trembler ever measured in Canada, had shut the geothermal pipes feeding the island's famed hot springs. The quake caused a tsunami, (above) David Quinn 13-10-25 10:19 AM