After the sun came out and the fog cleared late this afternoon, I wandered around the grounds of our hotel to take a few photos of the beach.
We are staying at the Best Western, Tin-Wis Resort. It is quite a nice place – about half the price of other prestige resorts (but, I think, a good bit more than half the quality). The rooms are nice and the restaurant has good food and provides very pleasant service. This place is owned and operated by the ‘Tia-qui-art’ First Nations (Aboriginal or Indian) People. They were formerly known as the Clayoquet people. Before the 1800’s, the site of the hotel provided a safe landing place for these people’s whale hunters and their dugout canoes. ‘Tis Wis’ means calm waters in their local language. Then, up until 2002, this site housed a school and since then a hotel has operated here. A First Nations Community House operates near the entrance to the hotel.
I noticed this totem pole in the grounds at the front of the hotel and was very surprised to read the plaque and understand one of the similarities between these people and our Australian Aborigines.
The plaque describes how, in the 1950’s, children as young as 2 years of age, were forcibly taken from their families to be educated in English at Governent schools. Like our aborigines, they not only suffered forced separation from their families , but they also suffered horrendous abuse. It’s interesting that Canada has its own ‘Stolen Generation’. It occurred at about the same time as in Australia, and for the same misguided reasons..
What a terrible coincidence!
A sad commentery on how beleifs shape human behaviour good and bad.
It seems to be the same the world over where, indigenous peoples badly treated . The little black bear, where was Mummy? well it looked small. The photos are simply wonderful.