Kwakiutl Country (Quadra Island and Alert Bay, British Columbia Tour) - Tour of First Nations sites

Photo slideshow of our 2012 visit to two Kwakiutl (Kwakwa̱ka̱ʼwakw) villages located off Vancouver Island, British Columbia. First stop is Quadra Island, home of the We Wai Kai Nation of "Southern Kwakiutl" and their First Nations-owned lodge at Quathiaski Cove, the Tsa-Kwa-Luten Lodge. This is full of indigenous art and offers fine views of "mainland" Vancouver Island. The restaurant serves salmon in every conceivable way (we had soup, grilled salmon, and even candied salmon for breakfast). Nearby was Cape Mudge Village, where we visited the Nuyumbalees Cultural Centre. Next stop was Alert Bay, on Cormorant Island. The Namgis First Nation is located next to the town of Alert Bay (Yalis). We visited the town (good Indian food at the Bayside Inn) and hiked up to the Alert Bay Ecological Park (nature preserve) with its creepy flooded forest. Saw the Anglican church with its prayer books written in Kwakʼwala, and toured the Umista Cultural Centre with its excellent collection of masks -- which had recently been vandalized by an arsonist. Saw the T'salala dancers at the Gukwdzi ("Big House") present the traditional Cannibal Dance, the centerpiece of the Winter Ceremonial illustrating the conversion of humanity from its animal past to its present of moral responsibility. After a visit to the cemetery -- a mixture of gravestones and totem poles -- we got on the ferry back to Vancouver Island.