By Nora O’Malley, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter HA-SHILTH-SA, for the Nanaimo News Bulletin – Published January 23, 2025
Different projects and opportunities coming on stream to embrace Indigenous culture
There’s a clear effort underway to weave First Nations culture into Tofino’s lucrative tourism economy.
In November 2024, Island Coastal Economic Trust (ICET) announced a $180,000 project investment with IISAAK OLAM Foundation towards building a commercial art space and carving facility at Naa’Waya’Sum Gardens (formerly the Tofino Botanical Gardens).
The project, which also received support from the First Peoples’ Cultural Council’s Heritage Infrastructure Program, aims to be complete by July 2025.
Tofino Arts Council (TAC) also launched the Makuw’as pop-up market in October 2024 in collaboration with Tourism Tofino and the Tofino-Long Beach Chamber of Commerce as a way to raise the profile of local Indigenous artists.
“It makes me feel happy. When my dad went to residential school, they weren’t even allowed to speak their language never mind practice their art and culture,” said Nuu-chah-nulth artist Elizabeth George, whose cedar woven hats and jewelry are featured on the Makuw’as pilot e-commerce site and in-store at the Tourism Tofino Cox Bay Visitor Centre.
George says the hardest part about weaving cedar accessories is pulling the actual cedar bark off the tree — a job her husband Matthew Curly has embraced.
Photo: Nora O’Malley / The Nanaimo Bulletin.
“We usually don’t go to the same spot twice because you can’t strip the tree where you have before, so you have to move,” she explained. “They cut down a bunch of trees by Crystal Cove and Ocean Village and they gave Tla-o-qui-aht permission to go in there and strip the trees before they cut them. I got a whack of cedar from that and made a bunch of hats.”
George also offers classes on beading, cedar weaving and dream catcher making throughout the year. She says spots for her workshops fill up quick and she feels proud when she sees her students evolve into independent artists.
“That’s my hope, is to teach the children, so it will continue on,” said George.
