Haida Gwaii: Extremity of the Extreme!

North America » Canada » British Columbia » Queen Charlotte Islands
October 11th 2010

Published: October 21st 2010

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BuscoGusto

Pole of Old Masset

Old Masset is the administrative seat of the Council of the Haida Nation, and is home to about 600 Haida, including some well-known native carvers.

Welcome to the Pacific Northwest, the heart of the temperate rainforest. It is a thin strip of islands and fiords hemmed in by the Coast Mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west, taking its shape from jagged rocks that were pushed up from the ocean floor eons ago.

If this wasn't enough of a primoridal and wild place, I am in the remote islands of Haida Gwaii (formerly the Queen Charlotte Islands), which lie on the extremity of the extreme; a fang-shaped archipelago on the edge of the continental shelf, a day's sail west of British Columbia and just south of the Alaskan panhandle.

This archipelago is made up of 2 main islands (Graham to the north, Moresby to the south) and approximately 150 other smaller islands shrewn about them, with a combined land area comparable to the big island of Hawai'i (10,180 km²) with a population of only 4800. About half of the population is of Haida ancestry. The Haida are famous for the totem pole, a ubiquitous sight on the Canadian west coast. They were also revered as a ruthless warrior culture that would raid neighbouring tribes, plunder their riches and take slaves

The Desolate North Coast

At North Beach, according to Haida legend, raven first brought people into the world by coaxing them out of a clam shell, making North Beach the site of creation.

up and down the coast. The other half of the population is white and stereotypically British Columbian - a motley mix of loggers, hippies and a few others that lie somewhere (and anywhere) in between.

Haida Gwaii is in many ways still a "frontier"; the first European to step ashore was Captain Cook in 1778, long after most of the Pacific had been explored) and the waters to the north, Dixon Entrance, is still a disputed boundary between Canada and the US. In fact, the whole archipelago was renamed in June 2010 to its current name which means "Islands of the (Haida) People". Traveling here has an undertone of being on a pilgrimage; this is a spot close to the hearts of those on the West Coast, a place that was once home to warriors, then logged to stumps, and now, a protected sanctuary.

Haida Gwaii is a symbolic place to the Haida, loggers and hippes alike - when you can actually see it through the fog and rain! The bands of weather systems that continuously march in from the Pacific make it seem as though Mother Nature herself were bipolar. One moment you've got sunny skies, and

The Pesuta Shipwreck

December 11, 1928: The Pesuta, a 264-foot 2000-ton log carrier, was under tow by the tug Imbrecaria in the Hecate Strait just north of Tlell when it was struck by a heavy southeast gale.

the next, rain is blowing sideways in gale-force winds. A warm ocean current delivers warm water from the far side of the Pacific Ocean which moderates the local climate, thus ensuring that while the islands never get very hot, they almost certainly never get very cold. In other words, a perfect recipe for lush vegetation, oodles of mushrooms, astonishing biodiversity, and of course, millions of gigantic trees.

This ocean current originates in Taiwan and is known as the Japan (or Kuroshio) Current, A stroll on the remote western shores of Graham Island provides evidence of the Kuroshiro Current, as beachcombers routinely find sea-trash with Asian labels, or less commonly, Japanese glass balls (flotation for fishing nets) which end up decorating many of the homes here. Even stray dorries and fishing boats travel up to 10,000 km and end up on the beaches here - which may be why the Haida people already possessed small amounts of iron, copper and other foreign influences before Europeans first visited.

Today, Haida Gwaii is reinventing itself as a eco-tourism mecca with multiple day kayaking trips among its desolate south islands as the big highlight. The waters surrounding it are comparable to the