July 29, 2025: place noting and place making

Last nights anchorage was very near the reef of Kwuwmuqs in the little protected bay near the Thetis Island ferry dock. On the evening, seals fished on the reef, splashing and smacking the water. The electric ferry which serves Thetis and Penelakut glides between the smaller outlying islands and onshore we walked to the bakery at Telegraph Harbour, picked some blackberries and walked through some community trails.

Thetis and Penelakut Islands are barely separated by a thin passage of water called St’q’in but they are more than separated by culture and history. Thetis is an island of settlers and Penelakut is the home community for the Penelakut Tribe. It’s a quiet and serene place now but it was a site of violence from Indigenous raiders in 1861 and the British Navy who shelled it in 1863, and the Catholic Church. From 1890 to 1978 the Roman Catholic Church operated a residential school there which harboured abuse and sexual assault and a high profile case in 2002 saw one of the brothers charged with some of these crimes. Gaining control over their territory, culture, and community has been a long fight for the Penelakut. The Tribe now has a land code, a longhouse, an elementary school, and services for members, and like every other tribal community in this province is engaged in the long project of healing from historical trauma and enacted its rights and title over the land and seas.

More acts of local placemaking. My friend Emily van Lidthe de Juede labels weeds on our island so you know what you’ve got living around you.

A classic Cory Doctorow piece on why and how he blogs and one with which I strongly resinate. Writing every day, annotating interesting things I’ve found, sharing them out there, and asking questions is making me a better writer and a more prolific writer. I have a book on the go and several mini books in the hopper as well. These are all flowers that were seeded by blogging.

There’s lots to think about in this podcast from The Hub about Canada’s current trade negotiations with the US. My key takeaway is that all of US trade policy at the moment is a shakedown of trading partners. And I still think the US administration believes that Canada should be the 51st state and so weakening our economy badly with a slow crawl to stagnation may be part of a long game.