Indigenous language now included on Ucluelet bus stop signs — a first for B.C. Transit
Now, as the manager of language services for the Ucluelet First Nation's Yuułuʔiłʔatḥ Government, Touchie has helped bring the language to the local transportation system.
Bus stop signs at all 36 B.C. Transit stops in Tofino, Ucluelet, Long Beach, hitaću, Esowista and Ty-histanis now include both English and Nuu-chah-nulth wording.
"As a language learner and as a language teacher, it means the world to me because it's a really great connection to our land and our home," Touchie told CBC's On The Island host Gregor Craigie.
B.C. Transit says this is the first time an Indigenous language has been included on its signs anywhere within its system, but it does plan to work with other communities to include local languages elsewhere.
Government relations manager Seth Wright said B.C. Transit was inspired to include the Nuu-chah-nulth language on signs after seeing Parks Canada do the same.
"We thought that including Nuu-chah-nulth on all bus stop signs was the right thing to do and supported our respective work towards reconciliation," Wright said.
So, they reached out to the Yuułuʔiłʔatḥ Government and Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation for expertise, to try to figure out what words would be appropriate to use.
The names on the signs were created with both Yuułuʔiłʔatḥ and Tla-o-qui-aht dialects in mind, Touchie said.
"It's a working collaboration with our neighbouring nations."
The Nuu-chah-nulth on local signs isn't new to the community; the District of Ucluelet started putting both Nuu-chah-nulth and English on its signs in 2022.
"Ucluelet is very ahead of the times, I would say, because they're trying to incorporate language within the community, and we've been incorporating signs here within our small community of Ittatsoo," Touchie said. "It's been really great to see language kind of blossom and flourish."
She said keeping the local language alive in the community helps both Indigenous and non-Indigenous people understand the history of the Nuu-chah-nulth people.
"Each nation, they've all been there since time immemorial," Touchie said. "But there's, I think, a lack of understanding of what that means for particularly nations that have been there a long time. It's just a really great opportunity to raise those questions and to better understand the nations that surround the communities."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CTV News
an hour ago
- CTV News
Proof of life: tracking elusive Amazon group to save their land
Forest lines the Combu creek, on Combu Island on the banks of the Guama River, near the city of Belem, Para state, Brazil, Aug. 6, 2023. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres) A ceramic pot and the shell of a turtle, once hunted for its meat, are the most recent traces of an Indigenous community thought to live deep in the north Brazilian Amazon. Archaeological finds like these keep turning up, and date back to at least 2009, with members of a neighbouring clan claiming to have caught glimpses of individuals who live in the Ituna/Itata region in Brazil's northern Para state. For now, the nameless, elusive people -- perhaps belonging to more than one group -- remain among dozens of so-called 'uncontacted' communities believed to roam the world's biggest rainforest. 'My sister-in-law told me: 'Over there! Over there!' And it was a little boy staring at me from up close,' recounted Takamyi Asurini, an elder in Ita'aka -- an Indigenous village of about 300, whose accounts of close encounters have fed theories of the existence of uncontacted people in Ituna/Itata. Asurini showed AFP a scar on his ribs he said was the result of being shot with an arrow by an unknown person in the jungle. Such testimonies, and the objects found, are not considered proof of the existence of people in Ituna/Itata. But it is enough for the region to enjoy a provisional protected status meant to prevent invasions by miners, loggers and ranchers -- preserving both the forest and the people thought to live there. The area covers tens of thousands of hectares and is similar in size to Sao Paolo -- the biggest city in Latin America. It became one of the most overrun Indigenous territories in Brazil under former president Jair Bolsonaro, a backer of agro-industry on whose watch Amazon deforestation surged. Now, lobby groups want the Ituna/Itata region's protection to be made permanent, which would mean stricter land use rules and enforcement. 'Historical neglect' For this to happen, the government's National Foundation of Indigenous Peoples (Funai) would have to send expeditions to look for undeniable proof of the group's existence. Part of the challenge is the dense Amazon jungle is home to rich, varied ecosystems that support migratory agriculture for Indigenous peoples, who may travel to hunt, fish and gather food seasonally. Under law, any searchers cannot make contact with them -- potentially putting them at risk of diseases they have no immunity to -- but are to look instead for footprints of their life in the forest. Brazil recognizes 114 'uncontacted' Indigenous groups who live with no or minimal interaction with others. About a quarter are 'confirmed,' while for the rest -- like in Ituna/Itata -- there is 'strong evidence' that they exist. For Luiz Fernandes, a member of umbrella group Coordination of the Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon (COIAB), there has been 'historial neglect' of the issue by the state, which he says 'recognizes the possibility of the existence of these peoples but does not guarantee effective measures to protect the territory.' Added Mita Xipaya, an Indigenous activist: 'the state needs qualified records' to prove that an area hosts uncontacted people, 'but for us it is different: we perceive them in nature, in the sounds we hear, their presences, sometimes their smells.' 'Taking care of the forest' The Brazilian Amazon has lost nearly a third of its native vegetation since records began in 1988, according to environmental NGO Instituto Socioambiental -- except in Indigenous territories where the figure is less than two percent. From 2019 to 2022, the Bolsonaro government suspended the provisional protection measures decreed for Ituna/Itata, prompting an invasion by land grabbers, turning it into the most deforested Indigenous area in Brazil. Though the protection was reinstated under his leftist successor Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the consequences persist, and miles-wide patches of devastated soil intersperse areas of green rainforest, AFP observed during a recent flyover. Brazil will in November host the COP30 UN climate conference in the Amazonian city of Belem under Lula, who has sought to position himself as a leader in forest preservation and the fight against global warming. 'It's not just about taking care of the forest but also of the people who inhabit it, because it's through them that the forest remains standing,' COIAB coordinator Toya Manchineri told AFP. By Carlos Fabal with Facundo Fernandez Barrio in Sao Paulo, AFP
Ottawa Citizen
3 hours ago
- Ottawa Citizen
Outdoors: Creating a Japanese-inspired garden
Article content My English-style flower garden had its moments of glory but was mostly a mishmash of one-off and failure-to-thrive plants. I wanted something simpler, cohesive, peaceful even; I found all that and more in the Japanese-inspired garden I created in my small Centretown Ottawa backyard. Article content Japan's unique gardening tradition, passed from Master to pupil for 1,600 years, is rooted in reverence for the natural world: small ponds or raked gravel suggest the sea, rocks evoke mountains, bamboo speak to resilience, conifers to longevity. Article content Article content Article content After much research, I built two types of Japanese gardens: a spiritual Karensansui or dry garden with carefully placed rocks in a sea of gravel (such as the one at Ottawa's Museum of History), and a very small secular stroll or pond garden. The former is complex, so I will describe the stroll garden. Article content These began around the 8 th century as places for entertaining and aesthetic enjoyment. They usually include a villa, water, paths, bridges, a gate, as well as plants. My stroll garden is much modified from the Japanese ideal; it depends on available plants and the limits of my small space. The garden is only 14-feet long by 12-feet wide, although it is expanded visually by the borrowed landscape or shakkeir of my neighbour's maples and cedars. Article content Article content Japanese stroll gardens are intended to appear natural, as if they grew by themselves, but the components are carefully chosen and arranged. Asymmetry is key; rocks and plants appear in odd-numbered groupings (one, three, five, seven, etc.) often arranged in a triangular shape. Paths and beds are curved; nature has few straight lines. And there are a limited number of elements and plant types with space, or Ma, in between. Article content Article content Hardscaping my garden began with the meandering path, which determined the placement of other elements. I chose simple flag stones, flush to the ground. To stay on the path, you must look down at the stones. When you come to wider stones, strollers may pause and look up to see a specific garden view, like a framed work of art. This is the essence of the stroll garden. Article content A fence or wall provides a backdrop and encloses the garden. Often these are bamboo, but I already had lattice, which allows air to flow through on hot days, so I kept that. Article content I also had a bridge, of sorts. These can be arched or flat, slabs of stone or logs. Mine bridges a downward slope in the garden and is made from floor planks recovered from a demolished workshop. This is in keeping with the Japanese concept of wabi-sabi: succinctly put, embracing imperfect, often aged, natural materials, that illustrate the impermanence of life, a Buddhist tenant.
CTV News
14 hours ago
- CTV News
Dredging desperately needed in Delta
Vancouver Watch People living in float homes in Delta are pleading for help, saying the Fraser River needs dredging badly.
