May 30th - Day 4 - 

Nan Sdins and SGaang Gwaii 

This morning I visited Nan Sdins for the first time. It was the beginning of one of the most special days of travel in my life and a day I will not soon forget.

We left our anchorage early in the morning, intent on beating forecasts of gale force winds later in the afternoon. I did not realize the importance of this until I read a little more about SGaang Gwaii (Anthony Island), the exposed island that Nan Sdins is located on. 

It is the last stop on the way to Japan, an island named by the Haida centuries ago for the sound made by the 30 - 40 foot waves that surge through a hollow Sitka spruce.

In another sheltered bay on the east side of SGaang Gwaii lies the oldest recorded Haida Village in the South Charlottes and was also the last village on SGaang Gwaii to have permanents residents. Today, Nan Sdins is one of the world's most revered native cultural sites, a site so important to the Haida and to the world that in 1981 it was declared a UNESCO Word Heritage Site. It houses twenty long house sites and more than a dozen standing totem poles, spectacular examples of the prowess of Haida carvers.

We walked up a trail through ancient forests to the Watchmen's cabin with Dion, a young Haida resident of Skidegate and our guide for the morning. Again, we had sunny blue skies and when I walked off the board walk past the Watchmen's cabin and approached the first totem standing alone on the edge of the village site, I did what I do naturally when I see something that astounds me--I knelt down, pulled out my camera and began to take photographs.

For me, taking a picture is much more than recording a moment in time. I take photographs so that other people, like you, can see places you have never been before or remember places from your past, places that make the heart feel good for knowing them, the mind feel strong for dreaming of them. Nan Sdins is such a place. I honestly cannot put into words the emotions I felt being there, walking among the totems, walking along a beach that hundred of years ago was home to a few hundred Haida people--warriors, seamen, chieftains, commoners and slaves. It was quite simply something special that I will treasure forever. 

By noon, however, the seas had built to the point where we had to leave SGaang Gwaii. Our final hurrah was exciting if nothing else! We loaded into the zodiacs and launched out into the wind and waves and took a few good ones over the bow. It was far more fun than it was dangerous, though of course we couldn't slip along at our normal speed towards the boat.

Quickly back in sheltered waters, we moved on to Flat Rock looking for puffins and closed out the day exploring the forests and beaches of Rose Inlet. While most of our guests beach combed on their own, Russ and I walked up a small creek and found some of the largest Sitka spruce and I have ever seen--enormous trees with trunks more than fifteen feet in diameter!

As the sun set on another wonderful day, our group was treated to one more special moment. While we had been walking the beaches and forests, Roberta had been back on the boat preparing a sampling of Haida foods for us. When we returned, she gave each of us dried seaweed (skuu), smoked salmon (gilgii), dried halibut (also called gilgii) herring roe (kaaw) displayed on green cedar boughs on individual scallop shells.

Roberta's Haida name is Keenawwii (Heavy-In-Presence). She is a member of both the Eagle and Raven families in Haida society and has cooked for presidents (Jimmy Carter and his wife), princesses (the Princess of Japan) and celebrities (David Suzuki). While her cooking has been fantastic, the best thing that Keenawii has shared with us on this journey trough her homeland is her sense of being Haida.

As our shells were handed out, Keenawii told us of how she was inviting us into her house, for it made her feel more comfortable to be in her house. She explained how she discovered years ago at the blockade on Lyell Island that her gift to people was her ability to being out joy in them through cooking; how when the elders put themselves in the blockade to save the ancient forests, the Haida people were crying and distraught; how her cooking for them that day brought smiles to their faces and told her that she had a gift to give back.

She told us how when they landed at Lyell Island an eagle joined them and for some reason was not afraid of the people and stayed with them during the blockade. And she told us how her granddaughter asked if Grandma had been bad when the RCMP arrived at her door to arrest her for her part in the blockade.

Finally, Keenawii brought out an eagle feather and began to wave it gently as she said a Haida prayer:

"Saalaana gaa taaw gaay sqaawdgi dang gahl kil laa gaa howa."
"Creator, for the food and for you, I thank you. Howa."

There were not many dry eyes left in the place. Howa (thank you) Keenawii, for a special end to a very special day.