[ISL] Five islands links: Unalaska, Haida Gwaii, Taiwan and Polynesia, Greenland, Madagascar

• The BBC reports on the Alaskan island of Unalaska, part of the Aleutian chain and fought over during the Second World War.
• Airbnb and short-term stays are apparently contributing to a housing crisis on Haida Gwaii, also known as the Queen Charlotte Islands. Global News reports.
• Duncan De’Aeth at Taiwan News writes about the Hawaiki Project, an initiative to connect the indigenous tribes of the Pacific with the tribes of Taiwan, distant relatives on Austronesians’ island of origin.
• Though the shedding of icebergs from icecap in Greenland may attract tourists, it also endangers local communities. Wired reports.
• Marginal Revolution reports that, despite its deep poverty, Madagascar has some of the fastest broadband internet speeds on the planet.

[NEWS] Five First Nations links: NunatuKavut, Spadina, Arctic education, Gwich’in food, Haida manga

• The Canadian federal government is moving to recognize the Inuit of NunatuKavut, in southern Labrador. Global News reports.
• I wish I had seen this billboard downtown on Spadina Avenue. CBC reports on this indigenous anti-racism initiative.
• Creating Arctic universities with services catering to each of the three northern territories would have positive implications for education, not least among native groups. Global News reports.
• The Discourse reports on how, for the Gwich’in of the Northwest Territories, turning to native foodstuffs is not only key to cultural revival but also the only economically viably way they have to eat.
• At The Conversation, Marie Mauzé takes a look at the innovative Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas and his creation of the new artform of “Haida manga”.

[PHOTO] Looking up from the Market Level at The Three Watchmen

777 Bay Street, a thirty-story tower attached to the main building of College Park in 1984, may be architecturally unadventurous. Its atrium does serve as a wonderful display area for Haida artist Robert Davidson‘s The Three Watchmen, the glass and mirrors of the atrium interior contrasting nicely with the carved wood.

[ISL] Five Islands links: English in Colombia, Haida, Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Sicily

• Can a new film help preserve the English Creole spoken on the Colombian Caribbean islands of San Andres and Old Providence? The Guardian reports.
• Using film to help preserve an indigenous language is also a strategy being used by the Haida of Haida Gwaii, in British Columbia. CBC reports.
• Fredreka Schouten’s account of visiting her native Virgin Islands to see the continued devastation is heart-rending, featured in USA Today.
• The recovery of agriculture in Puerto Rico is a hopeful sign, but will it be enough? National Geographic reports.
• Things do not look very good in Sicily. Spiegel reports.

[ISL] On the visit of William and Kate to Haida Gwaii

The National Post carries the article “Tradition and politics mix as William and Kate paddle to Haida Gwaii by war canoe”, from the Canadian Press’ Dirk Meissner.

Prince William and Kate arrived at a small village off the coast of B.C. on Friday in a replica 15-metre Haida war canoe, taken to the remote island by paddlers wearing T-shirts opposing liquefied natural gas development.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were welcomed to the Haida heritage hall by more than a dozen chiefs and elders.

Young dancers in brightly coloured and beaded costumes performed a dance to honour the survivors of Canada’s residential schools and their personal journeys.

They also did a dance that highlighted the many animals that provide spiritual, cultural and life-sustaining sustenance to the Haida. One dancer wore a full bear costume and rose up and roared like a bear during the dance.

“We are survivors,” Haida Nation spokesman Peter Lantin told William and Kate. “We owe our existence to these islands and these waters. We know that good will come from your visit to Haida Gwaii because you bring hope.”

Inside the hall, William spoke in the Haida language and remarked on the long relationship between the Crown and the Haida.

[ISL] “Haida clan strips titles from two hereditary chiefs for supporting Northern Gateway pipeline”

Postmedia News’ Jeff Lee reports about the very strong Haida reaction against two Haida chiefs who supported the Northern Gateway Pipeline.

The extraordinary decision by a Haida clan to strip two of its hereditary chiefs of their titles for secretly supporting Enbridge Inc.’s proposed Northern Gateway pipeline is being closely watched by First Nations across Canada.

The rebuke, which was delivered last week in an elaborate ceremony witnessed by more than 500 people, came as the Haida nation rejected what they say is a growing trend by companies to enlist the support of hereditary chiefs as a way of claiming broad First Nations support.

“This is an absolutely huge decision and I think it is a wake-up call to the hereditary system of governance and leadership,” said Grand Chief Stewart Phillip of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs.

“I think First Nations across the province and throughout Indian country in general are paying attention to these developments.”

On Aug. 15, members of the clan stripped Carmen Goertzen and Francis Ingram of their titles, effectively removing them as representatives of two houses, the Yahgulaanaas Janaas of Daadens, and the Iitjaaw Yaahl Naas. Goertzen, a well-known Haida artist, had held the position for 25 years. Ingram had only been appointed a year ago.

The men were part of a group of eight, including two other hereditary chiefs, who signed a letter to the National Energy Board in March supporting Northern Gateway’s request for a time extension to its proposal for the oil transport pipeline. Earlier this summer the federal government overturned Northern Gateway’s application, leaving the company with only one more “faint hope” opportunity.

[LINK] “Haida group dumps man behind ocean fertilization”

The Globe and Mail‘s Mark Hume notes that the Haida organization involved in a recent controversial effort at geoengineering, dumping iron sulfate into the Pacific Ocean off the British Columbia coast in the aim of promoting plankton growth and thus absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, has fired Russ George, the man responsible for the decision. ((The Vancouver Sun has more, noting that apparently George disputes his firing.)

In a statement released on Thursday, Haida Salmon Restoration Corp. (HSRC) said it has “removed” Mr. George as a director of the company. “In addition, the HSRC has terminated Mr. George’s employment as an officer of the corporation,” it states.

Mr. George could not be reached for comment. The California businessman is a proponent of the theory that global warming can be blunted and ocean acidification stopped by fertilizing the ocean with iron.

The Haida organization made international headlines several months ago, when it dumped more than 100 tonnes of an iron substance into the ocean off Haida Gwaii in an attempt to stimulate plankton growth.

The HSRC hoped to recover its investment through increased salmon harvests and through selling carbon credits by demonstrating that the iron grew massive clouds of plankton that sucked CO2 out of the atmosphere.

But the experiment, which was not sanctioned by any official body and lacked the involvement of recognized ocean scientists, was widely condemned by researchers, the federal government and the United Nations.