‘Stronger as One’ — 2024 Guardians Gathering – Coastal First Nations

June 10, 2024

Since 2008, the Coastal Stewardship Network (CSN), a program of Coastal First Nations-Great Bear Initiative, has facilitated an Annual Gathering to bring Guardians and other stewardship staff together, to discuss, compare and strengthen regional stewardship efforts.

The 2024 CSN Annual Gathering (May 6-10) was the first ever hosted in Nuxalkulmc (Nuxalk homelands), and featured several group field trips to learn about the region’s cultural and natural significance. Ernie Bolton, a Gitxaała Elder from the village of Lax Klan, accompanied a delegation of Gitxaała Guardians to attend this year’s gathering. Ernie says while he never formally worked as a Guardian, he grew up learning to guard and look after his territory from his dad and family, as well as through his community, culture and governance.

“We protect our territories through feasting,” Ernie says during a cedar weaving workshop on the first day of the gathering. “Each clan has a territory, water, rivers, lands, we all share that. Those places, that’s where our names come from, right from the skies to the mountains, to the waters. We still practice our feasting — through deaths, loss, passing down names and chieftainships. We still exercise that business today.”