Broughton Archipelago is a magical village of islands. We’ve been able to explore in the calmest of waters, and the gentlest of breezes. The resulting glassy reflection on the surface of the sea seems to highlight the sense of Life in everything around here. The birds and the fish may be the spirits who populate the area most obviously today, but the signs of human existence here for thousands of years are obvious.
Today we traveled up Indian Channel and through Village Channel. Our destination was a bay on Village Island, the site of ‘Mi’Mkwamlis (Mamalilaculla). A thriving First Nations community once lived here, in the early 1900s there was even a schoolhouse.
We came by dingy in late afternoon, when the sun had once again burned though the clouds and was low enough in the sky to cast a slightly orange glow over everything. The remains of an old house peaking out of the treetops, and several beams in the sand at odd & upright angles were our first glimpses. We found a set of stairs, and followed a beaten path through nettles and thimbleberry bushes to the massive remains of a longhouse – a huge cedar log held upright by 2 other enormous old trees. Just beyond that lurked the skeleton of a house, doors open and receiving the full force of the environment surrounding it. Further up the path was a fallen, decaying totem, tipping down a hill and towards the beach. It seemed to depict some sort of alligator type creature near what used to be the top, which made us all scratch our heads a little.
Some beach combing on the broken glass and rusted engine parts beach, and towards another old building we could see tucked away in the forest. Closer inspection revealed the old schoolhouse, peeling green and white paint on a cement foundation, overgrown with trees. A path from there lead to another beach, where the ribs of an old dock still poked out of the water.
Crab and more salmon for dinner, a full day and an early night.
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