Nuxalk Community Opens School Year with IPAC Ambassadors
IPAC Ambassadors and the Naut’sa mawt Initiative brought laughter and learning resources to Bella Coola and the Nuxalk community.
Bella Coola Elementary is a Kindergarten to Grade 4 school serving approximately 90 students.
What a way to start the 2022 school year! This small community has never had the opportunity to access resources like the IPAC Map. After 2 years of lock down because of Covid restrictions it was excited to see some new learning opportunities arrive.
With the help of West Coast Marine Services, IPAC ambassadors were able to travel to the remote community along with the Giant Floor Map kit. The journey started on Vancouver Island and through various aircraft and watercraft it eventually arrived aboard the RCMP Patrol Vessel Inkster.
The Nuxalk people (Nuxalk: Nuxalkmc; pronounced [nuχalkmx]), are an Indigenous First Nation of the Pacific Northwest Coast, centred in the area in and around Bella Coola, British Columbia. Their language is also called Nuxalk. It is believed that Bella Coola probably numbered about 5,000 at the time of their first contacts with Europeans but were reduced by disease in the 19th century to less than 1,000 people, most living in a single village. Bella Coola and other Salish descendants numbered more than 21,000 in the early 21st century.
Both teachers and school kids learned how to unpack and set-up the giant floor map with the assistance of IPAC Ambassador Tony Eeftink.
These children are future ambassadors! Truly modelling the Naut’sa mawt way by working together with one mind and one heart.