Tag Archives: National Park

(Click to start Cedar Sister by Terri-Lynn Williams-Davidson.) In the Haida worldview, the cedar tree is known as “every woman’s sister”, providing for and sustaining our existence. This ancient sister lies at the root of Haida culture. She permeates every facet of Haida life, beginning in the cradle and continuing to the grave and finally, […]

View full post »

We were in the doldrums. Quite literally. For three days, we chugged along slowly, never much more than a few degrees off the equator. Our last stop in ‘civilization’ had been in the village of Kwatisore on Cenderawasih Bay (see: Kwatisore Bay and Village). Fortunately, unlike the ancient mariners of poems, tales, and old history […]

View full post »

There is magic in the rocks and trees of Haida Gwaii in Canada’s British Columbia (BC). The people of the Haida Nation have lived here for at least 13,000 years – although ninety percent of the population died in the 1800s from smallpox, thanks to the first European contact in 1774. The islands were important […]

View full post »

It was a trip I’d been anticipating for a long time: an ocean voyage on a small ship to visit remote West Papuan villages and to snorkel in the marine-rich waters around Raja Ampat and the Spice Islands. The chance to swim with giant whale sharks was what had sold me on this particular itinerary. […]

View full post »

We were starting out early: my Berber guide Mohammed was worried about the impact of the hot autumn sun on our steep climb from the trekking lodge (Azzaden Trekking Lodge) near Tizi Oussem in the Toubkal National Park in Morocco, to the mountain pass we needed to cross. I was worried too! I had found […]

View full post »