They will dance again

Page 3

On Aug. 29, 1997, Gukwdzi, the 'Namgis bighouse in Alert Bay, was burned to the ground by the estranged common-law husband of a 'Namgis woman.

Although the arsonist had only recently arrived on Cormorant Island from his home in El Salvador, he knew exactly how to strike at the heart of a community he felt had spurned him.

On June 5, 1998, Justice Allan Thackray sentenced the man to three years less the 18 months he had already served. The sentence was scorned by Northern Vancouver Island First Nations people; it was the term prescribed for burning a car or a shed, not the core of a nation.

Built in 1965 after the repeal of the 1920 federal anti-potlatch laws, Gukwdzi was built with one old farm tractor and the hearts, memories, and muscles of the entire 'Namgis community. It was the cultural and spiritual centre - the soul of the 'Namgis and Kwakwaka'wakw people.

After its original opening, magnificent Kwakwaka'wakw masks that had been hidden in attics for a generation and coppers that had kept out of the hands of Indian agents by being nailed to the undersides of kitchen tables all came back out for what many now identify as a cultural reawakening after a century of a European-imposed dark age.

Over the next 22 years, Gukwdzi would host hundreds of important ceremonies. Names were given there, Elders remembered, and an entire culture was reborn as the blanket of oppression was slowly lifted. Then, disaster.

"Roaring flames consumed the two-headed serpents, sisiutls, that formed crossbeams, licked around the rafters carved to represent kelp, and charred the hand-carved houseposts of eagles and grizzly bears," reported Stephen Hume in the Vancouver Sun. "Inside the inferno, the last dance on the floor where great chiefs and families performed was reserved for swirling dervishes of heat and smoke."

"In all my 96 years I never experienced anything so horrible," said 'Namgis Elder Lily Speck. "I watched it from my kitchen window and I just stood there and wept."

The entire community of Alert Bay, and indeed all 14 Kwakwaka'wakw nations, were devastated by the fire described by many as "the loss of a member of the family." But even before the embers of the lost bighouse had cooled, plans were already underway for the reconstruction as fundraising began in Alert Bay, and soon spread to neighboring towns of Port McNeill and Sointula and across Vancouver Island.

More than $1.4 million was raised for the reconstruction project, and more than 200 contractors, foresters and volunteers came together to rebuild I'TUSTO on the same ground where Gukwdzi once stood.

A construction firm was hired to make ensure I'TUSTO was equipped with the latest kitchen, bathroom, fire protection and security features. Loggers from Canfor volunteered their time to scour Northern Vancouver Island for the precise trees needed by master-carver Doug Cranmer for the elaborately carved support poles, crossbeams and roof supports.

Every piece of Douglas Fir and Western Red Cedar was lovingly milled, planed, and fit into place by both Native and non-Native volunteers and workers. Measuring 27 metres (88.6 feet) wide by 36 metres (118.1 feet) long, the new 'Namgis bighouse is one of the largest and most ornate structures of its type on the entire West Coast.

Less than two years after their cultural centre was burned to the ground, the 'Namgis people hosted one of the largest gatherings ever seen in the tiny fishing community of Alert Bay.

More than 3,000 people were welcomed to the shores of Cormorant Island on May 28, 1999 for the official opening of I'TUSTO, which means "to rise again."

Now, a year later, film-maker Barb Cranmer has released her video-account of the rebuilding of a community with her film I'TUSTO -To Rise Again, which premiered at its namesake bighouse before being shown at film festivals and on television networks across Canada.

"So many of our Elders who have passed on, we have a picture in our minds of those people as they were in he bighouse," said 'Namgis Chief Bill Cranmer. "The man who burned our bighouse down was trying to destroy that picture. With the rebuilding of our bighouse, we've shown the world that we have a strength and culture that can never be destroyed."