Lach Klan. Also known as Kitkatla. This peaceful village of ~450 people on an island between Prince Rupert and Haida Gwaii is home to the Gitxaala Nation. It’s been my northern home where I’ve been living and working as an outpost nurse ~ 5 weeks in, 5 weeks out for the last (almost) six years. I’ve had the great pleasure to get to know most of the people here and is where I learned the true meaning of community.
I met Shailyn and Arisa through their moms who both worked at the health centre. It’s been an interesting experience to watch kids grow up here. For some reason, in my mind, kids are the same age as when I met them (6 years ago) so I’m regularly blown away when someone tells me they’re basically an adult and I still think they’re 12. It makes me feel kinda old in an amusing way.
So watching these two young ladies over the years has been a real delight. They are bright, ambitious and have some solid goals for their futures. Shailyn loves everything about the ocean and wants to be a marine biologist, and Arisa is an incredibly talented makeup artist and super amazing sister to her little brother.
Pretty much everyone here has been on a boat from the time they started walking, so I was really excited to head out with these two for an adventure session!
Woman, by Kesha, runs through my head every time I look at this photo of these badass ladies 😉
And then, through no fault of their own, the motor died and they did everything they could to restart it.
Luckily a passing fishing boat gave us a hand.
Our friend, Bruce, couldn’t get the motor started either.
So, he towed us back to “the float” and we all had a good laugh about it.
But, no time for nonsense. Back to modelling. Once we were back at the dock, we rowed to a nearby island.
Then we found another boat! Shailyn’s parents and little sister came back from a fishing adventure just before sunset. We hopped in and headed back out.
Our little island turned out to be a hot spot for sea urchin so Shailyn’s parents, Marilyn and Theo and baby sister, Arianna harvested while they waited for us 🙂
The sun set and it was time to go home. Thanks for the adventure, ladies! 😘