Do you remember when people used to bore their friends by showing them endless slides of their vacation trips? Or maybe it was a photo album filled with people you didn’t know and landscapes that had no meaning for you.
Today travellers use their phone to capture the exciting moments of their trip and almost instantly send the photos to the people back home. There is no longer any need to stand in line at the photo kiosk waiting to print your travel memories before sharing them with others.
I recently returned from a West World bus tour to Haida Gwai. The 28 people on the tour bus managed to almost instantly share over 700 photographic images. Those on the tour were invited to download an application called Photo Circle. The app allowed us to upload photographs that we were willing to share with others. By the end of our 12-day trip we had collectively shared over 700 photos which I expect was a fraction of those actually captured on our phones.
My daughter, granddaughter and I travelled on the tour bus west by buss across northern Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia with overnight stops at Edmonton, Prince George, Terrace and Prince Rupert. BC Ferries took us to Graham Island, the most northerly on the Queen Charlotte Islands which are now called Haida Gwai. We had lovely sunny weather and managed to miss the wildfire smoke that chocked Prince Albert mid-July. While we explored the Haida homeland we stayed at the Sea Raven Motel in Daajing Giids. At the Haida Heritage Centre operated by Parks Canada we learned about totem poles, Haida canoes and cedar trees which are call the tree of life. Cedars are used to carve monument poles, canoes and for building longhouses. Strips of the inner bark of cedar trees are used for weaving baskets, hats and even highly decorated capes.
We hiked through the old-growth rainforest to the site of the sacred Golden Space. Several years ago the iconic tree was cut down by a respected forester in protest of commercial logging practices. We spent two afternoons strolling along the beach at low tide, collecting shells and agates. We enjoyed a tradition Haida feast and the after-dinner entertainment provided by young people demonstrating traditional dances and regalia. They welcomed us into their longhouse, treated us like family and sang the songs of their ancestors. The cultural evening was all the more meaningful when I remembered that under the Potlatch laws, Haida
were prevented from speaking their language and engaging in ceremonies for almost 100 years.
During our trip we also visited a recreated Ksan village near Hazelton, a salmon cannery at Prince Rupert and a forestry and railway museum at Prince George.
I will have lots of photographs from my trip to show people but the best image for me are those that remain in my memory.
