A new First Nations history murals could soon be part of the Port Hardy landscape.At their regular meeting Jan.
12, the District of Port Hardy council approved submitting an application for a $44,050 grant from Heritage
Canada’s Canada 150 program.If the funding request is approved, the plan calls for a three to four-panel three-
dimentional mural to be carved that is the same size as the one currently located in the Port Hardy Civic Centre
(about 35 feet by 5 feet). Once complete, the new mural will be displayed in the same location. The district will
contribute $400 in cash, and $1,000 in in-kind goods or services to the project.The murals will celebrate and
educate residents about the past, and honour the history of the Kwakwaka’wakw people.The theme of the
murals will be Galgapola which means “holding each other up, coming together”.The work will be done in public
at the Thunderbird Mall so that people are able to watch and it is estimated that between 10 to 25 student
carvers will be included in the process.The application includes a letter of support from the First Nations
Relations Committee as well as from the Kwakiutl band, said Councillor Pat Corbett-Labatt, who is a member of
the committee.”They’re support is incredible,” Corbett-Labatt said. “It could take up to six months to hear,” if the
application is successful, said Corbett-Labatt. “We do happen to have some of the best artists in Canada on the
North Island,” said Mayor Hank Bood. Bood said he has had some very productive meetings with Kwakiutl
Nation Chief Leslie Dickie and Hereditary Chief George Hunt and there is a sense that “we need to move
ahead together” and that there are “so many opportunities for the North Island working together.”
