Blunden Harbour is a small harbour and native Indian reserve in the

Canadian province Within the geographical areas of Canada, the ten provinces and three territories are sub-national administrative divisions under the jurisdiction of the Canadian Constitution. In the 1867 Canadian Confederation, three provinces of British North ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

. It is located the mainland side of

Queen Charlotte Strait , image = Canadian pilot, near Port Hardy BC.jpg , alt = , caption = A pilot boat plies Queen Charlotte Strait near Port Hardy , image_bathymetry = Locmap-QCS-Hecate-Dixon.png , alt_bathymetry = ...

about northeast of

Port Hardy Port Hardy is a district municipality in British Columbia, Canada located on the north-east end of Vancouver Island. Port Hardy has a population of 4,132 as of the last census (2016). It is the gateway to Cape Scott Provincial Park, the North Co ...

. Blunden Harbour was the location of a Kwakwaka'wakw village, whose residents referred to themselves as the 'Nak'waxda'xw and are known historically as the Nakoaktok.Ronald W. Hawker.
Yakuglas' Legacy: The Art and Times of Charlie James
'. University of Toronto Press, Scholarly Publishing Division; 6 January 2017. . p. 88–.

History

The location was named Blunden Harbour in 1863 by Daniel Pender, R.N., Captain of H.M. hired surveying vessel

Beaver Beavers are large, semiaquatic rodents in the genus ''Castor'' native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere. There are two extant species: the North American beaver (''Castor canadensis'') and the Eurasian beaver (''C. fiber''). Beavers ar ...

, after his 2nd Master Edward Raynor Blunden. Blunden Island, Blunden Rock and Blunden Passage are also named for Blunden. Although they moved about in the area between Cape Caution, Blunden Harbour and Seymour Inlet, by 1884 the 'Nak'waxda'xw had established a winter village at Blunden Harbour. The Kwak'wala name for this location is alternatively written as Ba'as, Ba'a's, Paas, or Pahas. The official name of the Indian reserve is Pahas Indian Reserve 3. In the first two decades of the 20th century, the area was promoted to European settlers under the name of Port Progress. Settlement was short-lived and the name is not an official place name of Canada, though it still appears as a place name in several online databases including

Google Earth Google Earth is a computer program that renders a 3D computer graphics, 3D representation of Earth based primarily on satellite imagery. The program maps the Earth by superimposition, superimposing satellite images, aerial photography, and geog ...

. In 1964, the community was forced to relocate to

after the Canadian

Department of Indian and Northern Affairs Department may refer to: * Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility Government and military * Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...

threatened to cut off support for housing, education, and services if they remained in their isolated location. The village was burnt to the ground before the community had left in boats. This was to ensure they would not return.

Art and film

Blunden Harbour was home to a well-known school of Kwakwaka'wakw artists, the most notable being

Willie Seaweed Willie Seaweed (1873–1967) was a Kwakwaka'wakw chief and wood carver from Canada. He was considered a master Pacific Northwest, Northwest Coast Indian artist who is remembered for his technical artistic style and protection of traditional native ...

. Blunden Harbour is the title of an

Emily Carr Emily Carr (or M. Emily Carr as she sometimes signed her work) (December 13, 1871 – March 2, 1945) was a Canadian artist and writer who was inspired by the Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast. One of the painters in Canada to ado ...

painting, based on a 1901 photograph taken by Dr Charles F. Newcombe of the village. The painting was made between 1927 and 1932 and is currently on display in the

National Gallery of Canada The National Gallery of Canada (french: Musée des beaux-arts du Canada), located in the capital city of Ottawa, Ontario, is Canada's national art museum. The museum's building takes up , with of space used for exhibiting art. It is one of the l ...

. Blunden Harbour is also the title of a 22 min anthropological film by made by Robert Gardner in 1951.
Looking with Robert Gardner
'. SUNY Press; 1 August 2016. . p. 156–.Ute Lischke.
Walking a Tightrope: Aboriginal People and Their Representations
'. Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press; 2005. . p. 316–. In it, Gardner inaccurately describes the location of Blunden Harbour as being "a small village on the coast of

Vancouver Island Vancouver Island is an island in the northeastern Pacific Ocean and part of the Canadian Provinces and territories of Canada, province of British Columbia. The island is in length, in width at its widest point, and in total area, while are o ...

."Robert Gardner - Films & Videos

References

{{coord, 50, 54, N, 127, 17, W, display=title Unincorporated settlements in British Columbia Kwakwaka'wakw villages Central Coast of British Columbia

History

Art and film

See also

References