Introduction
Learning about ancestors and their history is definitely one of the captivating activities for students. Historical knowledge might sometimes help to understand the contemporary world better, and it is also highly educative. Homalco Wildlife & Cultural tours offer an exclusive opportunity to feel like a part of the indigenous peoples’ group, plunge into wildlife nature, and get a lot of new knowledge and exciting experience.
The Homalco First Nation Community
The Homalco First Nation is a community that inhabits Bute Inlet, part of British Columbia, Canada. Life for these groups might be full of obstacles, sometimes due to the historical context. However, in spite of uneasy relationship with the Canadian government, local peoples tend to choose their own path for the development and even try to save their culture and traditionsin the younger generations. Members of the nation are very open to sharing their heritage by organizing exclusive excursions, where travelers can learn more about the history and life of ancestors as well as they can enjoy surrounding nature, see different birds and animals in their natural habitat. I had a wonderful chance to go to a few Homalco Wildlife and Cultural tours, which offer a variety of short trips to the lands of indigenous citizens. Small groups of people can choose one or a few tours of their interests. My friends and I decided to go to both available trips: People, Water, Land, and Great Bears of Bute in July 2019.
People, Water, Land Tour
People, Water, Land is an eight-hour tour, where visitors move through the Salish Sea in a heated and covered boat while contemplating the local flora and fauna. During this amusing journey, there is an outstanding opportunity to watch for such beautiful animals as humpback whales, sea lions, dolphins, bald eagles, and orcas. Moreover, there is a guide that informs and educates about everything around and how it is integrated into the culture of the Homalco First Nation.
Great Bears of Bute Tour
Great Bears of Bute is a one day trip that focuses on the watching grizzly bears in their natural habitat. According to Proctor et al. (2018), British Columbia is one of the main habitats for grizzly bears.Thus, there is a high possibility to see a few individuals. Bears come to Algaard Creek and the Orford River to hunt salmon and its eggs. Hamilton, Demarchi, Demarchi, and Branch (2018) argue that usually tourists see male individuals because males tend to travel for food more often than females do. Females with the cubs prefer to stay at their core homes and eat different food, for example, berries.
I would highly recommend these tours to every student in this class. It is an outstanding opportunity to observe nature. Borges de Lima and Green(2018) highlight that wildlife tourism has a significant educational value for all types of people. Moreover, the guides of the tours give many crucial details on how flora and fauna are integrated with the local history. For example, they showed us signs of bears and told us that, in the past, they helped people to navigate around.Besides, it was fascinating to see ancient pictographs on the walls. It is a tremendously different experience to observe it in real life from seeing them in books. I also learned about the cedar tree, which is symbolic for the Homalco First Nation because it was a life provider for boats (canoes), burial boxes, and shelter. In my opinion, to be more aware of the lives of the communities, it is necessary to visit this region.
Conclusion
To conclude, Homalco Wildlife & Cultural Tours is one of the brightest memories I have from this summer. The trips give a chance to learn a lot of essential facts about the local communities. Being close to wildlife nature is quite unusual for an urban citizen. Watching for whales and orcas, as well as observing grizzly bears, is breath-taking. I hope I will be able to go there again at some point in my life.
References
- Borges de Lima, I., & Green, R. J. (Eds.) (2018). Wildlife tourism, environmental learning, and ethical encounters ecological and conservation aspects. Cham, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing.
- Hamilton, A. T., Demarchi, D. N., & Demarchi, D. A. (2018). British Columbia grizzly bear habitat classification and rating. Victoria, BC: Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy, Ecosystems Branch.
- Proctor, M. F., Kasworm, W. F., Annis, K. M., MacHutchon, A. G., Teisberg, J. E., Radandt, T. G., & Servheen, C. (2018). Conservation of threatened Canada-USA trans-border grizzly bears linked to comprehensive conflict reduction. Human-Wildlife Interactions, 12(3), 21.