BY PHIL VERNON

Special to the Driftwood

“Some people can talk about their residential school experience. Others may be willing to tell their story one day. Then there are those, like me, who will take it to their graves.”

I was speaking with Mike Charlie at the Fernwood Road Café about six years ago. Mike was chair of the Penelakut Sulxwe’en Elders Group, whom Chris Marshall of the Salt Spring Archives and I had invited over to discuss the creation of Indigenous signage at the Fernwood dock.

A key question for the signage was whether to include the residential school story on a panel, so I asked Mike.

“It was bad,” he said. “Kids died there.”

Mike’s father was W̱SÁNEĆ, his mother Penelakut. He and his brothers had been living in Washington state when their mom’s sister called them home to Penelakut — to Kuper Island as it was called then — when their mom wasn’t well enough to look after them. As soon as the kids got there, they were sent to the Kuper Island Industrial School, an imposing two-storey brick building overlooking the bay.

I’d first met Mike some years before, on a visit to Penelakut. We were just leaving when a voice called out, “Hi!” I turned and there was this guy looking up with an irrepressible grin. “I’m Mike,” he said, and shook my hand. That was all; I left and filed away his creased, crumpled — yet bright — face in my brain.

It wasn’t until that day in the Fernwood café, and subsequent conversations with Mike about the residential school and his passion to honour those who didn’t come home, that I began to appreciate Mike more deeply. Never marrying, he was dedicated to his community, a good uncle to his brothers’ children and soccer coach to all the kids on Penelakut.

As the Indigenous Signage Project inched forward through COVID shutdown, cancelled meetings and funerals, Mike kept alive our collaborative process. Despite his own health struggles, he was determined that we’d finish the panels.

During the project’s final year the news broke about the unmarked graves at the Kamloops Residential School, followed immediately by Penelakut revealing they’d already documented more than 160 graves next to the site of the demolished Kuper Island Industrial School. In the flurry of news reports and interviews, the Sulxwe’en met and Myrus James suggested a March for the Children.

As chair of the Elders Group, Mike took on organizing the event, connecting with First Nation communities up and down Vancouver Island where kids had been taken and sent to Kuper Island, getting hundreds of orange T-shirts printed and even dying his own hair orange.

When over 1,500 people showed up that August day in 2021, a veritable sea of orange washing up the hill to Waterwheel Park, everyone including Mike was stunned — they’d never imagined such a turn-out. Salt Spring Islanders were there in force to listen to the stories and show support, and we’ve continued every year since.

Sadly, Mike never saw the completion of the signage project. That winter he entered hospital with complications of kidney disease; while there he contracted COVID and died.

Those of us who worked with Mike will never forget him — his jokes, his warmth and infectious spirit.

Mike’s commitment to helping strengthen his people’s culture extended beyond this life, making final arrangements before his death for a traditional service and burial.

At the graveside after the service, I watched the men of the community lining up to take turns with the shovel to cover the coffin and slowly fill the grave. Towards the end I stepped up too. I thought of the day I first met Mike. What I saw then in his face, I came to know: a fire, brightly burning, for truth and for justice.

This Monday, Aug. 4, is the fifth annual March for the Children. What does it mean? To me, it means standing with those whose brothers, sisters and cousins never came home. It means standing with survivors and their families across Canada, those who lost their childhoods, their languages and cultures. Those forever marked by their experiences, who struggle every day to stop the cycle of violence in their families and communities.

I know how much it means to them for non-Indigenous people like me to listen to their stories, to bear witness to the terrible legacy of our governments’ racist policies and, finally, to acknowledge that things have yet to be made right.

The Penelakut People invite you to join them on their unceded territory and traditional village of Sunuwnets (Chemainus), meeting at 8:30 a.m. at the Salish Sea Market/Chemainus ferry terminal. For those unable to participate in the march, go directly to Waterwheel Park for prayers, dances and testimonials.

A pair of Mayne Island authors hope their new children’s book — a collaboration set in a familiar-feeling small island town — will help readers build a bridge across sometimes-troubling cultural differences, through the example set by two seemingly unlikely role models: the authors themselves, reimagined as they might’ve been in Grade 4. 

Jess Willows and Johnny Aitken will be at the library on Salt Spring Island at 1 p.m. Friday, Aug. 1 as part of their Southern Gulf Islands book launch tour for Two Tricksters Find Friendship. That book’s themes of friendship and strength of character have resonated with readers, telling the story of a young girl named Jessie who moves to the small coastal community and becomes fast friends with Johnny — a local Indigenous boy from the nearby reserve.  

And while Willows and Aitken said the small community where the story is set may remind readers of Mayne Island — or Cortes, or Alert Bay, or even Salt Spring, they said — and familiar tales of beachcombing or coveted cinnamon buns notwithstanding, Two Tricksters Find Friendship could be seen as happening anywhere Coast Salish culture intersects with that of non-Indigenous settlers, and wherever ties to the land are felt and differences spark misunderstanding. 

In the new chapter book, illustrated by Alyssa Koski, the young protagonists face outside pressures and prejudices, but with guidance from Raven — the wise trickster from many Indigenous stories — a Two-Spirit spiritual teacher named Steven and other community members, the pair learn to celebrate and lean on one another. Telling the story through younger versions of themselves helped make the story’s lessons simpler, the authors said; Aitken called it a delightful way to “live a sort of fantasy life of what could have been.” 

“Growing up I didn’t get to spend too much time on the reserve,” said Aitken. “Just because of circumstances in my life, I wasn’t brought up in that way. So it’s been a great experience to be able to fantasize about it. I come from a theatre background, so we did some role playing, saying, ‘OK, well, this is what we’re doing — and what would Johnny say? What would Jessie say?’ And we had fun with it.” 

Other events in the book are based upon life experiences the pair had when they were kids in their respective Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities — some fact and fiction mixed together, they said. 

“There’s lots to draw upon,” chuckled Aitken, who identifies as Two-Spirit. “I’m a bit of an activist in my community.” 

With Aitken’s background as an Indigenous artist and activist, and Willows’ as an educator with the Gulf Islands School District, the duo’s initial focus was to create something for teachers to use in the classroom — exploring entry points for integrating Indigenous content into the curriculum. 

“The book talks a lot about reconciliation through friendship,” said Willows. “And here Johnny and I are writing together and as such good friends there are so many overlapping parallels between this book and real life.” 

The collaboration has quickly found footing; Two Tricksters Find Friendship has been added to the 2025 Telling Tales and Festival of Literary Diversity Kids summer reading lists, and has been shortlisted for the Children’s/YA Book Award for B.C. authors through the Sunshine Coast Writers and Editors Society.  

Willows said a draft has been accepted for a second book in what is now a series, and the third is sketched out with writing underway. Two Tricksters is a “gentle” vehicle for storytelling, she said, and bringing that world to life through the fictional eyes of younger versions of themselves has been a joy. 

“We wanted the Jessie character to have that curiosity as a way to navigate things that can be a little tricky in our world,” said Willows. “Coming at things like kids do — maybe not with as much judgment as we adults have, but with respect and curiosity.”  

“In this friendship, between Johnny who is First Nations and Jessie who’s a settler, they don’t face obstacles between themselves — those challenges come from the adults,” said Aitken. “But it’s also the adults — and Raven — that bring mentorship through conflict.” 

Not to spoil the story, said Aitken, but a “bona fide reconciliation” takes place between the friends. 

“Johnny and Jessie stand together and support each other in a really good way,” said Aitken. “And they become role models in their community.” 

After Friday’s visit to the Salt Spring Island Public Library, Willows and Aitken — and, of course, Raven — will be at the Saturna Island Community Hall from 2 to 3 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 2.

For more information about the book visit orcabook.com/Two-Tricksters-Find-Friendship. 

BY ELLA ROWLAND

Food Share Program Coordinator

This week, as plums and cherries ripen on the trees, the Salt Spring Island Farmland Trust is kicking off its long-awaited 2025 harvest season, and calling out for volunteers. 

The Harvest Program is part of the broader Food Share Program, which aims to increase food security on Salt Spring, acting as a connection point between delicious, island-grown food and the people who need it. 

After a wildly successful first year in 2024, program co-leads Nick Adamson-Jones and Indra Singh couldn’t be more proud of the impact the Food Share has had so far. With the help of amazing volunteers, they were able to save over 15,000 pounds of apples from going to waste, redistributing them to the community — and that’s just apples! 

As Singh leads me through The Root at 189 Beddis Rd. to the empty storage facility that will soon be filled top-to-bottom with salvaged Salt Spring produce, she reflects on the inaugural year of the program. 

“It was so wonderful last year to see the sheer variety of produce shared with us, and to work with such a lovely group of volunteers,” she said.

Harvested foods were distributed island-wide to organizations like the Food Bank, Gabriel’s Kitchen, IWAV and the Women’s Institute “Pie Ladies.” During one joyful community event, apples were even pressed into juice using an antique apple press. This trusty piece of history has since been retired to make way for a brand-new commercial apple press, allowing the team to greatly scale up production. 

This year’s Food Share coordinator, Ella Rowland, is organizing and guiding backyard harvests across the island. In addition to coordinating harvests, she is also launching a cost-recovery initiative featuring our signature “Eternal Apple Juice” — a custom blend pressed from apples harvested throughout the island. The Food Share team is excited to announce a weekly booth, where community members can sip our delicious cosmic apple juice elixirs, pick up fresh two-litre jugs of apple juice, learn more about our gleaning efforts and connect with local food initiatives. All proceeds will go towards supporting the Food Share program. If you have an event that could benefit from a cider booth, the Food Share team is eager to collaborate, and let the juice speak for itself.

“We had a few information booths last year that were a huge draw to the program,” laughs Singh, “mainly because the juice samples were really, really good.” 

For those unfamiliar with how the Food Share works, the program structure is simple: local treeholders with excess or hard-to-access fruit can register their tree with the Farmland Trust, and a group of dedicated volunteers will come by to harvest it. The bounty is then shared equally between the land owner, volunteers and community organizations. This act of collecting leftover or excess crops, called “gleaning,” reduces food waste, encourages food sharing, and strengthens involvement in local food systems. The Salt Spring Island Food Share is only one of over 200 gleaning programs across North America that are actively working toward these goals. 

Volunteers are essential to the program’s success, and 2024 was proof of just how much can be accomplished with community involvement. The team is now putting out a call for volunteers to join in the 2025 harvests. There’s no minimum commitment, and volunteers like Richard — a fixture of the 2024 program — say the experience is both fun and rewarding. 

“Being a part of the Food Share is a win-win-win for me,” he said. “I get to make a tangible difference in the lives of others while enjoying the camaraderie of like minded-individuals, fresh, local fruit and the beautiful gardens and orchards we have here on Salt Spring.” 

If that sounds appealing to you, sign up to volunteer on the Farmland Trust website by navigating to the Food Share page and clicking “Volunteer Registration Form.” 

The Root will also continue to host its monthly Food Exchange — a beloved tradition where islanders gather to share homegrown produce and homemade dishes. These exchanges take place on the third Sunday of every month, from 3 to 5 p.m., and always begin with a short moment of gratitude for everyone’s contributions. All are welcome. 

As the 2025 season kicks off, the Food Share team invites everyone to take part. Let’s let local food take root!