An act of racism was countered with an outpouring of community support for the Tseshaht First Nation on Vancouver Island this week. Tseshaht Chief Ken Watts said he was dismayed Wednesday to learn Port Alberni’s Orange Bridge—painted to read “Every Child Matters” several years ago—had been vandalized for a third time, with both a racial slur and swastikas. The bridge is a recognizable landmark to survivors of the Alberni Indian Residential School, Watts said, and the orange paint has made it feel more welcoming to those who return to the area in search of healing, through the uuʔatumin yaqckʷiimitqin (“Doing It for Our Ancestors”) project. “Many remember,” Watts said Thursday. “That bridge is the last bridge they saw before they went up to a horrific place.” That significance has made the repeated acts of vandalism—first shortly after the bridge was first painted in 2022, then twice over the last two weeks—particularly upsetting, the chief said. But he’s found the reaction from both within and outside the Tseshaht community to be worth celebrating. Watts said he discussed last week’s vandalism with some residential school survivors, and was moved when they suggested praying for the perpetrators—an act of grace he feels could be a powerful example for others. “I’m like wow, how can you be so humble about people that are putting this hatred to us?” he said. “They can go through the things they went through and be the bigger person.” After this week’s incident, the Tseshaht First Nation also put out a call for help repainting the Orange Bridge, and dozens heeded the call, working together to quickly cover up the graffiti. Watts also thanked B.C.’s Ministry of Transportation and Transit, which scrambled to close off part of the highway within hours of the nation’s request so the repainting could be done safely. Officials noted the two recent vandalism incidents come amid an increase in residential school denialism in the province, something Spencer Chandra Herbert, B.C.’s minister of Indigenous relations and reconciliation, called “deeply disturbing.” “The facts as they relate to residential schools have been heavily studied and litigated. There is no question about the horrors, abuse and cultural genocide,” he said in a statement Thursday. “I raise my hands to leadership of the Tseshaht for their continued care in responding to this attack.” Watts said he believes overall, reconciliation efforts are having a positive cultural impact, pointing to the annual marches on the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation that draw thousands of attendees. Locally, the chief said, the majority of participants are non-Indigenous, something he said is a more powerful statement than the work of a few vandals. “Let’s not let things like this pull us down from the real work we need to do,” he said. “Because reconciliation isn’t just about governments and First Nations—it’s actually all of us as human beings working together to educate about the past, but also to chart a path for our kids so that they can live in a better world.” The Port Alberni RCMP said the two latest acts of vandalism are under investigation, and asked that anyone with information contact the detachment or Crime Stoppers. Investigators are also looking for dash-cam video from any vehicles that were travelling on the Pacific Rim Highway at Falls Road between 9 p.m. and 11 p.m. on Jan. 14, or between midnight and 1:30 a.m. on Jan. 21.
