The “… Haida culture is not simply song and dance, graven images, stories, language, or even blood. It is all of those things and then … waking up on Haida Gwaii anticipating the season when the herring spawns. It is a feeling you get when you bring a feed of cockles to the old people, and when you are fixing up fish for the smokehouse, or when walking on barnacles or moss. …” 

                                                                           - Guujaaw

A cluster of islands about 50 miles off the B.C. coast, Haida Gwaii

(Islands of the People) is home to the Haida Nation.  Many people still refer to it as the “Queen Charlotte islands”, a name that it held briefly for the last couple of hundred years.  Some have referred to the islands as the Galapagos of the north (although I am pretty sure the Galapagos is the Haida Gwaii of the south).  The name is apt;  because of its isolation Haida Gwaii is home to some rare or unique plants and animals.  There is good reason to believe that the islands are, in fact, host to ice-age glacial refugia.   Haida Gwaii is also home to some of the largest trees in the world.   Because of this, specifically the cedar tree, and the abundance of seafood throughout the year, the Haida people had the opportunity to develop the rich and refined culture and technologies for which they are known.