Today’s events are totally entertaining. Canada has made Kate handle a raw fish — she is a good sport about it! — and also canoe, which she apparently found delightful. This is like the time I had to go on Outward Bound, except I was not a good sport and did not look delighted during any of it.
This trip was to Skidegate, which Wikipedia tells me “is a Haida community in Haida Gwaii (formerly the Queen Charlotte Islands) in British Columbia,” and then further explains that “the Haida…are an indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America….Haida society continues to produce a robust and highly stylized art form, a leading component of Northwest Coast art. While frequently expressed in large wooden carvings (totem poles), Chilkat weaving, or ornate jewellery, it is also moving quickly into works of popular expression such as Haida manga.” Obviously, Wikipedia is not the best source for the most perfect information about anything, but the Wikipedia page about the Haida is really interesting (and also distressing because — SURPRISE!!! — the Americans and the Canadians behaved generally horribly throughout history). I’m annoyed that I didn’t do more Wiki Deep Dives about more of the First Nations cultures we’ve been exposed to on this trip; speaking wholly selfishly, I know I am personally interested in this sort of thing, so why did I keep interesting information away from my own self? Like, I just read a whole bunch about basket-weaving and then fell into a wormhole reading about Haida mythology before I realized that, whoops, I actually needed to publish this post before the week ended. (But isn’t this interesting? “Within Haida mythology, Raven is a central character, as he is for many of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas…He is responsible for releasing the sun from its tiny box and making the stars and the moon. In one story he released the first humans from a cockle shell on the beach; in another story he brought the first humans up out of the ground because he needed to fill up a party he was throwing.” The very concept of creating people because you were worried your party would be under-attended feels incredibly universal. We are all more alike than we know.)
Also, look how hideous it is here. Just miserable. And such terrible weather!
The Duke and Duchess will today visit the beautiful Haida Gwaii, BC on Day 7 of #RoyalVisitCanada!pic.twitter.com/bes2dRnCwZ
— Kensington Palace (@KensingtonRoyal) September 30, 2016
[Photos: Getty Images]
