Manifesting Ahousaht’s future through visionary ecotourism

We’re going to turn the corner really big when it comes to the health and wellness and the prosperity of our Nation going forward.

Hasheukumiss (Richard George), Ahousaht’s acting Tyee Hawilth, has a vision for Ahousaht’s future in which regenerative ecotourism is key to haḥuułii protection and restoration, economic development and capacity building, and community well-being – a future that is limitless.

“The stars aligned with what we were doing, because we always envisioned getting into the tourism industry,” he explains. “We just didn’t think how quickly it was going to happen from one of the biggest whale watching outfits to go up for sale. And they came to the table with us. They sold us the five boats, the office, the workshop up in Industrial Way. So now that’s really given us a foothold into the tourism industry going forward, opening up the conversation now.”

Ahous Adventures, an Original Original and Authentic Indigenous ecomarine tour company, made its debut into the west coast tourism market in 2023, an industry Ahousaht had largely been marginalized from. Within its first year, Ahous Adventures won the Indigenous Tourism Industry Association of Canada’s (I.T.A.C.) award for New Operator or Business that Launched a New Experience continued to collect accolades in 2025, with their front office manager, Whʔaala, Savannah George, named a finalist for Outstanding Staff Person.

Sharing culture through an Ahousaht lens, Ahous Adventures’ knowledgeable guides provide visitors to the haḥuułii with an insight into the deep relationship with place and an intimate experience of the wonders of this marine ecosystem in Clayoquot Sound which has been stewarded by Nuu-chah-nulth Peoples since time immemorial.

“Everyone who’s working for us is not only part of our team, they become family,” Hasheukumiss says warmly.

Initially hiring 28 staff, including a growing number of employees from Ahousaht and other Nuu-chah-nulth Nations, at a competitive wage, the goal for Ahous Adventures is to be staffed fully Indigenous within five years. A general manager was hired to provide mentorship in the interim. Nuu-chah-nulth employees actively engage in cultural exchange, learning about each another’s traditions and history and sharing generously with staff and visitors. Veteran guides train new guides, encouraging them to tap into a lifetime’s experience on the water. To further encourage capacity building, free transportation by boat is provided from Ahousaht to this unique ecotour company’s location in the Shore Building on Main Street in Tofino.

Ahous Adventures was purchased under Maaqutusiis Hahoulthee Enterprises (M.H.S.S.) – the non-profit managed by Ahousaht Ḥaẁiiḥ in trust for its People and funded by the Cermaq Canada protocol Hasheukumiss renegotiated in 2021, a year after stepping into his role, requiring both a higher percentage for Ahousaht and more rigorous operational standards. This tourism investment works in symbiosis with Ahousaht’s stewardship program which funds restoration and rebuilding of rivers and salmon populations, releasing nearly 100,000 fish back into the Atleo and other rivers within the haḥuułii’s watershed to-date.

Through the Ahousaht Stewardship Fee (A.S.F.), Ahous Adventures’ guests actively participate in helping to preserve this vibrant ecosystem by supporting the Stewardship Guardian program. “You don’t need to be Indigenous to be a steward of our lands,” insists Hasheukumiss while reminding that visiting with respect is essential. “It’s not a right to come through our haḥuułii, our territory, it’s a privilege.”

With Ahous Adventures, the Ḥaẁiiḥ could now activate the dream delayed by the pandemic shutdown in 2020 and in the wake of Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc discovery in Kamloops the following year in 2021.

“There’s a lot of hard work that’s been put in by the past hereditary to get us to where we are,” Hasheukumiss acknowledges. “And I’m very thankful that I had a very good foundation to come into.”

Some of this groundwork included Ahousaht taking over management of Mux̣šiƛa Hot Springs (formerly Maquinna Park) at Nism̓aakqin from BC Parks in 2017 and Hasheukumiss would join in negotiating successfully with the province of BC to establish Indigenous-led conservancies in Clayoquot Sound on June 26, 2024.

The Hawith or hereditary chiefs, who have a continuity of vision for Ahousaht, have steadily reclaimed authority over the hahoulthee through negotiations at the provincial and federal levels, including the landmark victory affirming unlimited rights to commercial fishing in 2021¹ and a significant cultural resource.

Hasheukumiss calls this work “reconcili-action,” and sets the expectation that “each step we walk together now—and that’s the only way we’re going to heal going forward.”

“We’re now taking control of our haḥuułii, hopefully moving forward and stewarding it properly with our land use vision that we’ve just released with the Nature Conservancy. It’s a very big, monumental step.”

In 2012, under Hasheukumiss’s father, Maquinna (Lewis George), the Hawith established the non-profit Maaqutusiis Hahoulthee Stewardship Society (M.H.S.S.) to manage all resources and economic development for the benefit of ʕaḥuusʔatḥ musčim.

That same year, M.H.S.S. reacquired the Lone Cone property, the former site of Christie Residential School, purchasing it from the Oblates of Mary Immaculate (O.M.I.) for $2 million dollars – a sum Hasheukumiss would later successfully demand be returned to the land’s rightsholders, the Ahousaht People. Lone Cone, which includes a hostel and campground and once provided 25 jobs, would remain closed during the pandemic and post-Kamloops while Ahousaht conducted its own investigation, only reopening the trail for hiking Lone Cone Mountain in fall 2024.

In 2022, M.H.S.S. also purchased Wahous Wilderness Lodge (formerly Tofino Wilderness Resort) which will reopen this season in 2025 but during winter be exclusively available to Ahousaht as a wellness centre, for cultural use and youth camps. This floating lodge is located in Quait Bay near the Cypre River and two ancestral village sites – the original home of the Ahousaht People since time immemorial.

Ahous Adventures weaves all these significant pieces together: ecotours for whale, bear, and nature watching in the now formally protected haḥuułii in Clayoquot Sound; exclusive morning and evening access to Mux̣šiƛa Hot Springs with time set aside for private community use; transportation to the trailhead at Lone Cone to embark on a bucket list hike or to Wahous Wilderness Lodge to reconnect in the heart of Ahousaht’s ancestral territory.

When Hasheukumiss first stepped into the role in 2020 as his father, Maquinna, recovered from a stroke, he was determined to walk his own path, educating himself about each issue before committing to decisions and “getting his claws into” an ever-expanding pie wheel which now includes 30 big-picture pieces.

“I immediately reached out to our Ah’eahpit, which is our Elders, for support and guidance. And a lot of them took me up to be under their wings. One being my biggest mentor, my Uncle Cliff, Wickaninnish, who’s been dealing with F.N.H.A. (First Nations Health Authority) for over 20 years, as well as being our council Hawith chairman and Ha’oom Fisheries Society chairman. So, he’s really mentored me the five years with how important it is to keep our Hawith, which is our governance intact, and how I should never ever concede to this Canada. To make sure that we steward our lands and our waters that we have for millennia.”

Hasheukumiss explains how ecotourism development is interwoven with his vision for community wellness and capacity building, stressing that there are only 220 jobs in the village of Ahousaht for a population of 1,300 people. “What we’ve been tasked at M.H.S.S. is to create jobs and these are the three pillars I’m calling it.

“One, we know we need to heal first and foremost. We have to reconcile with ourselves before we reconcile with anybody else, hence why I am really trying to push for the healing. First order.

“Second order, after we’ve healed, well, we need work. We need a place to create income which M.H.S.S. has successfully been doing and will continue to do.

“Third thing is create or have a roof over your head. So now Ahousaht has been placed on Maaqutusiis. And one of my grandfather’s and my father’s dreams was to create our second village outside of Maaqutusiis,” he explains. “Well, we’re going to do this right beside our resort, create our second village, and we’re going to do this through a tiny homes’ situation.

“Now those three pillars are going to become a reality: the healing, the work, and now creating a second village,” explaining that his ultimate goal is to “Go back to our core values of how we used to do and build as a community for one another.

“The biggest challenge that we have going forward,” he emphasizes, “is to let our Nation know who we were as a society before colonization. We were one with the highest governance. We were one that when the world came, they said we actually were the model Nation to raise a child and why was that? Prior to colonization, that child was mentored into his or her role through family and through your family place. Everybody felt a very big piece of that role to make the society complete whether it be a medicine gatherer, a support healer, a shaman, everybody had a role.”

In every plan for expanding ecotourism that Hasheukumiss describes the wellness of the community remains at the forefront, explaining that they’ve dedicated a whale watching boat for use at future youth camps.

“We’re going to use that boat to bring our children and experience the Hot Springs for the first time. Go out and experience watching a whale like a tourist not just drive by a whale at 100 miles an hour. We’ll get out there and see the back area and go for a bear watch, even though we see bears on the side of the road. It’s just different when you’re in a boat and you’re traveling around and showing them our haḥuułii.”

Every ecotourism opportunity offers a chance to share and revitalize Ahousaht culture.

“All these little steps that we’re taking is for the betterment of the People and holding up our responsibility, being an 18th generation, holding this position for my father,” he emphasizes. “Officially, when it does get handed over within this next year, he’ll always be there at the helm and I’m very fortunate.

“I can’t express how fortunate I am to be in this situation as these hereditary positions historically do not get passed to the next this early. So, the blessing, the silver lining of his health duress, what’s come out of that is true mentorship that he’s being able to give me now that he’s healthy and he’s going to be able to really enjoy watching me continuing on this role that the Creator’s gifted us as we don’t take it lightly.

“The Creator, and my father, and the Elders keep telling me, Hasheukumiss, if you do things from the heart, if you do things on good will and in good intent and it’s for the good and the betterment of the people, then the Creator will walk your path.

“We’ve reached for the stars, we’ve reached for the skies and look what we’ve achieved at Waʔuus Wilderness Lodge. We’ve achieved it at one of the biggest whale watching outfits here in Tofino,” he concludes, speaking of Ahous Adventures. “It’s really about manifesting what we’re doing here.”

It is with deep gratitude that the writer acknowledges this vision for Ahousaht shared by Tyee Hawilth Hasheukumiss Richard George.