Kalugwis or Qalagwis, now known to many as Turnour Island, was the primary winter residence of the Lawitʼsis (Tlowitsis) Nation. Lawitʼsis territories spanned the coastal area of Northern Vancouver Island, British Columbia from ancient history until the early 1960s.
In the 1960s, the British Columbia government closed down the monthly hospital ship and school on Qalagwis. With little prospect of schooling and access to health care, the Tlowitsis community left the island. In the diaspora that resulted, community members have become physically and culturally removed from their traditional territories.
