Bella Bella is a First Nations community located on the Lama Passage in the Queen Charlotte Strait on Campbell Island in British Columbia. It is the home of the Heiltsuk First Nation, and approximately 1,400 persons. The strait is narrow at this point and offers ships’ guests passing views of the town arrayed along the shore with forested hills beyond. It is the largest community on the Central Coast of British Columbia. The town was formerly located further south on another island, but was moved at the end of the 19th century to the present site, which was near Fort McLoughlin, a defunct Hudson’s Bay Trading Company outpost. The Heiltsuk have twice hosted Canoe Festivals that have attracted ocean canoe teams from First Nations groups all along the coast to the town for races, demonstrations and festivities.
