The quiet village of Daajing Giids sits on the south coast of Graham Island on Haida Gwaii, an archipelago off the coast of northern British Columbia an eight hour ferry ride across the Hecate Strait.

Earlier this year, Daajing Giids was known as the "Village of Queen Charlotte," but this June, after a ten year wait, the Haida people of the Skidegate Haida Immersion Program were successful in their bid to rename the village to an ancestral name.

This October, during municipal elections in British Columbia, the village voted in a new mayor. Kris Olsen had held the position and ran again this term to represent the Haida and settler communities that reside in Daajing Giids.

He was out-voted by five votes, naming Lisa Pineault (a councillor) the new mayor.

"Our community is very assimilated with the first nations community here [in Daajing Giids] ... and it reflects the Haida aboriginal title case that is in the works, and reflects our respect for the Haida people and good neighbours."

When CICK News spoke with Pineault about being elected mayor, she said "people were wanting a change."

"There were three of us that ran for mayor, and all of us would have been great, but I'm happy to be the one doing the work for the community."

Pineault has lived in Daajing Giids her entire life, and is the fourth (of five) generations of her family to make it her home. Her primary focus is housing for renters and home-buyers in the village and finding a waste-water treatment system which she says is overdue.

Listen to Pam Haasen's interview with Mayor Pineault below: