2005 Aboriginal History Calendar inside

Page 27

If you hold this publication up and give it a shake your Windspeaker 2005 Aboriginal History Calendar should fall out from the pages.

The calendar is an annual December insert in Windspeaker, much anticipated by the readers, who look forward to seeing which two Aboriginal smiling faces will grace the walls of their offices, school classrooms and homes for the next 12 months.

This year, competition for the photo contest held to choose the models for the calendar was stiff. Hundreds of photos were sent to the Aboriginal Multi-Media Society (AMMSA) offices in Edmonton, where a panel of judges chose a number of finalists on the technical and esthetic merits of the photos submitted.

The finalists were forwarded to a panel of judges at Scotiabank, proud sponsors of the calendar since 1999, who chose two winners and provided two prizes of $1,500 each.

On the January to June side of the history calendar, Scotiabank chose a picture of 11-year-old Leahann Kakkee of Qikiqtarjuaq, Nunavut. She is dressed in traditional clothing made from seal, caribou and wolf skins made for her by her mother Sarah.

Leahann is a shy young girl, but Sarah told Windspeaker her daughter was happy to take part in the photo contest and was happy to have been chosen for the calendar. Leahann purchased new clothes with the prize money and is looking forward to seeing the reaction of friends, neighbors and classmates when the calendars get into national circulation.

On the July to December side of the calendar is a picture of a young cowboy named Jordan Louie of Keremeos, B.C. The picture of Jordan is an old one submitted by his foster mom Gloria. In it, the now 11-year-old is only about 11 months old. He's decked out in cowboy boots, a cowboy hat and is sitting on his horse Wrinkie.

Gloria is proud of her guy who loves to work with his horses on the little hobby farm where 33 foster children have been placed over time. Jordan helps out at a horse clinic near home to help teach other children how to ride and care for horses. His prize money bought him a new trail bike and helmet.

Michele Baptiste is national manager of Aboriginal relations at Scotiabank, which first got involved with the calendar to bring Aboriginal history to a wider audience.

"We continue to be involved because I believe it is just an excellent opportunity to not only partnership with an Aboriginal business, AMMSA and Windspeaker, but also it just brings so much excitement to the community. It's everywhere, it's everywhere across the country and it's an excellent opportunity to not only get Scotiabank's name out there, but in a way that the community really appreciates."

Baptiste says the calendar is in every corner of Canada. "You go into a band office anywhere, and it's there. I even see some from 1999 still hanging in some of the offices I go to."

Baptiste says she gets requests for the calendar from people she hasn't even met but who know Scotiabank puts the calendar out. Many request 25 to 30 calendars at a time.Paul Macedo is director of marketing for AMMSA, publisher of Windspeaker.

"There are two main elements the calendar brings. There's human interest information, historical information that makes up some of the content on a day-by-day basis, but even before anyone gets to see that, it's the imagery from a variety of Aboriginal communities that draws people to the calendar... People are very proud of showcasing that calendar on their walls."

Next year the contest opens July 1 and it closes Sept. 30. And Macedo offered some tips to people thinking about entering the contest.

"My advice is to take pictures whenever you can. These are fleeting moments and if you are not able to capture that image it's really hard to try to set something up. And what we are looking for are photos that represent a variety of Aboriginal culture. It's not just one typical shot or one typical pose or setting. If you look at the last couple of years, wat's made the calendar, we've tried to do something different every year, which still captures the essence of Aboriginal people out in the community. If we had a child in buckskin last year, we are probably not going to lean to that this year. We want to mix things up a little bit."

In choosing the photos, Baptiste says the Scotiabank panel tries not to be too stereotypical in their selections.

"We want to respect a traditional component of it, but we don't want to take ourselves too seriously either...There are so many negative things that depict Aboriginal people. This is something that's so very positive and it's nice to see that a corporation is sponsoring or supporting something like that."