The Aboriginal Newspaper of British
Columbia & Yukon
Top news for July - 2001
Published July 3, 2001
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Photo by Naomi Gordon |
Highway brings cultural benefits
Province gives Order of B.C. to Coast Salish master carver
Hard work pays divdendsThis is only a partial listing of the stories featured in the July 2001 issue of Raven's Eye. If you are not receiving your own copy of Raven's Eye, then you have missed out on a lot.
Click here for Raven's Eye subscription information.
Highway brings cultural benefitsBy Brian Lin
Raven's Eye Writer
KINCOLITHThe remote village of Kincolith in northern British Columbia is about to change. After decades of discussion and a lengthy environmental assessment, construction of a two-lane highway was approved by both the provincial and federal governments in late 1999, and the construction crew has recently begun preliminary clearing and scrubbing on the site.
The highway will change how people travel to and from Kincolith. Currently, the only means of transportation are passenger ferry and sea plane. They are not only costly-round trip ferry fare costs $70, while travelling by sea plane costs twice that-but also dangerous, especially in the rough winter months.
Economic development officer Alvin E. Nelson said deaths over the years from these means of transportation have had an incredible impact on his community.
"Years ago, one of our chief councillors was traveling from Prince Rupert and perished on the way up here," recalled Nelson. "To this day, nobody knows where his boat went down."
On Aug. 5, 1998, as Nisga'a people celebrated their historic treaty with the government of Canada, news arrived that a sea plane had crashed just outside of Kincolith, killing all five passengers, including a nine-year-old boy and his mother.
The new highway, scheduled for completion in December 2003, will not only offer a considerably safer and less expensive way to reach Kincolith for the 300 residents, it also promises substantial economic and cultural benefits.
"The economy will expand at least two-fold," estimated Neil Okabe, general manager of Gingolx Development Corporation, who is involved in the construction. The project calls for 35 per cent local hiring and is expected to increase tourism and trade.
"A lot of people will come out to this area to see what it's really like," said Okabe. "There's excellent fishing here, so you'll see a lot of sports fishermen throwing their boats onto their trailers and hauling them all the way to Kincolith."
The 14-mile highway will link Kincolith to other Nisga'a communities as well as the provincial highway system. For children, this also means easier access to secondary education. Kincolith only has elementary schools and children above Grade 8 have to attend school in New Aiyansh, some 75 kilometres away.
"Some of [the children] will probably commute, some will still use the group homes," said Nelson, "but parents can get out and visit their children more often."
However, some concerns have been raised about the social and environmental impact of a new highway to a community, which so far has been well-protected from outsiders.
"A lot of people were saying that [the highway] takes away the serenity we enjoy," said Nelson, "especially seedy characters that will come with the highway." But in the end the potential benefits seem to have outweighed potential harms.
The BC Environmental Assessment Office's project assessment director Ray Crook recalls a unanimous desire by the Nisga'a to get Kincolith to wheel access.
"It was quite an unusual situation," said Crook, "[The Nisga'a] were really anxious to get Kincolith hooked up." Crook said he was aware of concerns being expressed within Kincolith, "but the Nisga'a had their own internal community decision on it. The external position was always unified."
Along with the recommendation to approve the highway, the assessment office also required a number of mitigation plans to protect grizzly bear and fish habitats in the region.
One of the immediate benefits of the highway is increased tourism in the remote village. Okabe said a cultural longhouse centre is in the works that will provide opportunity to practice Nisga'a culture-like the Totem Pole Project.
The Totem Pole Project was the first time since the incorporation of the village that a totem pole was carved and raised in Kincolith. Missionaries banned totem poles and only allowed uncarved poles to be raised to signify the chiefs' rankings. Master carver Chester Moore said the project is part of a larger attempt to educate the younger generation about Nisga'a traditions.
"There are four tribes in our village," said Moore, "and we don't inter-marry," meaning villagers aren't supposed to marry people in their own tribes, only with members of other tribes. "That's one of the things the children are learning by participating in the project."
Thirty-five students, Grades 6 to 8, worked a few hours a day with Moore, who taught them how to prepare the wood for carving, do scale drawings of the design, and use various tools to carve the pole.
On June 23, the pole was raised in a traditional ceremony involving all children in the Nass Valley and the entire Nisga'a community.
Nelson, whose two grandchildren are involved in the project, said it brings him endless joy to see the kids immersed in traditional culture.
"To experience your own culture like this empowers individuals to step forward and get involved and be proud of themselves. I feel so satisfied," said Nelson. "[Especially] for myself and a lot of other people who had to go to residential school, be told not to speak our language and punished for practising traditions in our culture."
For more on the Totem Pole Project, including the stories that go with the different sections of the pole, visit the Web site at www.gingolx.ca.
Province gives Order of B.C. to Coast Salish master carver
VICTORIA
Simon Charlie of Duncan was one of 16 people who received the Order of British Columbia from Lieutenant Governor Garde Gardom and Premier Gordon Campbell on June 21.
"The women and men who have come to Government House to receive British Columbia's highest honor are some of the best and brightest people our province has to offer," Campbell said. "The Order of British Columbia is a tribute to their achievements and dedication to excellence and I thank them for their contribution to our province."
Charlie is a master carver, artist, community leader, cultural specialist and an Aboriginal Elder of the Cowichan Coast Salish First Nation. Over his lifetime he has done all he can to pass along his heritage, culture and traditions to his people, and to non-Aboriginal people as well.
For more than 30 years, he has carved traditional Coast Salish art. He estimates that since 1966, he has carved the equivalent of 22 logging-truckloads of cedar logs. His totem poles stand in the Royal British Columbia Museum, at the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa, in Washington State, Georgia, New York, and at McDonald's corporate headquarters in Chicago.
Four of his 20-foot poles are in Australia. His masks and other artworks grace collections in South America, the United Kingdom, Finland, Holland, Germany and Japan. In 1997, as part of an Elders' delegation, he carved a totem pole with Maori carvers in New Zealand.
Charlie has always had a keen interest in creating opportunities for the mutual understanding of diverse cultures. His vision is to create a living cultural presence, through a pre-European Aboriginal landscape and village, open to the public, where traditional skills are taught, and the Coast Salish heritage and way of life is revitalized. He has donated land for this purpose. Under his direction, a charitable society was formed in his name to fulfill his dream of enriching the lives of the Elders of tomorrow.
Among the other OBC recipients for 2001 were Robert Bateman of Saltspring Island, artist and naturalist; Sarah McLachlan of Vancouver, singer and songwriter; and Sarah-Spring Stump of Williams Lake, supporter of the poor and homeless.
This year's recipients were chosen by an independent advisory council chaired by former chief justice Allan McEachern. Since the Order of British Columbia was introduced in 1989, 179 people have received the honor. Information about these people is available at www.protocol.gov.bc.ca.
By Kenton Friesen
Raven's Eye Writer
VANCOUVERThe good things in life often demand diligence, persistence and clearly-defined goals-good things like graduation.
For Dr. Rosalyn Ing, continuing a lifetime of learning by completing her doctorate in education at the University of British Columbia was not done in pursuit of better career opportunities. She will actually stay on as the co-ordinator of First Nations Health Careers at the university.
Rather, the completion of her PhD was a result of her desire to continue the research she had begun in her master's thesis. Her work was titled Dealing with shame and unresolved trauma: Residential school and its impact on the second and third generation adults.
In addition to Ing's work at UBC, she also spends time sharing her research at various healing conferences, including one being held in Kamloops in July.
Her doctorate took three years to complete, but, at more than 60 years old, is only one of the many accomplishments of the grandmother and mother of two.
"I'm relieved it's done," said Ing. "I'm happy I was able to do that research because I went to residential school myself."
As a Cree from Manitoba, 11 years of Ing's early life were spent in residential schools. Both her work and her accomplishments help provide healing and inspiration for others who attended residential schools.
Lisa C. Ravensbergen just graduated from the theatre arts program at Simon Fraser University as the only Aboriginal student in her class.
"Traditionally in our ceremonies and in life and creativity [First Nations people] tend to veer away from contemporary art practices," said Ravensbergen. "What inspires our work as Aboriginal artists is not often recognized at post-secondary institutes."
Her different perspective was not discouraged, but it took a lot of personal initiative to find her way through the program.
"For me it was really important to balance out all the Euro-pedagogy and Euro-contemporary art practice with something that I recognized at an instinctual, spiritual and emotional level."
Before she returned to school to study theatre, Ravensbergen was the First Nation's program co-ordinator at SFU. She filled that position after completing a degree in English, but it didn't satisfy her needs for creative expression.
"The work I was doing, although it was really important and very exciting, it wasn't feeding my creative impulses and energies the way that I realized I needed," said Ravensbergen. "There's something about the idea of truth and story and how it resonates on the stage, how it develops a relationship with an audience, that's really interesting to me."
Having minored in theatre in her BA studies and being involved in community theatre made the transition to full-time theatre studies a natural one.
Since graduating in April, Ravensbergen's doing some work under Margo Kane of Full Circle First Nations Performance. She is also doing some directing and dramaturgy work.
Before her theatre degree her emphasis was education/community work with theatre on the side, but now the roles are reversed.
"It feels like finally I've got the right mix," said Ravensbergen.
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