#Inuvik Region

[eywaseclipse]

Spent some time working on this. Got inspired by @thewarmblanket snow clan post and watching informational videos on Greenland lol. I love learning. And this snow na’vi is based off Inuit culture. Including the traditional tattoos called Tunniit. Did I mention this is a free draw with my non dominant hand? 🤗

“The process and method of making Tunniit is called kakiorneq in West Greenland and kagierneq in the east (both can be translated as "sewn with a needle").

The tradition of making and wearing Tunniit has mainly been passed on by Inuit women, as a sign of their spiritual responsibility and sewing skills. The kakiorneq and kagierneq techniques traditionally involve the use of a needle and sinew thread (thread made from the muscle of the reindeer's hind legs) dipped in a mixture of soot, oil and urine to create a line under the top layer of the skin. An alternative method involves the use of a sharp tool to make a small hole in the skin, followed by the application of a sooty substance to create a distinctive dot.”

[spacetimewithstuartgary]

Northwest Territories Ablaze

The boreal forests of northern Canada have evolved to burn. These forests are dominated by black spruce, a type of evergreen that is not just tolerant of fire but dependent on it.

Black spruce has waxy, resinous needles adapted to ignite during lightning storms and burn vigorously. The forests thrive if they burn every century or so because fires open the canopy up to light, stimulate new growth, and help maintain biodiversity. Fires also melt away the waxy coating on cones of black spruces allowing them to deposit seeds uniquely designed to thrive in charred, acidic soils. But Canada’s black spruce boreal forests have been burning more frequently in recent decades, putting even these fire-loving forests under strain.

When the VIIRS (Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite) on the NOAA-20 satellite captured this image of smoke streaming throughout the region on August 11, 2024, the sensor detected nearly 100 active fires burning in the Northwest Territories, according to data posted by the territory’s government. The Canadian government, including the Northwest Territories, uses hotspot data from the Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS), a fire monitoring system developed by NASA, to help detect and track wildfires.The image below, captured by NASA’s EPIC (Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera) on NOAA’s DSCOVR satellite, shows a river of smoke from the fires in western Canada winding its way over the Hudson Bay.

Most fires in the Northwest Territories burn far from towns or infrastructure, so authorities let many of them burn themselves out, a process that can take weeks or even months depending on the weather. Of the 96 fires active on August 11, Canadian authorities reported that 88 of them burned unhindered by firefighting efforts. Firefighters had controlled five fires and were in the process of suppressing one, according to the territory’s government. None of the fires were close enough to settlements to trigger evacuation orders. However, dense smoke has triggered air quality warnings for fifteen Northwest Territories communities, including settlements in the North Slave, South Slave, Dehcho, and Sahtu regions.

The fires coincided with a drought classified as moderate to extreme by the North American Drought Monitor and a week of extreme warmth that broke temperature records in several places in the Northwest Territories, including the towns of Aklavik, Inuvik, Fort McPherson, and Tuktoyaktuk. All four communities surpassed 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit); Fort McPherson’s temperature soared to a remarkable 34.9°C (94.8°F) on August 7 and 8.

Though Canada’s black spruce forests are accustomed to fire, ecologists who study them are finding that some forests in the region are struggling to recover after fires due to the increasing frequency and size of fires in the region. One study led by Jennifer Baltzer, an ecologist at Wilfrid Laurier University, found that black spruce’s ability to regenerate declined at 38 percent of the 1,500 recently burned forest sites included in the study and failed to regenerate entirely at 18 percent of the sites—unusually high percentages compared to the historic norm. The analysis was based on tree regeneration data compiled and analyzed as part of NASA’s Arctic-Boreal Vulnerability Experiment (ABoVE).

Many of the areas burning in this image also burned in 2023, during Canada’s worst wildfire season on record. However, the total number of fires and the number of hectares burned in the Northwest Territories through mid-August 2024 are below the 10-year average so far, according to data released by Canadian authorities. The extent of burning in neighboring British Columbia and Alberta through mid-August 2024, however, was above average.

NASA Earth Observatory images by Lauren Dauphin, using VIIRS data from NASA EOSDIS LANCE, GIBS/Worldview, and the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) and data from DSCOVR EPIC. Story by Adam Voiland.

[allthecanadianpolitics]

A new agreement assures shared decision-making concerning oil and gas rights in Canada’s Western Arctic – Tariuq (Offshore).

It’s the first of its kind with an Indigenous government as a full party.

It was signed last Thursday in Inuvik.

The signatories are Duane Ningaqsiq Smith, the Inuvialuit Regional Corp. chair and chief executive officer; Dan Vandal, the minister of Northern Affairs and Minister responsible for PrairiesCan and CanNor; Northwest Territories Premier Caroline Cochrane; and Yukon Premier Ranj Pillai.

The signing event was cut short due to heavy smoke in Inuvik, which caused poor air quality and concerns of reduced visibility for flights. [...]

Continue Reading.

Tagging: @politicsofcanada

[college-girl199328]

Judy Cameron still remembers getting the telegram that marked her first offer to fly planes for a major commercial carrier. Pacific Western Airlines had come calling, writing her a "congratulations" and inviting her to sit down with the interview board.

Forty-five years later, Cameron — who was Air Canada's first female pilot — has 23,000 hours of flying, a scholarship, and an Order of Canada membership to her name.

After a fulfilling 40-year career, Cameron recalls the struggles she faced in the early years and the efforts still needed to encourage more young women to enter aviation — especially the cockpit, which remains extremely male-dominated.

As of January, nearly eight percent of Air Canada's pilots were women--better than the U.S. average of 4.9 percent, according to a 2022 report from the Centre for Aviation, an Australia-based market research firm. The figure is also much higher than the tally just a few decades ago, when female flight crew stood out glaringly.

Cameron developed a taste for adrenalin early on, buying a motorcycle in Grade 12 and later riding her Honda Hog to the University of British Columbia most days, "even in the rain." After her first year studying arts, she found a summer job interviewing pilots at small airports for a Transport Canada survey. On her first day in 1973, one of them invited her to hop on board.

Cameron dropped out of UBC and applied to a two-year aviation program at Selkirk College. "I got on my motorcycle and drove eight hours to Castlegar … and when I got there the head of the aviation program had a motorbike. That's probably how I got into the course." Raised by a single mother in Vancouver, Cameron had grown up in a one-room apartment. Television and cars were luxuries they couldn't afford.

When Cameron flew her first passenger, in a two-seat, single-engine Cessna 150 training aircraft, it was her mom in the seat beside her. College wasn't an easy time. "It was hard, doing my training and being in a classroom full of guys. I was always the odd one out," she said. "It was so isolating."

Following graduation, Cameron found pilot work at a pulp and paper company in 1975, but the board of directors wouldn't let her fly. She wound up helping with dispatch and office management, occasionally managing to get a flight in when a subsidiary operated the plane. After switching to a job as a passenger agent at B.C.'s Airwest Airlines — with infrequent turns in the cockpit — Cameron was eventually hired by a small regional service in Slave Lake, Alta., where she flew a Douglas DC-3 airliner — a big break, due to the larger size of the plane.

Four months later, the company went bankrupt — the paycheques bounced — and executives at the carrier that took over its routes weren't thrilled about her presence. "The chief pilot there basically didn't want to hire me. But he said, 'At least the big airlines won't hire you.'"

The airline stationed her in Inuvik, N.W.T., and proceeded to lay her off. She was later rehired as a dispatcher and allowed to fly periodically.

Overall, though, she said the experience was positive and the pilots respectful, some of them serving as mentors. However, the company was no exception to the years-long failure of most airlines to provide uniforms for pregnant crew members, including Cameron in 1984. The shortcoming was a milder example of some of the gender inequalities that persisted at various carriers into the 1970s, including strict weight limits, age ceilings, and marriage bans for flight attendants.

Today, Air Canada aviators may be asked to submit a note from their doctor every two weeks confirming they are fit to fly, starting in the 20th week of pregnancy. Pilots are considered fit to fly until week 30, "in the case of a normal pregnancy," according to Transport Canada regulations. Many of Air Canada's 410 female pilots — out of 5,230 in total — see Cameron as an inspiration.

Since retiring in 2015, Cameron has barely slowed down. The Oakville, Ont., resident has taken a course on aerobatics — "loops and rolls and Cuban eights" — in Florida. And she's actively involved in the Air Canada scholarship program in her name. Launched in 2019 and backed partly by flight training company CAE, the fund helped support 13 young women training to become pilots or aircraft maintenance engineers last year, granting them $5,000 apiece. Education in the sector is notoriously expensive.

Last year, 12 percent of new pilot licenses issued in Canada went to women, according to the Institute for Women in Aviation Worldwide. Cameron also serves as a director of the Northern Lights Aero Foundation, which offers mentorship and highlights women's achievements in aviation.

[decapitatedtea]

The Northwest Territories of Canada include the regions of Dehcho, Sahtu, North Slave, South Slave and Inuvik. Their remote landscape encompasses forest, mountains, Arctic tundra and islands in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Dehcho's Nahanni National Park Reserve centers around the canyons of the South Nahanni River and 90m-high Virginia Falls. The regional capital, Yellowknife, is on the north shore of Great Slave Lake. ― Google

[canadianjobbank]

Apply now: https://canadianjobbank.org/clerk-retail-sales-5/

[swmwconstruction]

Feature Project: Piikani Fire Hall

New Build

Welcome back to another Feature Project! The SWMW Feature Project portfolio is a great opportunity for our team to showcase the work that we’ve done for our valued clients to date.

For this month’s piece, we’ll focus on our ongoing project for the Piikani Fire Hall in Brocket, Alberta.

This project is a great example of not only how important customer service is, but how we’re able to be flexible with our timelines to account for real life setbacks, like cold weather concerns and supply chain shortages.

In the following sections, we will discuss the project details, challenges, and solutions that our team encountered during the construction process.

About Southwest and Midwest Design & Construction

The team at Southwest and Midwest Design & Construction has over 40 years of experience with design-build in Calgary, as well as in our other regional locations - Medicine Hat, Lethbridge, Grande Prairie, and Inuvik NWT.

Because of our robust service offering decades of experience, we’re able to provide our clients with seamless project delivery methods, along with professional, complete building packages. This means that from conceptual and schematic designs to first dig, through to project completion – we’re the only contractor you’ll need for your project.

Project Details

Sector: Commercial Location: Brocket, Alberta Timeline: Project began in June 2022 and is scheduled for final completion in May 2023.

As the first fire hall facility in the community, the Piikani Fire Hall will be an 8000 sq. ft. pre-engineered insulated metal panel building that can effectively serve the community's needs, and that also has enough space to accommodate future expansion if need be.

The building's unique security requirements were also taken into consideration, with the use of specialty door hardware and key card access.

Overcoming Challenges

The construction of the Piikani Fire Hall was not without its challenges. Although the project was initially set to begin in 2021, cold weather concerns forced the project to be pushed back to avoid extra costs. Construction eventually began in June 2022 and was originally expected to be completed by the fall of the same year.

As well as delaying the project onset, cold weather also delayed work during project progress. Additionally, supply chain issues presented significant challenges for the project. Despite being prepared for supply chain disruptions, our team still had to face unexpected delays in the supply and delivery of steel building materials, which ultimately pushed back the construction schedule four months from the initial projected timeline.

While delays are never ideal, they can happen! Ultimately, it’s effective communication that eases the process. The SWMW team has maintained communication throughout, and we’ve built an excellent relationship with our client. It’s our top priority to ensure that the client remains informed and is ultimately happy with the resulting completed project.

Closing Remarks

When we reflect on this project, one key takeaway for us is the importance of maintaining excellent communication between all parties involved. As noted, the SWMW team ensured that the client remained informed throughout the construction process, which helped to foster a very positive relationship with the client even in the face of supply chain issues and cold weather concerns.

Another key takeaway is the need to be flexible and adaptable in the face of unexpected delays and challenges. Our ability to adjust timeline projections and work with the client to find solutions and communicate ultimately led to the successful completion of the project.

Through our commitment and perseverance, the SWMW team was able to overcome these challenges and successfully construct the Piikani Fire Hall to serve as the first official fire hall in the Brocket area!

Interested in reading about our other feature projects? Check out our full portfolio here! From apartment complexes to commercial retail buildings to campgrounds, we’ve got the experience you need to get the job done right!

Connect With Southwest And Midwest Design & Construction

Customer satisfaction is our top priority, and we attribute our success to our decades of experience and the importance of continued learning to get the job done right for our clients their way – every time.

Choose us for your next construction project. We’re experienced design-build contractors, with offices in Calgary, Medicine Hat, Lethbridge, Grande Prairie, and Inuvik, NT.

Want to learn more about how we can help with your next design and construction project? Contact the team at SWMW with our convenient online quote request tool. A member of our team will be in touch to discuss project details and next steps.

[atlanticcanada]

Cold front to bring relief in Central Canada but heat wave continues on coasts

As a cold front brought some temperature relief to parts of Ontario after a multi-day heat wave, regions from coast to coast to coast in Canada braced for sweltering conditions to last into the weekend.

The unseasonable heat threatened to break daily temperature records in the north and other parts of the country, capping a week that saw one unofficial analysis record earth's hottest day on record.

An updated heat warning issued Friday morning for southern Quebec says a hot and humid air mass would stall over the province until Sunday, making it feel like around 35 degrees Celsius during the day and offering little overnight relief.

More climate and environment headlines

Heat warnings remained in place for eastern Ontario, including Ottawa, but Environment Canada had lifted weather alerts for the rest of the province after a punishing week of hot and humid weather.

In British Columbia, heat warnings remained for inland sections from the north to central coast and in the Fraser Canyon area east of Vancouver. Daytime highs between 30 and 35 degrees Celsius were expected through Sunday.

On the east coast, it was forecasted to feel like 40 degrees in parts of New Brunswick and 36 degrees in Nova Scotia given the humid conditions. Most of Prince Edward Island was expected to see temperatures in the high 20s, while a slice of Newfoundland and Labrador, around Churchill Falls, was also under a heat warning.

Earth's average temperature set a record high of 17.23 degrees Celsius on Thursday, according to the University of Maine's Climate Reanalyzer, a tool that uses satellite data and computer simulations to measure the world's condition. It was the third such unofficial milestone in a week already rated as the hottest on record.

The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration distanced itself from the university's analysis Thursday, saying it could not confirm data that results in part from computer modeling. But the agency recognized the earth was in a period of warmth due to climate change.

Temperatures in parts of Canada's north were forecasted to compete with record daily highs as Environment Canada issued heat warning in the Yukon and Northwest Territories expected to last through the weekend.

In central Northwest Territories, including Fort Simpson, the agency said the unseasonable heat could persist into late next week. In Inuvik, the forecast called for temperatures in the low 30s for Friday and Saturday, on par with daily record highs, according to Environment Canada dating back to 1957.

Special air quality statements are in effect in northern parts of B.C., Alberta and Quebec due to forest fires.

from CTV News - Atlantic https://ift.tt/cR3CL7t

[goalhofer]

Canadian Daily High Temperature Records Tied/Broken 1/4/23

Okotoks, Alberta: 40 (previous record 39 2021)

Agassiz, British Columbia: 48 (previous record 44 2021)

Unincorporated Alberni-Clayoquot District, B.C.: 48 (also 48 2021)

Billings, British Columbia: 33 (also 33 2021)

Campbell Island, British Columbia: 49 (previous record 47 2021)

Chetwynd, British Columbia: 31 (previous record 24 2021)

Unincorporated Fraser Valley District, B.C.: 39 (previous record 36 2021)

Kennedy Lake Provincial Park, British Columbia: 53 (previous record 48 2021)

Unincorporated Kitimat-Stikine District, B.C.: 41 (previous record 37 2021)

Lynn Headwaters Park, British Columbia: 40 (previous record 37 2021)

Mission, British Columbia: 45 (previous record 42 2021)

Unincorporated Nanaimo District, British Columbia: 46 (also 46 2021)

Netalzul Meadows Provincial Park, B.C.: 33 (previous record 30 2021)

Pacific Rim National Park Reserve Of Canada, B.C.: 51 (previous record 46 2021)

Pender Island, British Columbia: 48 (previous record 47 2021)

Port Moody, British Columbia: 47 (previous record 45 2021)

Richmond Nature Park, British Columbia: 48 (previous record 46 2021)

Santa Gretrudis Boca Del Infierno Provincial Park, B.C.: 53 (previous record 48 2021)

Surrey, British Columbia: 46 (previous record 45 2021)

Riding Mountain National Park, Manitoba: 32 (also 32 2021)

Mactaquac Provincial Park, New Brunswick: 41 (previous record 28 2021)

Unincorporated Victoria County, New Brunswick: 35 (previous record 27 2021)

Unincorporated Biscay Bay District, Newfoundland: 38 (previous record 35 2021)

Blundons Siding, Newfoundland: 37 (previous record 30 2021)

Unincorporated Burgeo-La Poile District, Newfoundland: 36 (previous record 27 2021)

Corner Brook, Newfoundland: 35 (previous record 28 2021)

Deer Lake, Newfoundland: 37 (previous record 29 2021)

Gander, Newfoundland: 35 (previous record 28 2021)

LaScie, Newfoundland: 34 (previous record 27 2021)

Unincorporated Inuvik Region, NWT: -4 (previous record -5 2021)

Nahanni National Park Reserve, Northwest Territories: -7 (previous record -14 2021)

Unincorporated Halifax Municipality, Nova Scotia: 43 (previous record 30 2021)

Unincorporated Kings County, Nova Scotia: 44 (previous record 34 2021)

Unincorporated Kings County, Nova Scotia: 43 (previous record 34 2021)

Unincorporated Kings County, Nova Scotia: 43 (previous record 34 2021)

Yarmouth 33 Reserve, Nova Scotia: 47 (previous record 35 2021)

Unincorporated Kitikmeot Region, Nunavut: -26 (previous record -38 2021)

Unincorporated Qikiqtaaluk Region, Nunavut: -8 (previous record -11 2021)

Amherstburg, Ontario: 55 (previous record 37 2021)

Belleville, Ontario: 38 (previous record 34 2021)

Brockville, Ontario: 41 (previous record 30 2021)

Caledon, Ontario: 43 (previous record 36 2021)

Centreville, Ontario: 37 (previous record 31 2021)

Conestogo Lake Conservation Area, Ontario: 37 (previous record 31 2021)

Drummond/North Elmsley Township, Ontario: 36 (previous record 31 2021)

Dysart Et Al Township, Ontario: 35 (previous record 30 2021)

Kingsville, Ontario: 51 (previous record 34 2021)

Laurentian Hills, Ontario: 36 (previous record 30 2021)

Oro-Medonte Township, Ontario: 37 (previous record 33 2021)

Ottawa, Ontario: 37 (previous record 31 2021)

Port Colborne, Ontario: 43 (previous record 36 2021)

St. Thomas, Ontario: 41 (previous record 37 2021)

Severn Township, Ontario: 35 (previous record 33 2021)

South Frontenac Township, Ontario: 37 (previous record 31 2021)

Windsor, Ontario: 57 (previous record 36 2021)

Woodstock, Ontario: 40 (previous record 36 2021)

Prince Edward Island National Park, P.E.I.: 37 (previous record 34 2021)

L'Assomption, Quebec: 37 (previous record 29 2021)

La Tuque, Quebec: 27 (previous record 23 2021)

Saguenay, Quebec: 34 (previous record 24 2021)

Sherbrooke, Quebec: 37 (previous record 35 2021)

Unincorporated Northern Saskatchewan District, SK: 10 (previous record 5 2021)

Champagne & Aishihik First Nations, Yukon: 21 (previous record 10 2021)

[restrictedareas-pr0ject]

Inuvik Region, NT, Canada

[loworbittourist]

Inuvik Region - Canada 🌎

[allthecanadianpolitics]

Northwest Territories RCMP said on Wednesday evening that the Inuvik man who went missing over the weekend has been located unharmed. 

Curtis Taylor, 37, was reported missing after he was last seen leaving the Inuvik Regional Hospital on Sept. 3, around 11:30 p.m., wearing a hospital gown and jeans. He was reported to have a cut on his forehead.

The RCMP had sent the police dog service as well as a local search party to look in the area near the hospital. Police also asked for assistance from the public. 

 "The public was instrumental in locating him, and we would like to thank them — and the media — for their assistance in this matter," police said in a release. 

The release doesn't provide further details. [...]

Continue Reading.

Tagging: @politicsofcanada

[yegarts]

Edmonton Arts Council celebrates the distinguished achievements of 20 local   artists

The Edmonton Arts Council and the Edmonton Community Foundation are excited to announce the 2021 recipients of the Edmonton Artists’ Trust  Fund awards. 20 awards of $15,000 each will invest in emerging and established artists from the Edmonton region. The EATF  is designed to invest in Edmonton’s creative community and to encourage artists to stay in our community. The funds are intended to offset living and working expenses, allowing the artist to devote a concentrated period of time to his/her artistic activities, career enhancement and/or development.    

“We are proud to recognize these 20 outstanding artists whose diverse perspectives and practices help make the Edmonton region a vibrant and exciting place to live,” said Sanjay Shahani, Executive Director of the Edmonton Arts Council. “Supporting the careers of artists like our 2021 recipients, is foundational to the growth of our arts community, fostering an exciting ecology of creation and expression."

Recipients of the 2021 Edmonton Artists’ Trust Fund:

Clockwise from top left: Cayley Thomas, Dwayne Martineau, Ellen Chorley, and Emily Chu. Photos supplied by the artists.

Cayley Thomas is an award-winning musician, actor, and video producer. From her early performances at The Citadel Theatre, to her nationally lauded 2020 album 'How Else Can I Tell You?' and recent foray into music video production, Cayley has shown time and time again her commitment to producing high-quality, culturally-impactful art. Her creative practice is one that aims to honour all aspects of the human experience through curiosity, compassion and collaboration.

Dwayne Martineau is a visual artist, musician, composer and writer. His work explores forests, non-linear time, and the physicality of light through installation and lens-based media. Dwayne is a member of Frog Lake First Nation, with an Indigenous/settler heritage and rural/urban upbringing. From this liminal perspective come playful, animistic, surreal examinations of the spaces between worlds, where we are all outsiders.

Ellen Chorley is a playwright, producer and arts educator. She is the Festival Director of the Nextfest Arts Company and teaches playwrighting and acting at the Foote Theatre School at the Citadel theatre. Ellen was named one of Edmonton’s Top 40 Under 40 in 2013 and this past June, Ellen was awarded the Alberta Literary Award for Drama for her play “Everybody Loves Robbie”. With a strong thread of feminism and body positivity woven through her work, Ellen endeavours to be a voice for encouragement and empowerment for young artists and audiences alike.

Emily Chu is a Chinese illustrator whose work flows between commercial illustration, visual arts, community-centered arts engagement projects, and public art/murals. Her illustrations have received awards from 3x3 Contemporary Illustration Professional Show, American Illustration, and Applied Arts. Emily also serves on the Edmonton Arts Council Equity Committee, co-organizes the Royal Bison Art & Craft Fair, and is an artist in residence at Yorath House.  

Clockwise from top left: Emily Riddle, Erin Pankratz, Frederick  Kroetsch, and Gabriel Molina.  Photos supplied by the artists.

Emily Riddle is nehiyaw and a member of the Alexander First Nation in Treaty 6.  She is a writer, editor, public library worker, and researcher. Emily was shortlisted for the 2020 CBC Poetry Prize and selected for the 2021 Writers’ Trust of Canada mentorship program. Through this mentorship, she recently completed her debut poetry manuscript. She is currently working on a non-fiction manuscript about Treaty feminism and a time travel novel centering queer narratives of the fur trade.

Erin Pankratz was born in Inuvik, Northwest Territories, grew up in Fort Smith and moved to Edmonton, where she currently lives and works. Her body of work includes contemporary mosaics, public art, murals, commissions, and collaborative projects. A two-time recipient of the Innovation in Mosaic Award from the Society of American Mosaic Artists, she is a frequent guest artist, instructor, and lecturer. She has exhibited in France, Italy, Japan, Argentina, Brazil, Australia, Canada, and the United States. In addition, she co-founded Red Knot Studio, which specializes in public art and site-specific projects.

Frederick Kroetsch has created dozens of eclectic film projects, including the TV-series Queen of the Oil Patch and the documentary Last of the Fur Traders. His latest film Blind Ambition: The Wop May Story recently won two awards at.the Edmonton International Film Festival.  In 2021 he directed the new TV-series Dr. Savanna: Wild Rose Vet; he field-produced on The Curse of Oak Island; and he won the Rosie Award for Best Unscripted Writer. Frederick is currently an executive producer on a true crime TV-series for NBCUniversal. He has an art film, a feature film, and six new documentaries in development. 

Gabriel Molina is a visual artist with a lens-based practice, producing digital prints, video and GIF works, and multimedia installations. He graduated from the University of Alberta in 2013 with a BFA in Fine Arts and graduated with an MA: Fine Art from the Chelsea College of Arts in London, England in 2015. He has exhibited work throughout Edmonton and London, England, with residencies at the Banff Centre for the Arts and ArtsIceland. Gabriel’s upcoming solo exhibition will be at Latitude 53 in 2022.

Clockwise from top left: Layla Folkmann, Madhan Selvaraj , Maigan van der Giessen, and Makram Ayache. Photos supplied by the artists.

Layla Folkmann is an internationally recognized mural artist and painter. For over a decade, she has dedicated her practice to socially and culturally engaged public art as part of LALA (Lacey & Layla Art) while fostering a passion for portraiture, realism and the representation of compelling characters. Layla is currently designing and building her own self-sufficient tiny house and maintains a full-time studio practice.

Madhan Selvaraj brings over 10 years of experience in the arts and culture sector as an arts administrator. He is a pioneer in the local arts scene and is the Founder and Executive Director of Edmonton Movie Club and India Film Festival of Alberta with the mandate to bridge cultures through cinema. He is currently directing a documentary titled “OH Canada” to address racism and systematic bias.

Maigan van der Giessen is a poet, vocalist, visual artist, organizer, mother and human rights advocate working within Edmonton-amiskwaciwaskahikan's diverse creative communities since 2003. Under the moniker Tzadeka, Maigan has released five solo albums and is recognized as a local hip hop pioneer, youth mentor and community builder. Tzadeka's music is unpredictable, clever and magnetic; Female-fronted, experimental-prairie-hip hop.

Makram Ayache is a community-engaged artist and educator. His playwriting explores representations of queer Arab voices and aims to bridge interlocking political struggles to the intimate experiences of the people impacted by them. Ayache is the 2020 PGC Tom Hendry recipient for “Harun” and the 2021 runner up of the Wildfire Playwriting Contest for his play “The Hooves Belonged to the Deer.”  

Clockwise from top left: Melissa-Jo Belcourt, Nasra Adem, Natahna Bargen-Lema, and Natalie Meyer. Photos supplied by the artists.

Melissa-Jo Belcourt (MJ) comes from a rich Métis ancestry and possesses a wealth of cultural skills, acquired from Métis and First Nation Elders and Knowledge Holders throughout northern and central Alberta. Her passion lies in her cultural heritage where she continues to research to find better understanding of her ancestral legacy. Additionally, MJ is a certified Native Cultural Art instructor, and most recently worked as Indigenous Art Consultant for Fort Edmonton Park and Indigenous Curator for the Edmonton Public Library. In 2019, MJ served as an Indigenous Artist in Residency with the City of Edmonton.

Nasra Adem, is a queer Oromo/Somali multidisciplinary artist. They are the founder of Black Arts Matter and a former Youth Poet Laureate of Edmonton. Their latest work includes their EP “Salve”, a unique blend of herbal medicine, genre bending poetics and bass driven sound. And DNAPLAY; a veneration of Black queer routine as ritual through storytelling, film, movement and music premiering February 2022. No matter the form it takes NASRA’s he(art)work continuously centers the joy, autonomy and freedom of Black/Indigenous Peoples everywhere.

Natahna Bargen-Lema is a queer writer, graphic designer, and the co-founder of the women-run, digitally focused publishing house, Party Trick Press. She is passionate about revolutionizing the eLiterature experience by centering unique perspectives in fresh and surprising ways. Natahna has been published in a variety of outlets, including The Financial Diet, Metatron, Soft Magazine, Hello America Stereo Cassette, and Alberta Views. She is also the author and co-author of the poetry collections Modern Madonna and Prairie Girl Collective, respectively.  

As an Indo-Canadian multi-disciplinary visual artist; painter, bodypainter, videographer and youth educator, Natalie Meyer’s artwork aims to reach a level where people can feel, heal and evoke emotion while exploring her work. Natalie’s artistic journey involves representing visible minorities, exploring cultural and diverse traditions, and the uniqueness of the human form.  

Clockwise from top left: Sherryl Sewepagaham, D’orjay The Singing Shaman, Steven Teeuwsen, and Yong Fei Guan. Photos supplied by the artists.

Sherryl Sewepagaham is Cree-Dene from the Little Red River Cree Nation in northern Alberta and resides in Edmonton. She is a songmaker and hand drum singer, which inspires the music she creates. She is also an elementary music educator, choral composer, and music therapist, and has spent her career focusing on Indigenous music. Sherryl is passionate about sharing the Cree language in many facets of her work and study and is dedicated to composing in the Cree language, sharing the beauty of the language with both children and adults.

Steven Teeuwsen is an Edmonton-based mural artist, sculptor, and designer. Steven has demonstrated a continued commitment to supporting his community with innovative curatorial projects for the past 15 years, such as Notebook Magazine and Lowlands Project Space. Steven strives for diversity in the demographics of the artists that he curates by trying to remove barriers for artists who are neurodiverse or have had barriers put in place by heteronormative culture and systemic racism.

D’orjay The Singing Shaman is passionate, vocal, and committed to bringing diversity and inclusiveness to country music. She colours outside the lines with anthemic, bold blues, honky-tonk and rock-flavoured roots with a distinct queer, Black twist. A self-described late bloomer, at 35 she grabbed the mic, releasing her critically acclaimed debut, New Kind of Outlaw. D’orjay has been nominated for 2021 Breakout West Country Artist of the Year, had the title track featured on Hockey Night in Canada, has been a featured artist on Proud Radio Country and Color Me Country on Apple Music Radio, reviewed/mentioned in Rolling Stone Country and spent multiple weeks on the Alberta's CKUA Top Ten chart including two weeks in the #1 spot.  

Yong Fei Guan is a Chinese-Canadian artist and a mother of two daughters. She explores multicultural identity, politics, and their relationship to environmental issues in her work. Guan utilizes a multitude of different mediums, from watercolour to single-used plastic. Her recent large installations, including 塑胶狮 Su Jiao Shi, a pair of contemporary Chinese guardian lion sculptures created from household plastic waste, have garnered a great deal media attention. Guan is currently conducting a research-creation project exploring eco public art through the Master of Fine Arts program at the University of Alberta.

More information about the Edmonton Arts Council’s grants and award programs can be found at: grants.edmontonarts.ca.  

[chelseainthearctic]

Aqpik Flower

A dewy Aqpik flower after the rain.

Also known as Cloudberrries, Aqpiks are an orange berry, similar in shape and size of a raspberry or blackberry, but instead of growing a large bush each stem produces just one berry for the season. Aqpiks are native to arctic tundra regions, and while considered a delicacy in many places, they are not widely cultivated.

Inuvik,NT

[hexenmeisterer]

I wanted to circle back around to this post about the way that due South “indigenizes” Fraser with appropriated Indigenous culture and then perversely ties that together with a racist nostalgia for the “good old days” of the RCMP.

The text of due South has become a sort of window, for me, into questions about the history of Canada, its colonization, and the way that settler-indigenous relationships are different there from where I live (I’m living on Ohlone land). The language of the show is built on archetypes and historical narratives that shape Canadian national identity. It magnifies them, pokes fun at them, references them in offhand ways, and sometimes just plays them straight. And, like any settler-colonized nation, the national-identity-myths it’s working with are the self-congratulatory, genocide-concealing myths of settlers.

what happens to our understanding of Benton and Bob Fraser when we look at the role the RCMP has played, both historically and very very currently, as a colonizing force?

Can we imagine into that, extrapolate a more complex relationship between him and the various Indigenous peoples he grew up around? where maybe they told him untrue things about their culture, and he’s not as much of an expert or an insider on it (”indigenized”) as he/the show thinks he is? 

Relatedly: what if we take, watsonian-style, the fact that Fraser says there are 60 Inuktitut words for snow? (when in reality, there are only like 10-15, depending on how you count it.) from TVtropes: “Maybe the Inuit guys decided to pass the time making up words for snow to mess with the gullible white guy?”

we know that Fraser’s grandma taught in a small Inuit village when she was 19. What happens to our understanding of her character if we dig into the real, fucked up history of Canadian schooling of indigenous children? 

from a summary of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Canada’s Residential Schools: The Inuit and Northern Experience:

“Prior to the 1950s, the federal government left northern residential schools in the hands of the missionary societies that operated largely in the Mackenzie Valley and the Yukon. It was only in the 1950s that Inuit children began attending residential schools in large numbers. The tremendous distances that Inuit children had to travel to school meant that, in some cases, they were separated from their parents for years. The establishment of day schools and what were termed small hostels in over a dozen communities in the eastern Arctic led many Inuit parents to settle in those communities on a year-round basis so as not to be separated from their children, contributing to a dramatic transformation of the Inuit economy and way of life. Not all the northern institutions are remembered similarly. The staff at Grandin College in Fort Smith and the Churchill Vocational Centre in northern Manitoba were often cited for the positive roles that they played in developing and encouraging a new generation of Aboriginal leadership. The legacy of other schools, particularly Grollier Hall in Inuvik and Turquetil Hall in Igluligaarjuk (Chesterfield Inlet), is far darker. These schools were marked by prolonged regimes of sexual abuse and harsh discipline that scarred more than one generation of children for life.”

(forced residential schooling didn’t happen for the until the 50s-60s, but being the white schoolteacher/very likely a missionary in an indigenous village is bound to be pretty fucked in some ways no matter how good one’s intentions are or how many children you saved from a fire!)

One thing that I keep thinking about is the fact that Fraser, a white Mountie, gets to tell plot-convenient “Inuit stories” on TV, which are played for maximum quaintness/laughs. Meanwhile, actual Inuit people struggle to get their real stories heard. ("In terms of the Canadian lit scene, I know other Inuit writers, they're afraid to publish and they're afraid to go through that process because we know what it's like to be colonized and you don't want your work re-colonized." -Norma Dunning)  

So I also wanted to take a minute to lift up a couple actual stories from actual Inuit people:

1. Norma Dunning wrote a collection of stories Annie Muktuk And Other Stories. “In her collection, Dunning says she wanted to draw attention to inaccurate, but persistent, sexual stereotypes [of Inuit women]. Dunning says the 16 stories in her collection are set in the recent past, so they can address the history of Inuit in Canada.” (I ordered it from my bookstore and I’m really looking forward to reading it! Will report back.)

2. The Little-Known History of How the Canadian Government Made Inuit Wear ‘Eskimo Tags’

"Well, my name's Jennifer Qupanuaq May...but apparently in the eyes of the government I'm still E8-2571," she says with irony.

The 33-year-old Inuk woman from Kuujuuaq, Quebec, is referring to her Eskimo Identification Number, a long-forgotten government program that ran for decades in the North—all the way to the 1980s in some parts.”

Susan Aglukark wrote a song, “E186″ about it:

“stole your name, E186″

3. We Were So Far Away: The Inuit Experience of Residential Schools

“In 2008, a group of courageous Inuit residential school Survivors shared their experiences with the Legacy of Hope Foundation with the hope of contributing to the healing process for Survivors, their families and communities, as well as the rest of the nation. Their stories, recorded in this exhibition catalogue, are presented in their own words and illustrated with their personal objects and photographs, as well as with historical photographs from archives across Canada. The Survivors, two from each Inuit region – Nunavut, Nunavik, Nunatsiavut and the Inuvialuit Settlement Region – provide us with moving examples of what life was like for many Inuit before, during, and after their time in the Residential School System.”

[canadianjobbank]

Apply now: https://canadianjobbank.org/clerk-retail-sales-5/