Dancer shares the story of his road home

Native artist and dancer Andy Everson is deeply involved with his culture, but his path wasn't an easy one because of a past law in Canada that stigmatized aboriginal women who married non-aboriginal men.

Everson, who is from the Comox Band, at one time wasn't even allowed to live on reserve after his mother married a Norwegian man.

By doing so, she and her children lost their Indian status. According to Canadian federal law at the time, if an aboriginal man married a non-aboriginal woman she gained Indian status, but if the opposite happened the woman lost her status. After the Indian Act was amended in 1985, Everson's mother was able to regain her status, as were her children.

"It defines who I am now," said Everson, who gives no hint of malice about the injustice. Though his family was "essentially kicked off" the reserve land, he still felt a part of the community.

Most of his childhood was spent in Courtney, but he would still attend potlatches growing up. Everson learned the values and ways of his people from his grandmother, who as a child lived in a traditional Big House and carried on her people's ancient traditions right up until her death at 99 years of age.

"When I was young our culture wasn't thriving as much as it is now but it was always around," said Everson, 37. "I started to get really involved as a teenager when I started to go to more potlatches and spend a lot of time with my grandmother. I'm really glad I did now. There were a lot of things to learn and she taught me my responsibilities and roles as a member of my community."

Everson, who is part of the famous Hunt family, was able to spend more time with his grandmother after his mother regained her Indian status and they were allowed to move onto the reserve.

He went on to university and got his master's degree in anthropology, which he saw as a "good fit" because of his aboriginal background. He wrote his thesis about contemporary K'omox Identity.

Since 1993 he has been a dancer with the LeLaLa Dancers, a traditional dance company from northern Vancouver Island. He is also an artist, producing two dimensional prints in a style that mixes Coast Salish and Kwakwaka'wakw, from Comox north.

The dance troupe has been performing regularly throughout the Winter 2010 Olympics at the Pan Pacific Hotel, which has been the site of many aboriginal cultural performances and demonstrations organized by the Aboriginal Tourism Association of B.C.

Everson's artwork is on display at the Aboriginal Artisan Village and Business Showcase, situated in the lobby of the Vancouver Community College, one block north of the Aboriginal Pavilion. The artist said he has been happy to see the aboriginal culture gain acceptance and understanding at the Games.

"For the most part, the involvement of aboriginal people was an eye opener to a lot of the world. That we exist and the indigenous people of Canada are quite diverse. You could see that at the opening ceremony. There was a wide variety of regalia and dance styles. The legacy is we're still here," he said.

kpemberton@vancouversun.com
© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

Andy Everson's prints can be found at Tribal Spirit Gallery.

FEB 2010 The Beat newsletter

From Feb. 2010 The Beat (condensed):

Vancouver seems to be all about the 2010 Olympics in February, either directly or indirectly through special funding. An Aboriginal Pavilion stands prominently in the plaza of the Queen Elizabeth Theatre in downtown Vancouver, with displays and retail reflecting First Nations culture, and a varied program of performances. A new book O Siyam, with an introduction by Gerald McMaster, presents the many works commissioned for the Olympic and Paralympic Games from First Nations artists across Canada, a number of which have been mentioned in past issues of The Beat. During the Opening Ceremony, note that the costumes of the Olympic Team of the Netherlands were designed by Tahltan First Nation artist Alano Edzerza. 

There are many art exhibitions in February in the Vancouver area. Here are some related to First Nations, followed by the relevant website. Some venues have longer opening hours, or different access, during the Olympics, so you may wish to check before you visit.

The Royal British Columbia Museum in Victoria’s exhibition of Coast Salish art, S’abadeb continues until March 8 2010.

Anishnabe Don McIntyre and Nisga’a Michael R. Dangeli’s work is exhibited at the Alma Mater Society Art Gallery at the Student Union Building of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, from February 14 2010. The show is called East Meets West: Throwing Power, Woodland and Northwest Art.

Frank Shebageget: Model Life, and Quilt of Belonging with Coast Salish weaving, at the Surrey Art Gallery, to April 4 2010. http://www.arts.surrey.ca

Continuum: Vision and Creativity on the Northwest Coast at the Bill Reid Gallery in Vancouver until March 28 2010. http://www.billreidgallery.ca

Artist Peter Morin is at Open Space in Victoria, Thursdays and Fridays throughout February and March 2010, for A Memory Talking Stick artist residency and collaborative workshop. The project seeks to create stories and ceremonies to connect Aboriginal experiences with the larger community’s identities. The project organizers can be contacted at 250 383 8833.

Bonny Graham-Krulicki’s Words to the Wyse is at the Chilliwack Museum until March 11 2010. The artist moves to preserve her Coast Salish language through art, with works created to communicate an appreciation of the language’s historical and spiritual significance. For more information, see http://www.chilliwack.museum.bc.ca

Laid Over to Cover: Photography and Weaving in the Salishan Landscape at Presentation House Gallery in North Vancouver until March 14 2010.http://www.presentationhousegall.com

At the Vancouver Art Gallery, Visions of British Columbia: A Landscape Manual, until April 18 2010.

http://www.vanartgallery.bc.ca

Mask is at the Richmond Art Gallery, photographic portraits of artists by Haisla artist Arthur Renwick, until April 4 2010. http://www.richmondartgallery.org/renwick.php

Arthur Renwick is also exhibiting his work at the National Museum of the American Indian in New York. HIDE: Skin as Material and Metaphor is a two-part exhibition: Part I will open March 6 to August 1 2010, Part II will open September 4 to January 16 2011. More at:

http://www.artdaily.com/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=35556

An exhibition of drawings, etchings and other small works from 1985 to 2009 by Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun will be held March 19 to May 16 2010, at the Contemporary Art Gallery in Vancouver. See

http://www.contemporaryartgallery.ca

Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas has a new music video Haida Manga Party Mix, based on the manga style drawings of his recent book Red!, created with First Nations cellist Cris Derksen. A sample is at http://myspace.com/crisderksen

More about Mike’s latest projects at http://www.mny.ca

An exhibition mentioned in several earlier issues of The Beat (October 2009 and January 2010) is of great importance, and not to be missed:

Backstory: Nuuchaanulth Ceremonial Curtains and the Work of Ki-ke-in at the Morris and Helen Belkin Gallery at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver runs until March 28 2010. The impressive exhibition of these Thliisapilthim, ceremonial backdrop curtains, shows a large number of powerful paintings representing the family history of the people whose traditional territory lies on the west coast of Vancouver Island. Some curtains are from the nineteenth century, others are newly created for recent events. Preliminary drawings, photographs of vanished works, family members and events connected to the ceremonial backdrops and other community–related matters, are included in the exhibition. The artist Ki-ke-in, Ron Hamilton painted many of the works, and was the dynamic force behind the exhibition. So huge are some of the curtains that one is accommodated in the UBC Chan Centre, another in a nearby campus library. An illustrated 32-page catalogue is available at the Belkin Gallery, and further publications will follow. There may never be another opportunity to view these works together.

The Costume Museum of Canada and the Urban Shaman gallery present Native/American Apparel, an exhibition bringing together artwork by aboriginal artists Lita Fontaine and K.C. Adams and pieces from the collection of the Costume Museum to look at the relationship of fashion, clothing, and textile to the representation of Indigenous identities. The exhibition runs in Winnipeg until April 4 2010. For more information see http://www.costumemuseum.com

Late in January 2010, the Museum of Anthropology at Vancouver’s University of British Columbia celebrated the opening of its renovation and expanded exhibition space. The museum seems transformed, and is now a much warmer, more inviting, more elegant and more informative place.

The former storage collection area is unrecognizable, and has become a beautiful place to view the gallery’s extensive holdings in a more ordered and accessible way.

The opening exhibition of the large new Audain Gallery at MOA is Border Zones: New Art Across Cultures, until September 12 2010.

A number of new art works were commissioned for the museum; these include Musqueam artist Susan Point’s Salish Footprint, a granite mosaic embedded in the concrete at the entrance to MOA.

MOA has somewhat altered its mission at this time, now proclaiming itself “A place of world arts + cultures”. See http://www.moa.ubc.ca

More at http://www.moa.ubc.ca/events/events_news.php?item=638

Work is progressing on a pole intended for the campus of Northwest Community College’s Prince Rupert. Tsimshian carvers Henry Green, Gerald Stewart and assistants are past the halfway mark on a pole commissioned from them by the college. NWCC President Stephanie Forsyth has long been a supporter of First Nations cultural projects.

The pole represents the crests of Sim' oogit Saxsaht, chief of the Gitwilgyots[people of the kelp],one of the nine allied tribes of the Tsimshian Nation whose traditional territory encompasses the Prince Rupert area. More information on Green’s work can be found at:

http://www.nationspaddling.com/

The Beat will report again as the work progresses.

In Ottawa, an important part of the history of the early contact between Canada’s First Nations and European business is displayed at the Canadian Museum of Civilization. Profit and Ambition: The Canadian Fur Trade, 1779-1821 runs until September 12 2010. For more information, see http://www.civilization.ca

A more interesting way to travel between Vancouver and Whistler is offered by bus with Talking Totem Tours “Sea to Sky Aboriginal Cultural Journey”. First Nations guides, food and traditional stories will enrich your journey. Special options for groups are available.

For more information, or phone 604 989 2897, or see http://www.talkingtotemtours.com

The ninth annual Talking Stick Festival showcases a diverse and talented community of local, national and international Aboriginal artists. A fusion of music, dance, theatre, multimedia, performance art, visual art and storytelling will be held from February 21 to 28 2010, daily at 7 pm. The Ab-Original Cabaret will enliven the Roundhouse in Vancouver’s Yaletown. For details of performances, and more about Full Circle, see http://www.fullcircleperformance.ca/

The Haida Heritage Centre in Skidegate, Haida Gwaii, is one of five tourism businesses in BC to receive the 'Authentic Aboriginal' title, a new designation awarded by the Aboriginal Tourism Association of British Columbia.

Vancouver Community College has opened a new Aboriginal gathering space, a “supportive place that allows students to study, access computers and meet with Aboriginal Elders and staff – designed to help them reach their educational goals.”

Artist Ya ya Charles Heit has brought to our attention a website article with a good description of the role of the potlatch among the First Nations of the Pacific coast.

See http://www.firstnationsdrum.com/2009/march/potlach.html

++++++++++++++++++++

Comments, news and new subscribers to this free newsletter are welcomed. Please write to: editor@coastalartbeat.ca

Past issues are available at our website http://www.coastalartbeat.ca

Thank you to David Dumaresq, Henry Green, Michael Dangeli, Rikki Kooy, Martine Reid, Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas, Dorothy Grant, and many others, for your assistance.  The Beat is an independent, not-for-profit project written and published in Vancouver Canada by Ann Cameron.  Copyright 2010 Ann Cameron.

Baby makes New Year's appearance

Lora Grindlay, The Province

Published: Monday, January 11, 2010

 

Whale watchers are anxiously awaiting another sighting of the Pacific Northwest's newest baby orca.
The New Year's baby killer whale was likely born Jan. 1 in the waters of Juan de Fuca Strait and was spotted off Seattle on Jan. 3.

Howard Garrett, director of the Whidbey Island-based Orca Network, said it's important to verify that the calf, a member of one of three southern resident-whale pods, has survived.

"We'll be eager to see," said Garrett. It's common that whales are not seen for weeks at a time at this time of year, he said. It is the sixth whale to be born to the southern resident whale pods in the past year. The pods are known as J, K and L.

The births follow a devastating year in 2008 when seven orcas from the pods, including two females of reproductive age, died. Garrett said the latest birth is an encouraging sign for the southern resident population that is now believed to consist of 88 whales. "We just had a real bad year and then a real good year."

The whales are often seen around Victoria, at the mouth of the Fraser River, in the Georgia Strait and have been sighted near the Queen Charlotte Islands. Garrett said there were 97 southern resident whales in 1995. "We're climbing back. In five years [after 1995], it dropped to 78 whales, and now we're up to 88, so we're half way to where we were in 1995," he said.

About 50 per cent of calves die in their first year of life. Garrett said the births and mortality rates of the whales are closely linked to the availability of chinook salmon, their meal of choice.
"That's really the predominant factor at work here," he said. "They are very picky eaters."
lgrindlay@theprovince.com

© The Province 2010

Keeping it authentic!

The following is a post from From Shain Jackson, President of Spirit Works Limited about the authenticity of native products used for the 2010 Winter Games:

Please, we need your support,

We are Aboriginal producers of Authentic Aboriginal Products in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, home of the 2010 Winter Olympic games.  We define our products as Authentic in that they are designed, produced, and distributed by us, Aboriginal People, with the benefits going back to our communities where they are so desperately needed.
       
We have been under siege by competing non-Aboriginal companies taking our culture, mass producing it overseas, and selling it for cheap.

Unfortunately the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic games (VANOC) is one of these competitors. VANOC has branded the term “Authentic Aboriginal Products” to mean their licensed products displaying Aboriginal graphics but supplied by non-Aboriginal companies, and originating overseas where labour and environmental standards are less stringent.  They have branded the term “Authentic Aboriginal Products” so aggressively that when you Google these words in any order you are taken directly to the Olympic online store.  At the same time, VANOC has virtually excluded from their licensing program truly Authentic Aboriginal Products - those designed, produced, and distributed by First Nations people.

If you find this behaviour unacceptable we ask that you read and sign the following e-petition, then pass this along to a friend:  http://www.gopetition.com/online/32954.html (This is a reputable site and there is an anonymous option for those concerned about revealing their info publicly)

They can ignore us, but it is our hope they won’t ignore you.

For more information please visit our Blog at: www.trulyauthentic.wordpress.com.  It will be documenting our campaign as it evolves.

Thank you so very much

Shain Jackson
President
Spirit Works Limited

The Life and Legend of Bill Reid: CBC archives

Archives and stories pertaining to the late Bill Reid:
http://archives.cbc.ca/arts_entertainment/sculpture/topics/1273/

Le-La-La Dancers: Spirit Journey: Encircling Our Ancestors

The Beat Volume 3, Issue 11 November 2009

In Nanaimo, the Kwakwaka’wakw Le-La-La Dancers are performing Spirit Journey: Encircling Our Ancestors at the Port Theatre on Thursday December 3 2009. Call 250 754 8550 for tickets.

The Beat is an independent, not-for-profit project, written and published in Vancouver Canada by Ann Cameron. ©2008, Ann Cameron.
Comments, news and new subscribers to this free newsletter are welcomed. Please write to: editor@coastalartbeat.ca

The Premier's new desk

Arthur Vickers spent 42 months building bentwood-box lookalike

The artist Arthur Vickers has created what he calls the Leadership Desk in the form of a large bentwood box. He has painted figures from native iconography on all sides of what is a breathtaking, one-of-a-kind piece.

Globe and Mail:
Gordon Campbell's desk a thing of beauty 


The Beat Volume 3, Issue 11 November 2009:

Tsimshian artist Arthur Vickers has carved a fine Leadership Desk for the office of the Premier of British Columbia, presented on October 28. The desk was created without drawers, in the form of a bent box, its top a lid. The outside front of the cedar desk is painted with a young eagle, and on the other side, male and female humans with arms outstretched, representing the current generation of British Columbians. The side panels depict a future generation awaiting birth.
Like his brother Roy Vickers, Arthur Vickers has a studio and art gallery on Vancouver Island. Arthur Vickers’ Shipyard gallery is in Cowichan Bay. For an image and more of the story, see
http://www.vancouversun.com/Native+artist+designs+premier+desk/2157574/story.html 

The Beat is an independent, not-for-profit project, written and published in Vancouver Canada by Ann Cameron. ©2008, Ann Cameron.
Comments, news and new subscribers to this free newsletter are welcomed. Please write to: editor@coastalartbeat.ca