Tag Archives: Banff

Arts

Elevenses: A Creative Writing Workshop At the Old Schoolhouse Art Gallery

Elevenses will be coming to the Old Schoolhouse Art Gallery.

“A lot of people are like, ‘Elevenses? What is Elevenses?’ Well, Elevenses is the time of day.  I believe it’s a Harry Potter thing, but it’s not really why I like it. I like it because it’s a great name for the time of day. We’re going to meet at 11 and really the whole intent of doing this is to spark imagination. It really is not so much about creative writing and preparing something that’s going to come to completion. It’s about a process. So we’re going to enter this evocative  experiential  installation space at the Old Schoolhouse Gallery at 11 o’clock Wednesday, July 24th as a group,” explained Jane Newman, who will lead this creative writing workshop. 

Continue reading Elevenses: A Creative Writing Workshop At the Old Schoolhouse Art Gallery →
Animals

The First Wildlife Coexistence program on Vancouver Island

Around 40 people turned out for the Wildlife Coexistence Gathering on Cortes Island. This was an opportunity for Cortesians to meet some of the extended community of advisors  to the local program and learn more about our three top predators: grey wolf, black bear and cougar. The gathering was organized and hosted by Sabina Leader Mense and Georgina Silby from the Cortes Community Wolf Project. It began with a welcoming ceremony in the Klahoose All Purpose Building on Friday, April 5. There was an all day teaching series in the Linnaea Education Centre the following day. The gathering ended with a walk through the wildlife travel corridor in Hank’s Beach Forest Conservation Park on Sunday, April 7.  

Sabina Leader Mense emailed, “We celebrated our cultural relationships to our wild kin with the Klahoose First Nations singers & drummers and our guests Grace SoftDeer from the Chickasaw First Nation and Dennis Hetu from the Toquaht First Nation. We then explored our social and ecological relationships with our wild kin in formal and informal presentations by our invited guests, Bob Hansen, Pacific Rim Coordinator for WildSafeBC and Todd Windle, Coordinator for the Wild About Wolves Project.

Cortes Currents recorded most of the sessions at Linnaea and has arranged the material in a series of articles. This is an abridged version of the segment in which Bob Hansen talked about the origins of Vancouver Island’s first wildlife coexistence program. Years later it became the model for Cortes Island’s program, and Hansen was one of Sabina Leader Mense’s mentors.

Continue reading The First Wildlife Coexistence program on Vancouver Island →
Environment, Indigenous Nations

Investing in Indigenous-led conservation key in Canada’s climate crisis fight

National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Like most people heeding the red alert issued by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change last week outlining humanity’s continued spiral towards irreversible climate catastrophe, Valérie Courtois was alarmed. 

“It scared the crap out of me,” Courtois, director of the Indigenous Leadership Initiative (ILI), told Canada’s National Observer. 

“And I think it’s scaring the crap out of anybody who heard about it. At least, I hope it did.” 

No longer a distant calamity, the panel’s report indicates the Earth will likely surpass the 1.5 C warming threshold as early as the 2030s. 

Continue reading Investing in Indigenous-led conservation key in Canada’s climate crisis fight →
Business

Economic Development While Preserving Cortes’ Core Values

4 Comments

By Roy L Hales

When the Cortes Island Business and Tourism Association (CIBATA) was launched, it faced some tough challenges. Some believe Cortes is still stuck in the seventies and many residents would like to preserve that. Yet there is a need for the same business sectors you find everywhere else: retail, health, building and trades, tourism medical marijuana, aquaculture, learning / professional development and social profit. On February 24, CIBATA will be unveiling the draft of Cortes Island’s Local Economic Action Plan at the Klahoose Multipurpose Building, between 10 AM and 4 PM. In this morning’s program the association’s President, Colin Funk, talks about economic development while preserving Cortes’ core values.

Continue reading Economic Development While Preserving Cortes’ Core Values →