Canada Study Trip 2012 - Master Post

From March 3rd to 24th, 2012, three of our students went on a study trip to Vancouver and Vancouver Island financed by Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada (DFAIT) "Student Mobility Support Program". The grant was won by dr Eugenia Sojka (director of Canadian Studies Centre, Institute of English Cultures and Literatures) for a project "Transcultural Journeys into Canadian Indigenous and Diasporic Drama, Theatre and Performance. Polish Encounters with Spectacular Others". Here is a detailed account of the trip:

Sunday, 4 March 2012 - Canada Study Trip Day One
Monday, 5 March 2012 - University of British Columbia
Tuesday, 6 Match 2012 - Urban Mountains
Wednesday, 7 March 2012 - Gardens and Totem Poles
Thursday, 8 March 2012 - Nanaimo
Friday, 9 March 2012 - Colloquium
Saturday, 10 March 2012 - Snuneymuxw
Sunday, 11 March 2012 - Potlatch
Monday, 12 March 2012 - Bookworming
Tuesday, 13 March 2012 - More Book Devouring...
Wednesday, 14 March 2012 - Library in a Blizzard
Thursday, 15 March 2012 - Chief Doug White III
Friday, 16 March 2012 - Royal BC Museum in Victoria
Saturday, 17 March 2012 - Pierogies!
Sunday, 18 March 2012 - Sunday Walk
Monday, 19 March 2012 - Visual Arts Department
Tuesday, 20 March 2012 - First Nations Program - Yearend Celebration
Wednesday, 21 March 2012 to Friday, 23 March 2012 - Alert Bay
Sunday, 25 March 2012 - Hych'ka!

Hych'ka!

After nearly 25 hours, we arrived back in Katowice! Our trip to Canada has ended, but we’re sure never going to forget it. ;)

We would like to extend a special thank you to Dr Eugenia Sojka for winning the grant that allowed us to visit Canada, as well as organizing the bulk of our trip. Once again thank you very much!

Also, we would like to thank Diane Roberts and Rosemary Georgeson of urban ink, Vancouver, for a warm welcome and kind words. Special thanks go to Steve and Deborah Lane of Nanaimo, for their hospitality, sense of humour, amazing dinners and support. Thank you to Laura Cranmer, Daniel Burgoyne, Mark Taugher and Gregory Ball of Vancouver Island University for all their help and interest. Thank you to Gloria Cranmer Webster, for welcoming us into her home, and to her granddaughter Emily, for the dedicated tour around Alert Bay. 

 

And, last but not least, thank you to all who helped us and were kind to us! You made this trip happen!

Hych'ka! :)

Saying Goodbye to Vancouver...

...and to the Rocky Mountains.

Alert Bay

On Friday, March 21^st, we said our goodbyes to Steve and Deborah Lane, and set off for Alert Bay. We took a scenic route – the bus to Port McNeill went along the East Coast of Vancouver Island, stopping in every major town on the way, including Parksville, Qualicum Beach, Courtenay and Campbell River, then veered inland to give us amazing mountain views (with Mt. Cain among others) near a tiny stop in Woss, only to cross the Nimpkish River just before arriving at our destination. From Port McNeill it was only a 45 minute ferry ride to the small, beautiful Cormorant Island and the town of Alert Bay. The whole journey took us around seven hours.

A View from the Bus Window. :)

In Alert Bay we were greeted by Gloria Cranmer Webster and her granddaughter Emily, who welcomed us into their home with a mouthwatering dinner of salmon. We stayed up late talking, and woke up early the next day so that we could make the most of our one-day visit. We started with the U’mista, a Cultural Centre and Museum, where we could see the Potlatch Collection of masks and other regalia returned to Alert Bay after they were confiscated following an illegal Potlatch thrown by Dan Cranmer in 1921. The regalia are presented not behind glass, but free-standing, as the Kwakwaka’wakw community felt that they have been kept in boxes long enough. 

In Front of the U'mista.

U'mista From the Back.

 

The U’mista Cultural Centre is situated on the coast next to a dreary looking derelict building that used to be a residential school. Institutions of this kind are a dark spot in Canadian history – first established in 1840s with the purpose of gathering Indigenous children in one place and “civilizing” them, they were places of horror in which the children not only lost their language and contact with their families and culture, but many of them were also abused and even killed. Nowadays, the trauma of residential schools is still very much part of First Nations reality, and the building in Alert Bay is a case in point – it is considered a cursed place, yet it still stands, frightening passers-by with gaping, broken windows and falling bricks, a constant reminder and an eyesore. 

Residential School.

After visiting the U’mista, we met with Emily, who gave us a tour around the island, driving us to the Big House, where the Potlatches are held. Unfortunately, we couldn’t go inside without the keys, but we could still admire the beautiful artwork decorating the building, as well as the totem pole in front of it, which, at 173 feet, is the tallest totem pole in the world. Later, Emily arranged for us to meet Wayne Alfred, a member of the Ha’matsa Society, who dances during Potlatch. He agreed to answer our questions about the Potlatch and other aspects of Indigenous culture, and gave a brief demonstration of the Ha’matsa Dance depicting the myth of a cannibal returning to the village from the forest and being tamed back into a human being. 

The World's Tallest Totem Pole.

The Interview With Wayne Alfred.

Next on our agenda was cooking dinner – again, we made pierogies - as a thank you to Gloria Cranmer Webster for her kindness and hospitality. Afterwards, Emily took us for a walk in the forest and along the beach, and we ended up circling the entire island. :) Unfortunately, we couldn’t stay up late again, because we needed a very early start the next day. Armed with Gloria’s delicious salmon sandwiches, we began our journey back on the first ferry to Port McNeill at 6:40 a.m., and arrived in Vancouver around 8 p.m., having travelled by two ferries, three buses and a train. Let’s just say it was a long day. :P

With Emily On Our Walk.

With Gloria Cranmer Webster and her Granddaughter, Emily.

First Nations Program - Yearend Celebration

Laura Cranmer invited us today to the First Nations Studies’ Yearend Celebration. It was unlike any such event we have ever participated in. First of all, it opened with a song and a prayer said by the Elders in Residence, blessing all the guests and thanking the Snuneymuxw for giving permission to hold the celebration on their territory. All participants were required to stand up and many held up their hands in prayer and thanksgiving. After the official beginning of the celebration, Louise Mandell, the honoured guest speaker, gave a lecture about her involvement in the Aboriginal Rights movement and about the legal and political situation of First Nations in Canada. She spoke at length about the founding of the Assembly of First Nations and their 1980 manifesto in Ottawa entitled Declaration of First Nations, as well as the subsequent fight for treaty rights of Aboriginal Peoples. 

Songs with the Accompaniment of Drums.

Members of the Faculty with the Snuneymuxw Chief (second left).

 

After the lecture we attended a splendid feast in honour of the graduating students of the First Nations Program. The meal was followed by several aboriginal songs performed with the accompaniment of drums, as well as other cross-cultural performances courtesy of first year students of the program (a song from the Republic of South Africa and a dance from Japan, among others). Many thanks were expressed on behalf of lecturers, students, and the First Nations elders sharing their wisdom during classes. What was most heartwarming was the welcoming atmosphere that made the Yearend Celebration more like a family gathering rather than a university event. These extremely close bonds formed between the faculty and students is what sets the First Nations Program aside from other programs at Vancouver Island University and we felt very honoured to take a small part in their celebrations.

Visual Arts Department

In the morning we met with Gregory Ball, who took us on a tour of VIU’s Visual Arts Department. We were let into various classrooms to see where VIU’s painters, computer graphics designers, sculptors and printmakers learn how to make their art. We also saw some of the students at work and found out about the steps one needs to take in order to make a print. 

With Gregory Ball in the Tamagawa Garden, VIU Campus.

Later, Gregory lead us to the Nanaimo ArtGallery, where we could admire the works of Amy Loewan and Deryk Houston. Amy Loewan’s pieces were particularly interesting: she had woven large mats from folded pieces of rice paper, intertwining within them words in many different languages, all describing the idea of peace. There was an additional installation that allowed guests of the gallery to write their thoughts about peace on long strips of paper and then weave them into a wire net. The strips would later be used by the artist to create a new work of art.

One of Amy Loewen's Installations.

After the gallery, we once again headed for the library. :P It’ll be hard to part with this particular building on the VIU campus!

Sunday Walk

It was a freezing morning for a Sunday walk – even though we were all bundled up, we were still chilled to the bone. But, despite the cold, the atmosphere was very cheerful – everyone was still mentioning our Polish dinner from the day before. :) We walked in a forest this time – technically it’s all private property destined to be cut down for development, so in a couple more years it’ll be a fully-functioning neighbourhood, but for now it’s a nice retreat for hikers, and a good place to let the dogs off the leash. The two Labradors, once let on the loose, turn out to be much more energetic than their dopey-eyes suggest. :P

On the Sunday Walk with Deborah (left) and Karen (right).

The afternoon was spent quite studiously – there were a lot of things connected with our project or our individual work that we needed to catch up on, so a free Sunday afternoon needed to be sacrificed. ;)

Pierogies!

And then Poland came to Canada! Today was a Polish day – the night of our thanksgiving Polish dinner in honour of our lovely hosts,  Professor Steve Lane and his wife, Deborah. :) The three of us spent five and a half hours in the kitchen making pierogies. The room turned into a temporary assembly line – we made more than 150 pierogies, with three different fillings: strawberry, cottage cheese and mushrooms. As an addition, we also made a pot of compot for everyone to drink. 

One Hundred and Fifty Pierogies! :D

The dinner turned out to be a real success. :D Only few pierogies were left uneaten. However, being a cook is a really tough job, therefore we went to bed at 10 p.m.

Royal BC Museum in Victoria

Today Deborah took us on a field trip to Victoria, where we spent most of our time in the Royal BC Museum. First, we started with the Natural History Gallery, where we found exhibitions of fauna and flora found in British Columbia in the past and today. The most striking was the Woolly Mammoth (and the spooky primeval sounds it made ;) ) and a large scale close up of a square inch of soil, or, more precisely, its disgusting inhabitants. :P

The Woolly Mammoth. :)

One floor up we found the First Peoples Gallery, with totem poles, a Kwakwaka’wakw Big House, Haida Argillite Carvings and a large variety of Aboriginal masks. What’s most thought-provoking is that while most of the Totem Poles were taken out of derelict villages, some of the masks were acquired by questionable means, and now the museum is refusing to give them back to the families they were taken from. This is part of a larger problem that the First Nations of British Columbia face nowadays: in the 1900s to 1920s large quantities of Indigenous regalia and family heirlooms were taken and sold to museums and private collectors, and now it’s virtually impossible to get them back, even though most of them were obtained more or less illegally.

Some of the Exhibits at the Royal BC Museum.

Chief Doug White III

Today morning Karolina had a meeting with Laura Cranmer, who, apart from being a scholar and lecturer at the Vancouver Island University, is also a First Nations playwright. She was very eager to answer all our questions in detail, so instead of speaking on the spot, without preparation, she suggested she would write out her thoughts in an e-mail instead.

In the Kwulasulwut Garden, VIU Campus.

At ten we had a special meeting scheduled. Professor Lane single-handedly arranged for us to have a short interview with Chief Doug White III, the chief of the Snuneymuxw. We drove to his office at the Snuneymuxw Administrative House (a photograph of the totem pole carved at the entrance of this building was part of an earlier post), where he greeted us very warmly with gifts: a beautifully carved wooden piece of a spool, which is the only carving that is not considered sacred by the Snuneymuxw, and a copper pin for each of us. We talked about the role of a First Nations Chief in contemporary Canada, and about the serious legal issues Aboriginal peoples face in their interaction with the Canadian State. We also widely discussed the 1854 Treaty between the Snuneymuxw and the Crown, and how it’s still not entirely recognized by the Canadian government, which raises a lot of contention among the community. The Chief was very glad to see us and was grateful for the interest we showed in the Snuneymuxw community. The funny thing was, he wasn’t anything like we had imagined – first of all, he was much younger than we had expected, and secondly, there wasn’t a stitch of stereotype about him! :P

With Chief Doug White III.

At one we had our presentation. It was supposed to be in a class, but it was apparent very quickly that there were too many people present, so we had to move it to the Malaspina Theatre, where we went to see Laura Cranmer and Eliza Gardiner’s Colloquium and the play “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum”, so we were a bit nervous beforehand. Regardless, our presentation went without a hitch, and we’re very happy how it came out. Afterwards, we spent a nice afternoon with our new Polish friends.

Before the Presentation, With Bob Lane, Professor Lane's Father.

During the Presentation.

The Library in a Blizzard

The morning attacked us with an unexpected blizzard. Seriously, within a half hour, the whole VIU campus was covered with an inch-thick layer of snow. We spent most of that time sheltered within the walls of the Arts & Humanities building, attending Professor Daniel Burgoyne’s class on English Romantic Literature. Today, we discussed Keats’ poem, “The Fall of Hyperion”, which was kind of tough, but I think we did manage to glean some kind of coherent meaning out of it, so it was good.

The Library in the Blizzard.

Later, we moved to the library again – what a surprise! We had another lovely, productive session with our research, and then decided to go home to prepare for our presentation, which is going to take place tomorrow. We spent the afternoon and evening making sure that nothing was amiss with our PowerPoint file and rehearsing our speeches.