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.

More book-devouring...

We began the day with a beautiful sunrise seen from the VIU campus. That’s the second Canadian university situated in a picturesque environs – it makes us supremely jealous! :P Not to mention the wild rabbits hopping about the parking lot. If only Sosnowiec was a bit prettier…

Another Shot of the VIU Campus.

The first class of the day was taught by Laura Cranmer, whom we met a couple of days earlier at the Colloquium. It was a lecture on Aboriginal Communities, and it opened with a prayer in the Kwakwala language, which we didn’t expect, so it came as a bit of a surprise. The classes in the First Nations program here at VIU are very hands on – usually there is a First Nations Elder assisting the lecturer and providing his or her knowledge for the benefit of the students. This particular class was a discussion of Eden Robinson’s Monkey Beach, a novel by an Aboriginal author, addressing contentious issues of the First Nation communities in Canada, among them the trauma of residential schools.

A View from Sugarloaf Mountain Park Situated Not Far From Where We Live.

Afterwards, we spent some more time at the library, salivating over countless books, but we only had a couple of hours before we had to go to another class, this one about theoretical approach to first nations studies. Turns out the group had already moved on from the theoretical part and onto the practical, and they were working on their final projects. The lecturer was very accommodating, though, and she showed us a lot of examples of performance art created by Aboriginal authors.

Bookworming

One Tiny Part of the VIU Campus.

Today we braved the buses in Nanaimo. It wasn’t a very good day for it, because the weather was frightful – it was raining and the wind was so strong that it almost broke our umbrellas. :P So, fighting hostile elements, we managed to arrive at VIU, where we were to take one of ProfessorDaniel Burgoyne’s class. The thing was, we had thought we would be discussing Keats’ “The Fall of Hyperion”, so we had spent half of last night trudging through the opaque poem, but, as it turned out, we were doing William Hone’s “The Political House That Jack Built” instead. Fortunately, we didn’t need to read that one beforehand, and Keats has been moved up to Wednesday, so all our hard work deciphering his words hasn’t been for naught! ;)

View from the Library.

After the class we headed for the library. It took us some time to figure out the shelving system, but after that, we were on a roll. It’s safe to say that “so many books, so little time” doesn’t quite cover the sheer magnitude of our enthusiasm. :P It’s such a shame that our research trip is so short, because limiting yourself when so many things interest you is such hard work. Still, the three hours spent browsing the Nanaimo Campus Library were time extremely well-spent. :)

And the Library Viewed from the Outside. :)

Potlatch

We continued exploring the Vancouver Island today and visited the Neck Point Park. From each point of the trail you can admire a stunning view of the ocean - we were also lucky enough to see some sea lions. Unfortunately, they appeared for just a moment, so we don't have any evidence of this unusual sight.

A Couple of Shots from our Morning Walk.

Refreshed after a pleasant walk, we came back to our studies. In the afternoon, we watched a film entitled: "Potlatch. A Strict Law Bids Us Dance.” This documentary directed by Dennis Wheeler portrays a ceremony of gift-giving practiced by First Nations of the Kwakwaka’wakw People. The Potlatch was outlawed by the Canadian government for many years (1884-1951). One of the women speaking in the documentary was Gloria Webster Cranmer, at whose home we will be staying in Alert Bay.