Skeena Reece. “Raven: On the Colonial Fleet”, 2008.
One of the most striking works in the exhibition is the clothing and regalia worn by Reece in her persona as Raven on the Colonial Fleet. It’s comprised of a curvaceous bustier covered in vertical Northwest coast designs and an apron with figures whose outstretched arms are reaching above their heads for AK-47 machine guns. Her traditional button blanket has a surprise on the back: a grenade made out of silver sequins.
Skeena Reece is multi-disciplinary artist based on Vancouver Island and performance work may include, music, spoken word and videography. Founder of the Native Youth Artists Collective, she has worked in Arts Administration since 2005. A self-named ‘Sacred Clown’ influenced by her ancestors she is a storyteller. Her work has extended overseas at the 2010 Sydney Biennale: Festival of Contemporary Art in Australia and at the Bbeyond Gallery in Belfast, Ireland. Performing at community art shows, the main stage or at a cabaret look for her inaugural music cd in Winter 2010.
this is fantastic.
He invented a rainbow but lightning struck it
shattered it into the lake-lap of a mountain
so big his mind slowed when he looked at it
Yet he built a shack on the shore
learned to roast porcupine belly and
wore the quills on his hatband
At first he was out with the dawn
whether it yellowed bright as wood-columbine
or was only a fuzzed moth in a flannel of storm
But he found the mountain was clearly alive
sent messages whizzing down every hot morning
boomed proclamations at noon and spread out
a white guard of goat
before falling asleep on its feet at sundown
When he tried his eyes on the lake ospreys
would fall like valkyries
choosing the cut-throat
He took then to waiting
till the night smoke rose from the boil of the sunset
But the moon carved unknown totems
out of the lakeshore
owls in the beardusky woods derided him
moosehorned cedars circled his swamps and tossed
their antlers up to the stars
then he knew though the mountain slept the winds
were shaping its peak to an arrowhead
poised
And now he could only
bar himself in and wait
for the great flint to come singing into his heart
Earle Birney, 1952
These Beautiful Bridges Are Just For Animals
by Jess Zimmerman
If we’re going to keep putting roads in the middle of their habitats, animals are sometimes going to need to cross the road. But it’s better for everyone involved if they don’t have to push a button and wait for the light to change, because they don’t have thumbs and nine times out of 10 they’ll just careen into the side of your car. Which is why some highways have overpasses built specifically for animals like deer, elk, and grizzly bears.
Nobody teaches moose pedestrian etiquette like “look both ways,” but they figure out pretty quickly that crossing the terrifying asphalt river is safer if you take the beautiful grassy bridge. That’s just my guess at a moose’s internal life, but there’s data too: In Banff National Park in Canada, animals have used the six overpasses and 35 underpasses more than 200,000 times since monitoring began in 1996…
(read more: Grist.org)
______________________
images:
Top - Highway A50, Netherlands (photo: Niels Verheul)
BL - France. BR - Banff, Alberta, Canada (photo: Joel Sartore)
Punch In Canada is also a pretty great blog by the man behind Yesterday’s Papers. Look at that picture! America is always trying to get in our pants.
well, this is pretty wonderful!
canadian country music artist hank snow. (why wikipedia says “canadian-american” when he was born in nova scotia and lived and worked in canada till he was 31, i’m not sure. american parent?)
David Cartier’s homestead in the Yukon Territory, Canada:
One beautiful clear night last week, at our new place near the Yukon River about 30 km. east of Whitehorse. The great thing about having my job evaporate into thin air was that we were able to move out of town to this nice, quiet place where the only traffic we ever see is the occasional passing of a neighbor’s dog team. In the foreground at left is the wood fired sauna/bath house I just finished building, an absolute high priority essential for living in a place without running water.
well, this is quite the perfect blend of creepy and adorable.
“When the Ice Worms Nest Again” - downloaded from Folk Songs Of Canada Now




