Dancing full circle

Overseen by the Croatian Canadian Folklore Federation West, the festival has taken place in western Canadian cities from Winnipeg to Victoria. The CCC also plans to welcome a group from San Jose this year. Vancouver last hosted the festival in 2019; Tamburaški Orkestar Kardinal Stepinac (TOKS), a group focused on preserving Croatian music through playing the long-neck lute, tamburica, organized it.

“Canada’s my home, but Croatia is my home too,” says the Canadian-born Zlomislic whose grandparents on both sides immigrated to Canada from Croatia over 60 years ago. “This is the same for so many other people in our community; this kind of [event] brings you closer to a home that you’ve never lived in.”

Zlomislic leads the CCC’s folklore dance group, Hrvatski Vitezovi Vancouver, who is hosting this year’s festivities. As a child, she danced with the group. A social and pub night at the CCC, featuring the Canadian-Croatian cover band, Duo Zrinjski, opens the three-day event. Traditional and contemporary Croatian songs bring the performances off stage and into the social world of banquets.

There will be a semi-formal, evening banquet at the CCC on Saturday May 17 with live music from Babino Sunce & Grah I Jeċam. At the banquet, guests will be served traditional Croatian dishes and western food.

“In a lot of regions and on the coast of Croatia, they’ll eat things like squid,” says Zlomislic, noting the country’s attention to seafood. “There’s a lot of influence from other places; other food would be like cabbage salad, [and] a lot of potatoes.”

Roast pig is another popular dish. The festival’s headlining event – folklore dance performances – will be held at the Great Canadian Casino on May 17. The last day involves a Holy Mass at Vancouver’s Croatian church, the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

“Then, on Sunday night, we are bringing over from Ontario a younger group,” adds Zlomislic, referring to the Hamilton-based Ponosni Hrvati. “They are absolutely fantastic, and [we] love to keep it going and have the singing go all night.”

“It’s very, very lively,” she says of the music. “When these bands are playing, we are still dancing folk dance, and you have to be able to move your feet fast.”

She adds that attendees often join in a kolo or circle – a traditional Croatian dance that involves grabbing others’ hands while stepping or running together in the circle.

“They can either intertwine their arms or hold hands, but they can’t really separate,” she explains. “They go into pairs; they have dances where girls are ‘flying,’ and the guys are holding them in the circle.”

Finding home

Croatian dances vary by region. The CCC’s senior dance group will perform a traditional wedding dance from Zagorje, a region in Northern Croatia. The dance features a bride, a groom and the bridal party. While most parts are choreographed, performers can add their own flair. For instance, female performers make a high-pitched, rhythmic trill (sometimes called ululation).

“The girls can often do this whenever they want to throughout the dance,” Zlomislic explains, adding the sound expresses joy and encourages dancers as well as musicians. “It’s really to pump everybody up and really focus on that celebration aspect while you’re dancing.”

Zlomislic also looks forward to seeing the costumes often made by the performers’ mothers; others are brought from Croatia. The CCC’s costume room also stores them –
highlighting the region-based diversity of Croatia.

“In a region called Lika, it can get quite cold, so you have heavy wool; it’s very warm costumes that are a little bit more muted, but they are stunning as well,” she explains. “When you go down the coast, in the areas that are warmer, you have lighter cotton fabrics, and everything is a little bit more breathable.”

Outside of the festival, the CCC has served as a much-needed meeting place for the local Croatian diaspora.

“People in our community call it the ‘dom,’ which means ‘home,’” she says, adding the festival is the result of many community members’ efforts. “This is where you have your kid’s baptism party; this is where you have your wedding; this is our home; this is where we meet to be together.”

For more information, see www.croatiancentre.com/events/westfest47

“This carefully protected art form is deeply connected with Japanese aristocratic culture, classical poetry and literature, tea culture, and many of the most influential political and cultural leaders in Japanese history,” she adds.

With a keynote lecture from Nishigiwa Jhōyo, headmaster designate of Kyoto’s Senzan Goryū School of Kōdō, the event provides cultural and historical context for the Kōdō experience – one that deepens the understanding towards tradition.

Carefully protected art

The word Kōdō itself is made of two Kanji characters, meaning ‘incense’ or ‘fragrance’ and ‘the way.’ In this context, ‘the way’ can be understood as a ‘path’ or a ‘way of life.’ When translated to English, Kōdō is “way of fragrance.”

Behr notes the word ‘incense’ often brings to mind “blended incense sticks or cones,” burning and releasing smoke. However, it has much deeper significance in traditional Japanese culture, associated to a ceremony that invites attendees to slow down, reflect and appreciate traditional culture and the environment.

“With Kōdō, the sophisticated integration of Japanese waka poetry and the elevation of a simple sensory experience of scent to a complex art form fascinate me,” she reflects.

Behr has practiced another traditional Japanese art – Chanoyu or Japanese tea tradition – for about 30 years. Her work with Kōdō allowed access to a “different but equally distinctive” part of Japanese culture.

For Behr, the event’s cultural experience – public incense ceremonies – makes it a special opportunity.

“By focusing our attention on our sensory perceptions of products of the natural world, I feel that the art of Kōdō can encourage a greater appreciation for subtlety and nuance and the quiet beauty of nature that are undervalued in today’s society,” she adds.

Japanese history and values

Similar to other traditional Japanese art forms, Kōdō can provide the context for a wider audience to learn about Japanese history and aesthetics; it also engages with Japanese values and attitudes toward nature. For Behr, these attitudes include, “[the] respect for other people and cultures through personal connections.”

“[It offers] endless avenues for learning about the rich culture of associational networks of poetic, seasonal, and historical references that have distinguished Japanese aristocratic culture for more than a millennium,” she adds, speaking of the Kōdō tradition.

For Karah Foster, president of the Dōjin Japanese Arts Society’s board of directors, the event is a rare opportunity to experience this art form.

“I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to be involved with Dōjin Arts to offer locals this unique experience to formally appreciate the natural fragrance of precious woods in the tranquil setting of Nitobe Garden’s Ichibōan tearoom,” says Foster.

Foster points out that having master Nishigiwa Jhōyo’s presence at the event is an honour for the community.

“While the practice of Kōdō is little-known in Canada and outside of Japan, its contemplative qualities can be enjoyed by all without any prior knowledge of traditional customs,” Foster adds.

Behr also sees the Nitobe Memorial Garden as the ideal venue for sharing these traditional arts. For her, the garden’s “authentic space,” such as the Ichibōan teahouse, provides a tranquil setting that emphasizes “respect for the natural environment.”

“We hope the public will enjoy the opportunity to slow down and appreciate a sensory experience focusing on scent in the tranquil setting of the Nitobe Memorial Garden,” says Behr.

The symposium will also feature lectures from Yano Tamaki, professor emeritus at Kyoto’s Dōshisha University and Yotsutsuji Hideki, curator ermeritus at Nagoya’s The Tokugawa Art Museum. Before the symposium, attendees are also invited to a special viewing of recently aquired Edo-period poem cards, narrative illustrations and calligraphic works from UBC Library Rare Books and Special Collections.

The event begins with a symposium, Kōdō: The Art & Culture of the Japanese Way of Incense, May 23 at UBC’s Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, followed by public incense ceremonies on May 24 and 25 at the Nitobe Memorial Garden and UBC Asian Centre.

For more information, see www.dojinarts.org/upcoming-programs/experience-kodo-2025

“The story of how this art migrated from late Ottoman Anatolia to British Mandate Palestine was a blank box,” says Moughalian, who is also a doctoral student at the City University of New York and accomplished musician. “I knew that the means of the movement of this art had been my grandfather’s arrest and deportation during the Armenian genocide.”

Moulding stories

Feast of Ashes was a finalist in the 2020 PROSE Awards; it was also longlisted in the 2020 PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for biography. Moughalian’s monograph was a decade in the making, using both archival research, including at Istanbul’s Ottoman archives, and documents from her family.

“Before she died in 1995, [my mother] and her sisters had collaborated, and they wrote down all the stories they remembered about their ancestors,” the author recalls, adding that her aunt had compiled a list of Ohannessian’s works. “They created a family tree; they had place names; it was done in a community style of storytelling.”

Having never met her grandfather, Moughalian was inspired to trace his history from her mother’s stories about him and by seeing his ceramics around the house. Born in western Anatolia, Ohannessian was deported to Aleppo where he lived in a refugee camp. In 1918, he encountered British diplomat Mark Sykes who was searching for artists to renovate Jerusalem’s Dome of the Rock, an Islamic shrine.

Ohannessian eventually established a studio in Jerusalem. Moughalian credits that studio space as contributing to the creation of Jerusalem’s flourishing Armenian ceramic arts scene today.

“You see the art all over the city; you can’t walk very far without seeing a tile made in Armenian workshops,” she explains, adding that there are still nine Armenian ceramic studios in Jerusalem. “The café tables are made of Armenian ceramics; there are shop windows all over Jerusalem that feature Armenian ceramics.”

“Most of the Armenian ceramicists ended up coming with my grandfather to Jerusalem,” the author notes. “Some went to Athens; the Greek ceramicist ended up going to Athens, where they planted new traditions, which are also flourishing in Athens and its suburbs today.”

Traces of culture

For Moughalian, this story is not only about the roots of Ohannessian’s art in the Ottoman Empire. It is also about the dispersal of art forms – including embroidery and textile weaving in addition to ceramics – in diasporic communities. She will share her recent research on the establishment of craft workshops to train orphaned children with ceramic skills from which they could make a living.

“I’ll be talking about how the art migrated as embodied by these skilled ceramicists who dispersed during the genocide in the first world war,” she says, adding the talk will also highlight the Ottoman Empire’s multicultural nature. “Everywhere around us, we actually see the material traces of cultures that have travelled.”

Moughalian notes that her grandfather’s pieces reflect themes of multiculturalism – influenced by his geographical location.

“In my grandfather’s case, he began to include a lot of Christian iconography images of like St. George and the dragon [and] a variety of crosses,” she adds.

She says her grandfather’s art was notable for its vivid colours, using a mixture of opaque and transparent glaze. From a box stored in her cousin’s Los Angeles garage, Moughalian learned that her grandfather also drew inspiration from Arab conquerors.

“He continued to work with iconography that could be read in different ways by different faith communities,” she adds. “He was kind of freer to explore different kinds of iconography than he had done with the market that had existed in the late Ottoman, Kütahya.”

Moughalian argues her grandfather’s story reflects the interconnectedness of cultures brought together through journeys, including forced displacement. She hopes that the audience will look around their cities and recognize how their “lives are enriched” by these connections – despite their solemn memories.

“It was people who carried knowledge with them, carried aesthetic sense with them, carried value systems, carried enterprise,” she reflects, speaking on the Armenian genocide. “Our nations, as we call them, are like these carpets, these beautiful gardens of people with stories that enrich the communities in which they live.”

The talk is presented by the Armenian Cultural Association of British Columbia.

For more information on the talk, see www.facebook.com/ACABC.CA

For more information on Sato Moughalian’s Feast of Ashes, see www.sup.org/books/middle-east-studies/feast-ashes

Vancouver Community College is Western Canada’s largest culinary school – many of Canada’s top chefs started their careers here. With programs ranging from 16 weeks to 10 months, VCC offers hands-on training from award-winning chefs in real-world food-service settings – because real learning drives real change. Whether students are launching their cooking career or advancing their skills, our industry-recognized credentials – including apprenticeships, certificates, and advanced certificates – prepare them for career success.

Many cultures have variations of meat on a stick. I love the bold flavours and the coconut glaze in Mu Ping, one of Thailand’s popular street foods. The following recipe makes eight skewers, cooked on a charcoal or gas grill, with an active preparation time of 30 minutes and inactive preparation time of two to 12 hours.

Here’s a pro tip: Leaving some fat on the pork will help with juicy and flavourful skewers.

To make this dish plant-based, substitute pork for firm, fleshy mushrooms such as king oyster mushrooms and remove the fish sauce.

Equipment

• Charcoal or gas grill

• 8 x 6-inch bamboo skewers

Ingredients

• 600g of pork butt

• 10g of lemongrass, finely minced

• 7g (2 cloves) garlic, finely minced

• 30g of palm sugar

• 1 tablespoon of soy sauce

• 1 tablespoon of fish sauce

• 1/4 Thai red chili, finely minced (add more or less according to your preference)

• 2 teaspoons of canola oil

• 5 sprigs of spring cilantro, finely minced

• 2 tablespoons of coconut cream

• 1 tablespoon of white sugar

• zest of 2 limes

• Garnish: limes, cilantro, mint and lettuce

Instructions

1. Soak the bamboo skewers in water for at least 30 minutes.

2. Trim most of the excess fat from the pork, slice into thin strips, and set aside.

3. Combine the lemongrass, garlic, sugar, soy, fish sauce, chillies, oil and cilantro.

4. Add pork to the marinade and mix until well combined. Cover and place in the fridge for a minimum of two hours to overnight.

5. Mix the coconut cream, lime zest and sugar until dissolved and keep in the fridge.

6. Thread the pork slices onto skewers, in a tight formation.

7. Preheat a gas grill or light charcoal one hour ahead of cooking time.

8. Wipe the grill grates with a lightly greased paper towel.

9. Place the pork skewers on the grill and rotate every two minutes.

10. After six minutes, baste with coconut cream and repeat every minute.

11. Cook pork to an internal temperature of 70 degrees Celsius.

12. Allow the pork skewers to rest for five minutes before eating.

13. Serve with fresh herbs, lettuce and lime wedge.

About Karen Gin
Before becoming a Chef Instructor at Vancouver Community College in 2012, Karen worked in many luxury hotel kitchens in Vancouver, BC. On weekends, Karen can be found visiting small independent grocery stores, on the hunt to find unique ingredients and products. She uses them to create authentic flavours for friends and family.

About VCC’s culinary department
Vancouver Community College is Western Canada’s largest culinary school – many of Canada’s top chefs started their careers here. With programs ranging from 16 weeks to 10 months, VCC offers hands-on training from award-winning chefs in real-world food- service settings – because real learning drives real change. Whether students are launching their cooking career or advancing their skills, our industry-recognized credentials – including apprenticeships, certificates, and advanced certificates – prepare them for career success.

For more information on VCC’s Culinary Arts program, see www.vcc.ca/programscourses/baking-and-culinary/culinary

“[Poetry is] like that song that we hum in our brain,” says Qyqja. “And that is the force of poetry, showing your emotional world portraying beautiful things that have meaning.”

As the UNESCO’s World Poetry Day returns March 21 with the theme of “Poetry as a Bridge for Peace and Inclusion,” Qyqja observes how readers are returning to the poetic form, highlighting a desire to feel again.

Putting music on paper

For Qyqja, poetry’s power largely lies in its melodies. She asserts that readers of poetry must be captured within the first few verses. Poetry, she says, must “strike” its audience, a side effect of the form’s brevity.

“Prose is very forgiving, it’s a movie, whereas poetry is actually a song,” the poet adds. “To have a song, you have to keep the rhythm you have to keep the inside melody.”

Qyqja is also no stranger to the language of music. Born in 1970s Albania, the poet’s musical dreams were cut short after not being selected for the country’s music school. She still, however, attributes her love of poetry to singing Albanian songs.

“You’re singing your first songs, and not necessarily just children’s songs, but also the songs that you’re growing up [with] around your house,” the poet recalls.

Music encouraged her to analyze language at a young age. As a teenager, Qyqja turned to other forms of artistic expression before deciding to put her family’s resources into studying English. After resonating with Jack London’s Martin Eden, a novel about a young proletarian’s journey to becoming a writer, she decided to put music to paper – in the form of verses.

“I started my very first experimenting when I was about 14 years old, and then more seriously, when I was 15, and I started to write side-by-side poetry and short stories,” the poet recalls. “And then, at age 17, I immigrated to Canada and pushed all those things aside because I needed to survive here.”

The colour of words

Qyqja sees her poetry as honouring her identity and experiences of womanhood. Drawing inspiration from her daily life, including missing her home country or reading news about gender oppression, the poet transforms these intense feelings into what she calls “feminine poetry.”

“You don’t have to look far away for inspiration, it’s everywhere,” the poet adds. “You pick up your phone, they say a word, and that word strikes a chord in you, you hang up the phone, but the resonance is still with you.”

There is love in her poetry too. A poet who finds it “impossible” to ignore current events, she envisions love as the centre of her poetic musings, from which other explorations stem. Part of staying true to herself means not only recognizing this desire to speak out but also writing in the language of her culture.

“I’ve been living in Canada for 30 years, but I don’t fool myself,” she shares. “If I want to focus on expressing myself, I’m going to express myself in the language that my soul actually speaks and my soul speaks my mother’s tongue.”

After her sincere expressions, the poet translates her creations to English. Her first English collection, A Bunch of Poems Instead of Flowers, was published in 2022. For her, translation requires skilled craftsmanship beyond simply understanding languages – translators need to know the “colour” of words.

She is currently working on her second English collection with Transcendent Zero Press in Texas, titled Golden Armor. One of these poems, “Some peace…” draws on the Greek mythology of Athena arising from Zeus’ ribs, highlighting the continued plight of women in finding freedom.

Qyqja advises aspiring poets to honour their own experiences and speak from the heart.

“Talk from the heart is the one and main thing, don’t just fantasize on thin air,” she shares. “If you have not felt it deep inside, don’t bother to take up the pen and paper and write it.”

For more information, see www.instagram.com/armenida_qyqja

It’s a musical storytelling of each of us,” says Haruka Fujii, the associate artistic director of Silkroad Ensemble. “We are celebrating our different origins, history, backgrounds, sisters, families and societies.”

Along with multi-percussionist Fujii, the program features a unique team of musicians from around the world: lap-steel slide guitarist and vocalist Pura Fé, Celtic harpist and vocalist Maeve Gilchrist, cellist Karen Ouzounian, and violinist-vocalists Layale Chaker and Mazz Swift.

Demonstrating harmony

Founded in 2000 by acclaimed cellist Yo-Yo Ma, Silkroad Ensemble was born from the curiosity of “what happens when strangers meet.” Composed of multicultural members from various musical backgrounds – ranging from classical and jazz to folk traditions – the ensemble at its core embodies multicultural harmony.

“The beautiful part of Silkroad [is] it’s almost like a living form that keeps evolving,” adds Fujii. “We all carry different strengths and [messages] or [stories], and we weave a new harmony that’s brand new.”

All the pieces in Uplifted Voices were composed by the artists or are original songs that they arranged and adopted for the ensemble. Fujii explains that as there are no pieces specifically written for the marimba, lap steel guitar and Celtic harp, the members write their own music.

“Because of this amazing opportunity that Silkroad has been giving us, you get to put in all the creativities and [solve] the puzzle pieces as an artist,” she says.

Fujii highlights the meaningful process behind bringing together the indispensable ideas and characteristics of each member. She says that the ensemble strives to not only create harmony within the group but also convey that message to the audience.

“For example, I’m originally from Japan and Pura Fé is Tuscarora and completely different, but there is always some commonality that we can find throughout the process of making music,” she says. “We demonstrate through music how we can be inspired by each other, and learn from things that are outside of our boundaries.”

Transcending the concert hall

In addition to attending the concert with an open mind, Fujii hopes the audience will observe and absorb the harmonical conversation that is displayed on stage.

“I’m sure you can almost start imagining the process of how we put this together,” she says. “One brings in the original simple song, and one brings in the approach to make it layered with the rhythm and harmony and texture.”

Audiences can also look forward to the show’s improvisational elements, as the artists are exploring and incorporating new elements ranging from duet performances to choreography.

“We are just exchanging the ideas and by the time we get there, we’ll have a full piece,” says Fujii.

Fujii is excited for all the performances that make up Uplifted Voices. She mentions Fé’s celebration of her ancestors and her people, Gilchrist’s Scottish music elements and Chaker’s Arabic Maqam training. Swift’s “O Shout!,” honours their African American origin and Ouzounian’s “Der Zor” pays tribute to the victims of the Armenian Genocide.

“It is really global vocabularies of music that you will hear in many ways,” she adds.

On her own piece “Tamping Song,” Fujii celebrates Japanese immigrants’ contribution to the construction of the U.S. transcontinental railroad.

In a world where there are endless divisive factors and differences in thinking, Silkroad Ensemble strives to connect and unite both inside and outside of the concert hall, aiming beyond aesthetic pleasures.

“I believe that when people experience [harmony] – not as like the information you can get online or something that you can just read – but to feel it through your skin in person, the message goes just so strongly and directly to your heart,” says Fujii.

For more information on the upcoming concert, see: www.chancentre.com/events/silkroad-ensemble-uplifted-voices

For more information on Silkroad Ensemble, see: www.silkroad.org

“I feel like those childhood events really impacted me, as a young girl, as a young woman, as an adult woman these days,” Amiri says, referring to her experience fleeing from the Taliban at a young age. “I always go back, reinterpret what happened back then, bringing it into the contemporaneous to see how women’s lives have changed and shifted.”

Henna Night II / Shabe Kheena II showcases Amiri’s work from her ongoing series by the same name while debuting a large-scale piece created specifically for this inaugural exhibit of VIVA’s new gallery.

An ongoing conversation

Born in Kabul, Amiri is deeply aware of the Taliban’s restrictions on women. These experiences have shaped her work, allowing her art to express the inequalities in how women are represented through history and art. Seeing her artistry as a “powerful tool,” she seeks to give voice to those who have gone unheard in Afghanistan and diaspora communities.

“For me, it’s a great privilege to express and explore my identity, explore my history as a woman, the places that I have lived through,” the artist adds. “It’s a continuous conversation.”

Educated in Canada and the United States, Amiri has exhibited internationally in Mexico, the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany, Italy, Turkey and Morocco, among other places. For her, the purpose behind this international showcase is creating platforms around the world, engaging communities in conversations on women’s representation.

“This is my purpose as an artist; I always thought myself as an educator, in the sense through my work I can educate but I am also travelling within my work,” Amiri explains. “I am migrating with my work through countries to countries in order to engage community.”

While the artist recognizes that each region is distinct, she believes that issues of migration, gender, family and women’s representation are universal subjects that translate across borders. Amiri points to the example of how war separates families – a situation she has experienced – as one of these common threads.

Resilient domestic scenes

Amiri’s work showcases domestic scenes as a way of expressing resistance to political oppression. Drawing on ideas of the “surveillance space” or controls on public life, the artist turns to the domestic: looking to interior spaces for a sense of home and resilience.

“If the outside is being in danger, the lens shifts into the inside,” she explains. “Interior spaces become a space of solace, a space of home again, a space of freedom and a space of unity.”

Despite the heaviness of these issues, Amiri sees Henna Night II/Shabe Kheena II as a celebration, a time of hope as a community of women prepares the bride-to-be before a wedding. Primarily working with textile, the collection features a variety of domestic scenes, including Mehmana/Guests (2022) and Photo of a Groom (2022). Beyond the art, Amiri has many memories of these nights before a wedding, as her mother used to take her to these gatherings.

“It had a very vital role in my practice even today because that’s how she was shaped by her community, and this is how my art is being shaped by that community,” she shares, adding that these topics have not received their rightful recognition.

Deeply drawn to the feminine, motherhood and forms of celebration, the artist points to a lack of visual language or materials surrounding these topics. Resistance, for the artist, can be found within oneself through the unity between people and women of interior spaces. Seeing her work as a “protest within time,” the artist feels a responsibility to recognize her work is shaping everyday life.

“It’s not a space for me to forget about what’s happening but find a way to express it through my medium and material whichever way I can,” she adds.

For more information on the upcoming Medias Res Gallery exhibit, see: www.mediaresgallery.com/exhibitions

For more information on the artist, see www.hangamaamiri.com

“Each piece has a story behind it – an adventure, really,” says White. “Creating is about being brave enough to make your own adventure.”

The exhibition, which also features collaborations with eight apprentices, will run from now to Feb. 1, 2026 at the Bill Reid Gallery. All audiences are invited to honour Haida culture, spectate a wide range of art mediums and experience the rich history behind White’s pieces.

Stories in stone

From sculptures to regalia, White’s exhibition will display the culmination of half a century’s worth of art.

As a young boy, White grew up watching his father carve on wood, whale bone and argillite. He was inspired by his father’s creations, but also the vibrancy of traditional Haida art. The erection of the first totem pole in Old Masset, Haida Gwaii, in 1969, was one of young White’s sources of inspiration and awe, moving him to explore the arts. Argillite, a fine black stone found only on the mountainous ranges of Haida Gwaii, quickly became White’s preferred medium. By observing his father’s work, White created some of his earliest carvings, which will be showcased in the exhibition.

“Some of the earliest pieces in the exhibition I did when I was 12 years old,” the artist says. “My father would give me different pieces of material to carve, such as whale bone or argillite, and I would try to emulate what he was doing.”

The process of argillite carving is extremely gratifying for White – but it also possesses its challenges. The trek to retrieve the stone can be quite arduous, as White and his team must hike riverside up along the mountain to the quarry. Once arrived at their destination, he and his team extract large chunks of argillite using hand saws, which they then latch onto backpacks and carry down the mountain.

“Only our people gather argillite, and it’s quite the trek,” the artist reflects. “Most of the time you’re balancing on one foot, so it can take several hours to complete the journey. It’s a trial of life, really.”

The stone is then coated in waxes and oils to maintain its moisture, aged, then shaped into the detailed carvings.

With argillite, White is inspired by stories of his ancestors. The connection between the Haida land and history of his people guides his carving, allowing him to celebrate the beauty of Haida Gwaii through artwork while preserving its rich heritage.

“It’s like a moment in history we’re writing down on the sculpture,” says White.

From hand to hand

After the passing of his father, White decided to mentor apprentice artists, sharing his knowledge not only of carving but also of dance, song, painting and more. Excited to share the beauty of Haida culture with younger generations, White also understood the challenges of an unstable income as an artist.

He then secured funding to employ teams of young Haida artists, collaborating with them on artwork that will be featured in the upcoming exhibition. Following in the footsteps of his father and ancestors, White’s legacy lies in honouring his heritage by passing on his knowledge to family and fellow artists.

“As our ancestors said, ‘If I had anything to give my descendants, it would be my hands,’” he adds.

A recent endeavour of White and his apprentices was carving bentwood boxes for his repatriated ancestors. White retrieved the remains of over 500 Haida ancestors, which he laid to rest in the carved boxes before returning them to their homeland of Haida Gwaii.

White wants younger generations to recognize that destiny is not fixed nor predetermined. Each of his art pieces reflects an adventure, of which he demonstrates the power of choice and perseverance in carving one’s path and shaping a meaningful legacy.

“Adventures never stopped, and that’s what I try to express to the young people. We still have the ability to make history,” he says.

White hopes his exhibition both extends his gratitude to his supporters and resonates with a broader audience.

“We’d like to see more people come to Haida Gwaii to appreciate the culture and the arts,” he adds.

For more information, please visit: www.billreidgallery.ca/blogs/exhibitions-page/kihl-yahda-christian-white-master-haida-artist

February is a fantastic time to step out and try something new. This month brings a variety of cultural festivals and events, offering a unique way to experience different traditions. With longer days and gradually improving weather, it’s the perfect moment to shake off the winter slump and dive into fresh experiences. Family Day also takes place on Feb. 17, so why not check out some of the upcoming events with your family!

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Neighbours

Now until March 8

www.westvancouverartmuseum.ca/exhibitions/neighbours-linli-xiangmei-su-jiangang-su

The West Vancouver Art Museum will feature the works of Xiangmei Su and Jiangang Su, two highly accomplished artists from Suzhou, China, who have called British Columbia home. Both artists draw on traditions from their place of origin, bringing with them expertly honed weaving and ink wash painting techniques to create artworks that reveal complex relationships between place and culture. Xiangmei Su’s threaded works explore her family’s migration story through the lens of Suzhou’s textile history, connecting both past and present, East and West. Jiangang Su has drawn upon centuries of Song dynasty painting and Tang dynasty poetry within his work. Bringing these traditional artforms into a contemporary context, the artist seamlessly merges Chinese literati painting with Vancouver’s local flora and fauna. Neighbours presents a blend of personal and cultural aspirations, woven into the multicultural fabric of the artist’s new home. Rooted in ancient Chinese traditions and aesthetics, their works offer audiences in the West a glimpse into the core humanistic philosophies of Chinese culture while providing new perspectives on how they “relocated” these traditions in a globalized world.

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Sunday

Feb. 6–8

www.thecultch.com/event/dimanche

Between dreamlike fiction and factual reality, Dimanche paints a witty and tender portrait of humanity surprised by the uncontrollable forces of nature. A family is about to spend their Sunday together, a family tradition. But the walls are shaking and the storm has only just begun. Amidst this climatic chaos, the protagonists absurdly attempt to maintain a normal family life. Meanwhile, three wildlife reporters are doing their best to document Earth’s last living species. Using physical theatre, puppetry, video and ingenious practical effects, Dimanche observes the ingenuity and stubbornness of humans as they try to preserve their day-to-day habits, despite the chaos of an ecological collapse.

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Kim Kennedy Austin:
Booster Club

Feb. 7–April 20

www.burnabyartgallery.ca

This solo exhibition by Kim Kennedy Austin centers upon the artist’s interests in 20th century advertising, media and popular culture in myth and meaning making. Drawing on a range of movies and books through this body of work, she explores topics such as conformity, consumer capitalism, risk and blind faith. Kim Kennedy Austin employs techniques of drawing and craft to express issues of labour, seriality and automation. With a “make-do” attitude, she pairs readily-found supplies from hobby and dollar stores with source material quoted from across popular 20th century print periodicals and media. Selected line drawings, illustrations and text are edited, redrawn and blown-up to speak to the changing nature and perception of craft, the applied arts and women’s work over time.

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Echoes of Memory

Feb. 7–June 1

www.monova.ca/exhibits/echoes-of-memory

Featuring over 100 pieces from the Museum & Archives of North Vancouver’s rich collection, Echoes of Memory weaves together untold stories of aging, memory loss & dementia, and the power of community on our collective human experience. As dementia and memory loss directly affects over 3,700 people on the North Shore, Echoes of Memory welcomes one and all to immerse themselves in this touching tribute to lives lived across BC and beyond. From ornate brushes and egg cups, cherished toys and tins, to antique chairs, trunks and quilts, the collected items will stir strong memories of the past, and connect them with local stories from those with lived experience of dementia and other related conditions. Experience the trailblazing touring display by Canadian Artist Karen Bondarchuk, whose illustrated creations honour the memory of her late mother following her diagnosis with Alzheimer’s disease.

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Ballet Jörgen’s  Sleeping Beauty

Feb. 8, 4 p.m.

www.masseytheatre.com/event/sleeping-beauty

Sleeping Beauty is one of the world‘s most famous classical ballets and holds a place in the repertoire of virtually every major company. After more than 25 successful years, Ballet Jörgen created their own unique classical ballet rendition with its World Premiere Tour during the 2015-2016 season. The new ballet tells the enchanting story of Aurora and her prince complete with its inherently magical qualities and dazzling choreography. The fairy tale about a young woman placed under a spell to sleep for a hundred years only to be awakened by a kiss is an easily accessible story. It appeals to a child’s imagination and holds a special place in the hearts of adults. The underlying theme is the tug between the forces of good (the Lilac Fairy) and evil (Carabosse), serving as an important thread to the plot. Told in three acts, the ballet benefits from the character development and technical expertise for which Canada’s Ballet Jörgen is known.

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Flight

Feb. 8–16

www.vancouveropera.ca

Though it draws inspiration from the heart-wrenching true story of an Iranian refugee bureaucratically marooned in Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport for 18 years, Jonathan Dove’s Flight pulls off an improbable feat: it’s a wildly-engaging, melodically-accessible comedy, a triumph of pathos and an absolute must-see! All around The Refugee, the airport swirls with colourful characters: Bill and Tina, who hope to stoke the embers of a dull marriage; The Steward and The Stewardess, whose embers require no additional stoking; a diplomat and his very pregnant wife; a woman awaiting a lover 30 years her junior; the Immigration Officer – all while The Controller oversees operations high above the concourse, hitting decidedly high notes (like the rare airspace occupied by an incredible F-sharp above high C!).

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Women of the Fur Trade

Feb. 8–23

www.firehallartscentre.ca/event/women-of-the-fur-trade

Set in eighteen hundred and
something-something, somewhere
upon the banks of a Reddish River in Treaty One Territory, three very different women with a preference for 21st century slang find themselves stuck in a fort having tea and sharing their views on life, love and Louis Riel. Playwright Frances Koncan shifts the focus in this powerfully funny satire from the male gaze on history to the power of women and their place in the rapidly changing world of the Canadian fur trade.

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Grandma. Gangsta. Guerrilla.

Feb. 13–16

www.phtheatre.org/grandma-gangsta-guerrilla-feb-2025

This ain’t a sob story about war crimes, dementia, nor getting old. It’s a sprint down the memory lane of a butt-kickin’, bar-spittin’, tough grandma who escapes the care home to be with her family. When our favourite Filipino grandma Lola Basyang goes missing, it’s up to her grandchildren Nika and Jun-jun to bring her back to safety. Using their lola’s unfinished memoir, they find clues to her whereabouts, her full-of-beans origin story and the historical turmoils of their motherland. Reminiscent of their immigration stories, they reflect on what it means to maintain family ties in a Western society.

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Behind the Keys

Feb. 14, 7:30 p.m.

www.vancouverbachchoir.com/events/btk25

Join the Vancouver Bach Choir for Behind the Keys this Valentines day for a program of beautiful music in an intimate setting. Music director of the VBFC adult choirs, Leslie Dala, will perform romantic solo piano music including works by Liszt and Schumann. For tickets, performer bio and more information, please check out the choir’s website.

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2025 LUMEN Festival

Feb. 14–16

www.earlymusic.bc.ca/tickets/lumen-2025

Established in 2024, LUMEN is a mini winter festival aimed at brightening the dark winter days with a weekend of concerts. The 2025 LUMEN Festival presents three concerts in three days from Feb. 14 to Feb. 16: VOCES8: Draw on Sweet Night, Dorothee Mields & the PBO: Bach Ties the Knot, and Huehuetenango: Music from 16th Century Guatemala. For tickets and show information, please check out the Early Music Vancouver website.