The herbal connection

A six-month pilot project on Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) demonstrates the need for complementary medicine practices in our healthcare system. “The idea is to look at healthcare outside of the current system, so we don’t have to rely on one system to address all our needs,” says Rachel Eni, a registered traditional medicine practitioner and…

Islamic Centre opens doors to a journey into Islam

The youth of Az-Zahraa Islamic Centre in Richmond is organizing an event called “A Journey into Islam,” to showcase Islam through interactive exhibits, guided tours of the centre and ethnic dinner. Sahir Moosvi, a data scientist and the organizer of the open house, aims to demystify Islam by reaching out to other people. “There are…

Contesting culture at Stanley Park

Rena Soutar wants Vancouver’s Indigenous peoples to feel at home in our public spaces. Vancouver has a rich cultural heritage. Minorities, though, don’t always feel welcome in city spaces such as Stanley Park, says Rena Soutar. She is aiming to change that. “There’s no such thing as a culturally neutral space,” explains Soutar, the new…

Filipina Vancouverite wins design contest for Brain Awareness Week

Marianne Claire Bacani designed a prizewinning sticker for Brain Awareness Week 2018. Brain Awareness Week will be celebrated March 12–18. The event director for Neuroethics Canada wasn’t expecting that her design would be a winner. “[I was] so surprised and honoured to be picked as a design hobbyist to be the winner of this contest,”…

Augmented reality games as tools for social interaction

Video games have advanced significantly from the first generation of games, such as Pong and The Odyssey, which are now regarded as arcade classics. Developers have strived to make games more expansive, experiential and realistic. Through this process, developers have increasingly blurred the line between game and reality. In a study recently published online in Personality and Individual Differences,…

“Spark”ing conversations about diversity

Julie Ann Crommett wants to raise awareness about the lack of women and minorities both in front of and behind the camera. Crommett tells a sad story: across the entertainment industry, women and minorities are being under-represented. Yet, she says, there’s hope. “A lot of times, we’re defaulting to stereotypes or to the easiest shortcut…

Workplace meditation saves lives

As a certified organizational change manager and global speaker, Wendy Quan combines workplace mindfulness meditation and change management techniques to build employee resiliency to company change. “Mindfulness meditation is about hitting the pause button on your busy day to be present in the moment through meditation,” says Quan. Research data provided by HealthyFamiliesBC suggest that 21.4 percent…

Recycling abandoned fishnets with sustainability in mind

More than 640,000 tonnes of commercial fishing gear is abandoned, lost or discarded in oceans annually in the world, according to the jointly issued report by the Food and Agriculture Organization and the UN Environment Program (UNEP). That makes up to 10 per cent of oceanic litter. Abandoned fishing gear has become a global problem.…

Immigrant service agency CEO wins YWCA Women of Distinction award

“I felt so proud of women that are in service organizations. I not only represented them but I also represented the staff at ISSofBC,” says Patricia Woroch, a recipient of the YWCA Women of Distinction Award, which was held on May 29, 2017. Woroch, CEO of Immigrant Services Society of B.C. (ISSofBC) won the award…

Kizuna – a way of healing

Yoriko Gillard has always used art as a way to deal with pain or anxiety. She will be presenting Creative Practices as Healing Aids for Human Suffering at Capilano University on March 28. As an only child, Gillard lived with the fear of losing her mother who had a heart condition and other health problems…

Historic tour of Gastown details roots of Jewish community

Organizers of a historic tour, focusing on the Jewish community who lived in Gastown, hope people will walk away with a better understanding of how culturally diverse Vancouver has been from its earliest days. “This is not to say that it has always been accepting of diversity. That’s definitely something that has improved over time,…

Meaning is in the eye of the photo beholder

Bryan Myles, director of the Bill Reid Centre for Northwest Coast Studies, will be presenting Early Photography of Northwest Coast First Nations and narrating historical photos of First Nations communities dating back to the 1850s. The talk will be held on March 7 at the Goldcorp Centre for the Arts. Myles’s interest in historical photography…

Bringing European concepts of architecture to Vancouver

Michael Geller will be hosting his 4th annual lecture series at SFU Harbour Centre on Feb. 15, 2017. This year, the focus will be on higher density housing with insights based on his travels in Europe. Geller is an architect, planner, real-estate consultant and property developer. Born in the UK but raised in Toronto, Geller…