I know that food is expensive up north. It has to be: a sealift brings in dry goods once a year for those who want to order direct (I’m told it’s about $10,000 per year), or you can buy from the grocery store. Prices are about double, although there are the exceptions like the 2L [...]

Aboriginal culture came alive last weekend at the We Yah Hani Nah Coastal First Nations Dance Festival. MOA (The Museum of Anthropology) at UBC (University of British Columbia) hosted the second annual First Nations cultural festival as part of the Vancouver 2010 Cultural Olympiad. I watched the opening gala performance on Thursday evening of “The [...]

I was at the newly renovated UBC Museum of Anthropology (MOA) today at the University of British Columbia. The temporary exhibit on display is Tatau: Samoan Tattooing and Global Culture. Tattooing is the traditional rite of passage for males in Samoan culture. Tatau is more of a contemporary response to the Samoan diaspora in New [...]

I was swept away last night by an outstanding dance performance at the Scotiabank Dance Centre. Choreographer Wen Wei Wang presented his Rio Tinto Alcan Performing Arts Award-winning Cock-Pit. It featured four males (Scott Augustine, Edmond Kilpatrick, Josh Martin, David Raymond) and one female performer (Alison Denham) in an explosion of the city’s finest contemporary [...]

Last September I went on one of the most amazing trips of my life: an expedition cruise with Adventure Canada to Baffin Island, Nunavut. I immediately fell in love with the Canadian Arctic and am planning ways to get back there this year. While on the trip, I met two outstanding artists, Dave Marshak and [...]