Rough Seas

 There are rough seas on the horizon as we head into what so far has been a record autumn with five storms bearing hurricane force winds in eleven days.  Since Labour Day the ferry has been cancelled twice and delayed five times.  These are the type of statistics we are used to in the middle of winter.

This is the weather satellite capture from this morning showing the tail end of a strong storm that grounded us yesterday(Haida Gwaii is on the far right and Russia is on the far left of this capture).  Our weather systems orignate in the North Pacific circulating in a counter clockwise direction.  Haida Gwaii's main weather comes from the southeast.  Winds coming across the warm Japanese current pick up moisture and speed, as they meet the coastal mountains and the high pressure system that sits south of us they create the spiral that brings us our weather.  If the high pressure system is weak our low pressure system will overwhelm the high and the system will move south over Vancouver Island, if it is strong it keeps the system north and we get wet and wind blown.

 These two photos were taken from the deck of the cabin.  The wind is blowing salt mist which plays havoc with camera lens.  The grasses have already gone brown and are showing the direction of the wind and blowing sand.  Even Marley is willing to watch from a distance!

SkyWatchFriday on Haida Gwaii

 Click on any photo for some remarkable detail. 

 I consider it a privledge to be up early enough to watch the sunrise and on this particular morning you could actually see the mainland coast of British Columbia(100km away) from my meditation spot.

 Clouds don't always need to be ominous!

 And then the day begins.

My morning meditation bench.

During the afternoon this beautiful cloud formation moved in.

This kind of cloud formation is ususally the precurser of change

but it seems the change was for the good

as a subtle sunset introduced the last full moon of summer!

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SkyWatch Friday and Weekend Reflections

A beautiful sky over the prairies as the west coast suffers through endless gray skies.

And a little history as Canadians move into a long weekend. 

Rather than rewriting an excellent article from the Ottawa Citizen I will just share it below: 

Know what we celebrate on Aug. 1? You should

  

By Dan Gardner, Ottawa Citizen July 29, 2011 

 

Monday, August 1, is a holiday in Canada. Everyone knows that. But what is the name of the holiday?
Most of us call it "the August 1 holiday," or "the civic holiday" or some other placeholder. Of course these are not its official name, which varies across the country.
The imaginative legislators of New Brunswick dubbed the holiday "New Brunswick Day." Showing equal verve, legislators in Saskatchewan and British Columbia, respectively, named the holiday "Saskatchewan Day" and "British Columbia Day." Alberta's legislators, being the bold mavericks they are, called it "Heritage Day."
In Ontario, until recently, there was no provincial name, and municipalities honoured local heroes - "Colonel By Day," "James Coburn Day" - with proclamations which everyone ignored. But three years ago, a private member's bill finally gave the holiday a name that manages to be provincewide without being provincial, in that other sense.
Know what it is?
Of course not. This name is deeply rooted in the Canadian past. It commemorates one of the greatest struggles in human history. And when people hear it - which they likely won't since no one uses it - they have no clue what it means.
It is "Emancipation Day."
You're scratching your head, aren't you? Don't be embarrassed. Be angry - angry that you have been denied a truly majestic story all Canadians should know and cherish.
On August 1, 1834, slavery was abolished throughout the British Empire. "Emancipation Day" has been celebrated ever since in Jamaica, Trinidad, Barbados, and elsewhere.
Now you're wondering what slavery has to do with Canada. We are the nation of the "Underground Railroad," which brought runaway American slaves to freedom here.
"Emancipation Day" can't be relevant to Canada because there were no slaves to emancipate. Right?
Go back to the beginning of the abolitionist movement, in Britain. The year is 1787.
"If, early that year, you had stood on a London street corner and insisted that slavery was morally wrong and should be stopped," wrote Adam Hochschild in his uplifting book Bury the Chains, "nine out of ten listeners would have laughed you off as a crackpot. The tenth might have agreed with you in principle, but assured that ending slavery was wildly impractical: the British Empire's economy would collapse. The parliamentarian Edmund Burke, for example, opposed slavery but thought that the prospect of ending even just the Atlantic slave trade was 'chimerical.'"
Four years later, Upper Canada - Ontario - became the newest jurisdiction in the British Empire and John Graves Simcoe was installed as its first lieutenant-governor. Simcoe, an army officer and veteran of the American Revolution, spent most of his early time in Upper Canada preparing for an apparently imminent war with the republicans to the south.
But Simcoe had another passion. He was an abolitionist. And he was offended that there was slavery in his new colony.
In 1793, a free black man named Peter Martin - who had served with Butler's Rangers in the American Revolution - told the legislature of the abduction of Chloe Cooley, a black slave who had been bound, gagged, thrown in a boat, and taken to the United States for sale. Simcoe seized the opportunity and moved to immediately abolish slavery.

It was a radical, audacious move. And it was too much. Wealthy slaveowners in the legislature resisted and Simcoe was forced to compromise: Existing slaves would be denied their freedom but the importation of slaves would stop and the children of slaves would be freed when they reached age 25. In effect, slavery would slowly vanish.
It was not the sweeping victory Simcoe wanted. But it was the abolitionists' first legislative victory anywhere in the British Empire.
It made the "chimerical" look considerably more possible.
And it was possible. In 1807, the slave trade was abolished throughout the Empire. In 1833, the Slavery Abolition Act was passed and, on August 1, 1834, it came into force.
And the celebrations began, in the Caribbean and elsewhere. "During the two and a half decades before the American Civil War," noted Adam Hochschild, "free blacks in the Northern states celebrated not July 4, when they were at risk of attack by drunken whites, but August 1, Emancipation Day in the West Indies, a date Frederick Douglass called 'illustrious among all the days of the year.'"
For generations, African-Canadians also celebrated Emancipation Day. But the memory faded in recent decades. The Ontario Black History Society is working to change that.
"We were able to get, first Toronto, then various cities, including the City of Ottawa, to recognize Emancipation Day," notes the society's president, Rosemary Sadlier. In 2008, a private member's bill passed the Ontario legislature and the generic August 1 holiday became Emancipation Day.
Not that the government bothered to tell anyone, which is why the reader has almost certainly never heard of this before.
It's also disappointing - and depressingly Canadian - that the holiday continues to go by a patchwork of other names across the country, most of which are devoid of even the slightest meaning. At the federal level, Conservative MP Deepak Obhrai introduced a private member's bill to mark Emancipation Day in 2001 but it didn't receive unanimous support and that was the end of it.
"This is the first global human rights legislation," marvels Sadlier. "How can people not know about it?"
In part, it's because politicians and popular historians have jettisoned the British elements of our national story, and if you conceive of "Canadian history" as only the history of what happened within our present borders, you won't see the connection between Simcoe's courageous efforts and the triumph of August 1, 1834.
But it's also because this is a country where politicians think it's a good idea to call a holiday "New Brunswick Day" or "Heritage Day." Or "Canada Day," for that matter.
The generic celebration of heritage has replaced real heritage. And politicians - whether from ignorance, risk aversion, or a simple deficiency of soul - are quite happy to let a magnificent, inspiring story like that of John Graves Simcoe and the abolitionist movement be forgotten.
Or perhaps that is too pessimistic. I'll let Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Heritage Minister James Moore, and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney decide.
Dan Gardner's column appears Wednesday and Friday. E-mail: dgardner@ottawacitizen.com.

© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen

Have a wonderful long weekend and weekend everyone and may we give gratitude for what we have.

SkyWatch Friday ~ First night in the Cabin

As many of you know I started building a cabin on the dunes on Haida Gwaii, B.C. this time last year.  Several of us worked dilligently on it over the summer learning some lessons as we went along.  Getting supplies here and not being able to do everything ourselves were some of the lessons.   When I left in September to visit my grandson and family we were still waiting for the tin for the roof.  It was never our job to do the roof and it finally got put on with little time to spare.  Windows still hadn't arrived. 

When I first saw the above picture I thought it was someone's hut in the Alps(a friend had just come back from visiting family in Austria) until I realized it was our cabin!  Snow like this, we never see on Haida Gwaii!

 So this spring we were back at it.  The lower windows arrived back in February however the big plate windows front and back for the loft just arrived. 

 With the help of a friend who also just arrived back on island we moved the big plates of glass into place and secured them.

 Between putting in the lower windows and the loft glass we sided the cabin in cedar and trim out the windows.

 Some of you may remember our beautiful driftwood posts on the deck.  We thought they were great but anyone who built things said "take them down" so unfortunately down they came.

 So even though the doors were not in I decided to spend my first night in the cabin.  The cabin faces eastsoutheast so I had to get my first sunrise from the cabin.  When I first awoke it was just after moonrise at 2:52 a.m. (this photo was taken at about 3:30 a.m.)

 The night sky had been clear and full of stars as it neared new moon however as the sun began to dawn the clouds moved in.  Sunrise was at 5:10 a.m.

 Daybreak was beautiful... 

 and reflected a rising tide.

 So we are waiting again, for insulation to arrive on island so we can complete the inside and I can move in and enjoy more of these beautiful sunrises!

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MyWorld Tuesday ~ Potlatching

If you are reading this blog from most recent backwards you might want to go back two posts to fully appreciate this post. 

Smiles Carolyn

 Chiefs waiting for the procession of chiefs to begin at the potlatch.

After the raising of the totem pole everyone is invited to come to the potlatch where the business is carried out.  The carvers will be "paid",  adoptions will be held, and any other business that requires witnessing.  For those who stay for the potlatch there will also be payment for witnessing. 

 I was serving at the feast which lasted six hours, so my pictures were catch-as-catch-can.   This chief is wearing a Chilcat blanket with an eagle headdress.  The spiny things sticking out of the headdress are sealion whiskers and it is where eagle down is placed when the chiefs do the welcome dance.  If you get eagle down on you it will bring you luck.  This is also an eagle chief in Skidegate. There has been animosity between the two eagle clans and Chief Wiigaanad made it his business to make peace between the two at this potlatch.  Traditionally, each village would have one eagle chief and one raven chief however after the smallpox devastated the Haida villages in the 1860's the remaining individuals where brought to either Skidegate in the south end or Old Masset at the north end of the Islands so now there are often multiple eagle or raven chiefs in the villages.  I am sorry I can not spell his name so I will not try!

Each chief is announced and takes their place at the head table in order of importance to the hosting chief.

 Ladies-held-in-High-Esteem, Chiefs and Guests are welcomed to the feast by an opening prayer and dancing which is presented by Haida of all ages.  The large standing box at centre back and the smaller one to the right are cedar drums.

 Several dance groups accepted their invitations to come and dance for Chief Wiigaanad.  These are the Vancouver Rainbow dancers.

 The regalia at the potlatches is more beautiful each time I attend.  This photo I did not use the flash so it is digitally enhanced which is why it is grainy.  This is a very elaborate design and the only thing I recognize is the dogfish which is the small fish in the design.

 As I mentioned I served at the potlatch.  There were over six hundred people present and two people served each table.  This is my table, absolutely dead centre of the head table.  You are asked to bring your own dishes and cutlery to a potlatch however there are paper plates if you forget or are a visitor. 

 Potlatches consist of singing, dancing, speeches and eating in no particular order lasting upwards of eight hours.  This was the dancing of a new carved mask.  It is a dogfish.  A dogfish is a type of shark.

 Potlatches are times when adoptions are held, it could be a non Haida who has married a Haida, it may be someone who has contributed to the well being of the Haida Nation i.e. David Suzuki or the well being of the Island community i.e. a nurse or a doctor.  Once the new adoptees are given their Haida name which they must pronounce three times in public they must dance their name.  That is what is happening here.

 This is the Chiefs' Welcome dance.

 Finally it was time to eat.  When you sit down at your table it is usually around 3 or 4 p.m. there are always nibblies on the tables, things like "gow" (herring roe on kelp) and before you go "eewwwuu" it is quite delicious and one of my favourites, crunchy and a little salty, dried seaweed which we eat like potato chips, dried halibut and smoked salmon.  Then everyone is served a fish chowder made with halibut, salmon and prawns or a venison stew around 6 p.m.

And then the main course is served around 8 p.m.  This is all from the waters of Haida Gwaii.  If you  don't like seafood there is more venison stew! 

Salmon, smoked salmon, halibut, prawns, black cod, octopus, dungeness crab legs, crab cakes and gow.

 After supper there are more speeches...this is the Mayor of Vancouver, Gregor Robertson and his wife Amy presenting Chief Wigaanad with a basket she wove.

 Clan song...  

 New masks must be danced to bring life to them....

 I do not know who this is supposed to be....it is a woman as there is a labaret in the mouth and she has an extraordinary number of breasts!

 Chief Wigaanad spent a lot of time thanking others, now was the time for him and Cindy to accept the gratitude of his people...it was very emotional.

 As I mentioned in the previous post, "coppers" are a form of currency for chiefs along the coast.  Both to give and to recieve a copper is a huge honour.  Here Sid is honouring his Uncle who named him to be chief rather than his older brother.  In all, Chief Wigaanad gave away three coppers. 

 And like everything else, they must be danced!  Heaven help you if you lose something at a potlatch and have to retrieve it from the master of ceremonies because you will have to dance it when you retrieve it!

This is the "blanket dance" for Matt, the nurse who was hurt at the pole raising earlier in the day.  The drums beat, the singers sing and you dance your money to the blanket....$2,000 was raised in five minutes!

An update on Matt, his injuries included a broken shoulder/collar bone, broken wrist, three broken ribs and a punctured lung.  He spent three days in Vancouver and is now recovering at his home in Queen Charlotte.  It will take four to six months for his injuries to mend and for him to be back to work.  Beside the money collected the night of the potlatch a $10,000 Bingo was held with the proceeds going to Matt and his family.  Matt has been very humble and Syd and Cindy visit him weekly.  Unlike elsewhere in the world there is no ill will and no law suits!

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