INSIDE SECTION B
COMMUNITY JENNIFER LANG

EVENTS B2

Around Town

Medical equipment
heads to Honduras

ROTARY CLUBS around the world team up to
assist the World Help Network in distributing
surplus medical equipment to countries that
desperately need it.

On Nov. 24, members of the Terrace Rotary
Club loaded a transport truck with old medical
equipment, donated by Mills Memorial Hospi-
tal.

From Terrace the equipment was shipped to
a central warehouse in Vancouver. The equip-
ment was then sorted and loaded in a shipping
container and is now on its way to Tocoa,
Honduras.

Once in Tocoa, the local Rotary club will
work with the World Help Network in distribu-
ting the shipment.

The Rotarians thank Bandstra Transporta-
tion Systems LTD. for transporting the equip-
ment fo Vancouver.

s Z ee
AWARD WINNER Kevin Perras, centre,
with teacher Robin McLeod, left, and prin-
cipal Geoff Straker.

G.G. Award goes to

well-rounded student

RECENT CALEDONIA grad Kevin Perras
dropped by his old high school over Christmas

- break to pick up-a prestigious national acade-.
mic medal oo...

Pertas, 18, has earned the Governor Gen-
eral’s Award for academic excellence for
marks he obtained in Grade 11 and 12 in Ter-
race.

School principal Geoff Straker and awards
committee chair Robin McLeod proudly
handed Perras the handsome medal, which
features the profiles of both Adrienne Clarkson
and her husband, author John Ralston Saul.

Right now, Perras is set to resume the sec-
ond term his first year of studies in the Faculty
of Science at the University of British Colum-
bia. ,

He enrolled in six full-time courses this fall
trying ta make sure he took all the prerequi-
sites he need to enter rehab medicine. “So, it
was a tough term,” he said, adding he hopes to
study physiotherapy next year and will apply
in February.

McLeod said Perras was a well-rounded
student while at Cal.

In addition to maintaining a top grade point
average, he was a member of. student council,
played on the volley bali team, and was a
member of the school’s bands.

Is it quitting time?
THE START of a new year is easily the most
popular time of the year to quit smoking.

Three times as many people look for help to
quit smoking in January, according to the B.C,
Smoker’s Helpline, a Canadian Cancer Socie-
ty telephone service providing assistance to
people trying to kick the habit.

So, if you’re a smoker who’s made a New
Year’s resolution to quit, take heart in knowing
there are a few steps for better success...

Helpline manager Sheila Craigie says while
‘there is no such thing as the perfect day to
quil, it is important to pick the right day.

That means choosing a quit date that will
fall during a time in your life when your days
are relatively routine,

It also means you shouldn't try to quit when
you're feeling under the weather,

Nor should you keep your promise to quit on
a specific day if it’s an unusually stressful one,

She advises quitters to figure aut coping
strategies in advance for those inevitable nic
fits. Identify your smoking triggers and have
plans in place to help deal with them.

Decide beforehand if you will use a cessa-
tion aid like the nicotine patch or gum.

Remember, you’re never too old to quit and
the benefits begin right away. A year after a
person quits smoking, for example, his or her
risk of a heart attack is reduced by half,

_ . The B.C, Smoker’s Helpline is available by
calling 1-877-455-2233. It's toll-free.

Christmas redux

MEMBERS OF the Eastern Orthodox Church
celebrated Christmas on Monday, Jan. 7, The
date marks the epiphany of Jesus, rather than
his nativity, as is the case in Western

LE:

CULTURE KEEPERS:

Sua

638-7283

Lorna Johnson, left, and Isabelle McKee, raised as sisters, spent their early years in Old Kitselas.

A mother’s heart

Lorna Johnson and Isabelle Mckee explain what it takes to be a matriarch

By JENNIFER LANG
LORNA JOHNSON and Isabelle
McKee, both now in their early
60s, have known each other for a
lifetime.

Raised as sisters, they share
the easy laughter of siblings; they
even finish each others’ sentences
— especially when they talk about
the past.

They were raised in Endudoon,
a place more commonly known as
Old Kitselas, a former townsite
located on the north side of the
Skeena River, west of Kitselas

~ Canyon. ° :

Named for the echoing sound
the ground made, it was a place

- where grandmothers told kids to

make games out of labour-inten-
sive chores like hanging out the
wash (a time-honoured tactic that
worked, they note happily).

Both Tsimshian. women are in
line to be Kitselas matriarchs, the
embodiment of an intricate line-
age that can be traced through
their mothers, grandmothers and
great grandmothers, all the way
back through thousands of years of
history.

“A matriarch has to have a mo-
ther’s heart,” says McKee, a
grandmother and a former band
councillor who turned 63 in No-

A New Year’s
Baby to call
their ‘own’

vember. She lost one of her two
adult sons five years ago.

In the old times, someone
else’s son would have been of-
fered to her to adopt to ease her
loss. ,

The features of a traditional
society can be difficult for outsi-
ders to comprehend. Some prac-
tices seem unnecessarily harsh.

Lorna Johnson, a local. role
model for the First Nations Edu-
cation Centre and grandmother to

only found out she was his birth
mother at the age of 12, when his
grandmother was dying.

Johnson also adopted her own
grandchild, but handed him back
on Mother’s Day when the child
was eight years old,

Drawing on her experiences,
Johnson broke with tradition when
it came to her own kids,

“It's survival,” explains Me-

Kee, who stresses these practices

should be viewed in the larger

“Mer In our présent time are lost. They assume
they don’t belong in this matrilineal system.”

17, points out it was common
practice among the Kitselas for a
woman to give her first born child
to her parents to raise,

“My dad’s mather took me for
her daughter,” Johnson says. ‘She
took me into her house.”

And when Johnson got married
at 17 to her first husband — an ar-
ranged marriage that didn’t last ~
she gave her first child up to her
parents.

Children, Johnson says, go to
whoever needs them the most.

“We lived in the same home. I
saw him all the time.” Her son

context of what was best for the
community-as a whole.

“You're never left without bro-
thers or sisters or mothers or fa-
thers -— you ‘always have
someone,” McKee. says.

The Tsimshian are a matrili-
neal society. That means individ-
ual status and family descent are
traced through female relatives. A
child belongs to the clan of his or
her mother,

The term matriarchy can be
confusing. “Men in our present
time are lost, because they as-
sume they don’t belong ‘in this

L Christian churches. .

By SARAH

A. ZIMMERMAN
CASSANDRA Guno
and Robin McNeil were
pretty surprised when the
newest addition to their
family arrived one month
early — on New Year’s
Day.

Owen Corbin Lee Shine
McNeil was born at 2:02
p.m. Jan. 1 making him the
first baby born in Terrace
in 2002.

“I knew he was going to
be earlier than the doctor
said — I just felt he’d be
early,” said proud mom
Cassandra.

But she didn't imagine
he’d be more than one
month early or born on

brother to Ethan, 3, and
Robin, 1.

In fact it was big bro-
ther Ethan who chose the
newborn’s name.

“Tl asked him what he
wanted to name his brother
and he said ‘my own’,”
said Cassandra. “So we
named him Owen.”

The name Corbin
comes from his maternal
grandmother’s lineage.
Cassandra is Nisga’a, and
a member of the Frog and
Raven clans, Corbin
Means raven.

Weighing just 6 pound
2 ounces, Owen was born
the smallest of the three
brothers.

“The other two were

“! asked him what he wanted to name
his brother, and he said, ‘My Own'. So we

named him Owen.”

New Year's Day. Baby

Owen wasn’t due to arrive |

until Feb, .4. He was the

‘only baby born Jan. 1 in

Terrace.
Owen is the couple's

third child and is a litle

born little men,” laughs
dad Robin. “Both sides of
our family think they are
old souls, they learn so
fast.” :

The two: brothers are

excited to have a. new
_ member of the family.”

BABY Owen with mom Cas

vee

a ‘ OT. cable

sandra Guno and da

matrilineal system,” McKee says.

The tribal line is traced through
mothers. But grandfathers connect
their children to their land and

‘community,

’“T always see it as their feet

siuck in the ground,” says McKee,

Her father was Scandinavian,
so her parents weren't allowed to
marry because it would have
meant losing her place in the
lineage, and, until the laws were
changed, her mother would have
lost her rights under the Indian
Act.

The four Tsimshian ‘clans; wolf, -
raven, killer whale and eagie, are
subdivided into different houses,
comprised of close family-mem-
bers. 7

Johnson and McKee are mem-
bers of the House of Gilaxaks, a
subdivision of the House of Me-
deck. They wear the killer whale
and bear crests.

“We are holding both lineages
and both clans and crests because
the family here is so small,” ex-
plains McKee, who is also part of
the wolf clan through her grandfa-
ther,

“I'hold that place for the wolf,
so it doesn't disappear and get ab-
sorbed into another group.”

Continued Page B3.

pees

d Robin McNeil.

Owen for the first time,
_ Cassandra said he was

When little Ethan held beaming.

“He looked just like t
_how his dad looked,” said to have -hie litle:

Cassandra. ;
“He looked really proud -