INSIDE COMMUNITY EVENTS B2 REG HORNE Dr, Reg Horne is a member of the Univer- sity of Northern British Columbia, Faculty of Natural Resources and Environmental Studies based in Terrace. This is his first appearance as a columnist in the Terrace Standard and will be an occasional con- tributor on page B1. Family gives Christmas the personal touch HRISTMAS IN our bome be- gins on the first of December. That is when the Advent calendar goes up, the decorations come out of their boxes and we make a serious effort to finish our Christ- mas letter. About nine years ago we decided that sending friends and relatives a card with someone else’s greeting in it was not really the true spirit of Christmas. One of my wife’s friends had gone to art college and always sent us handmade card — we did not feel that talented, Instead we wrote a letter telling of the ups and downs of the family during the year just past and devoting a paragraph to each of the individual family members. When finished, it was about twice the length of this article. We typed it up and photocopied it. Space was left at the end for a short personal greeting and signatures as they would have got on the card, had we sent one. We liked the idea and the Christmas letter became an annual event. The only problem we had with it was that it was not as nice-looking as a card. Then, about four years ago, we found a stationary store that produced special Christmas paper with a picture on the bot- tom and up the left side. We typed our letter on this and were ‘pleased with the improvement, I belicve the Christmas letter is here to Stay. There has been a side effect to this custom of ours - we don’t get as many Christmas cards as we used to. Instead, we are inundated with family let- ters from everyone else. They don’t look as nice on the wall or the tree but they arc always fun to read and en- joy over and over again, The next Christmas event is the purchase of the Christmas tree. When I was a boy, I went out with my fa- ther to Taylor’s farm and walked through hip high snow to cut our own tree. I never scemed to remember that the first whack of an axe would bring an avalanche of snow down on my young head. A few years ugo, now a father myself, I piled the family into the car and we drove to anearby tree farm. It got dark faster than we had expected and I ended up cutting down a tree by the headlights of the car. It was snowing as well by now and my son decided to stay in the warm, dry car and cheered me on - it wasn’t quite how I re- membered it, When we moved to the prairies we had to buy a tree, We felt that seven dollars a foot was loo high, so we waited until Christmas Eve one year. It was five o’clock and one dealer had three rather short trees left. My wife, recognizing a bargain, offered the salesman seven dollars for the lot. The salesman, recognizing their value would drop to zero in a few hours, ac- cepted. When we got home, we put two of the trees in tree stands and then lashed them to- gether, making a very thick but short tree. Then we took the third tree and lashed it to the stems of the other two about half way up. Presto, a beautiful seven foot high tree graced our family room. The kids loved it! Did I mention that two of the trees were spruce and the other was hemlock? _TERRACE STANDARE Wesley weaving her heritage SOME MIGHT OPT for talking with friends, taking up new ac- tivilies or counsclling. But when Sandra Wesley’s mother diced two years ago, her art of basket weaving was all the therapy she needed. “Less than a month after she died, I starled weaving up to five baskets a day and J just had to do it - each basket I made was for her,’’ said Wesley. ‘‘I wanted to be able to offer something to the people who would be coming to the feast for Mom.” In less than 18 months, Wesley had about 150 baskets made to give away at last May’s feast, an event to mark the moving the gravestone from her mother’s yard to the cemetery. Wesley began learning tradi- tional native basketry in 1985, Many of her lessons came from Kitsumkalum resident Rena Bolton and Wesley’s grand- mother in Kincolith, Sara Barton. ‘She was so pleased I was talk- ing such an interest in traditional ways,” Wesley said. She soaks strips of cedar bark to fashion ihe basket and binds it with grasses. Wesley is also mastering the art of wood carving, a skill she started learning in 1980 from a Haida woman living in Prince Rupert named Freda Diesing. She takes inspiration from the work of her great-grandfather Chief Gyea of Gitwinksihlk, who was a masler carver, **] want to one day carve like him but I have a long way to go,”’ she said. “But what keeps me going is the spirituality and satis- faction I feel when I’m carving with my hands.” Because her husband is Tsim- shian and she is Nisga’a, Wesley said has tried to Icarn the tradi- liona] patterns of both nations. Nisga’a art tends to end in more points than the more rounded shapes of Tsimshian designs. Wesley designed an original killer whale design in the Tsim- shian style for the vests of the Kitsumkalum dancers. She is also carving a six-foot talking stick in yellow cedar that replicates the Kitsumkalum totem pole recently raised. While she feels confident of her hold on Tsimshian art, Wesley is sill tying to learn more about her own Nisga’a traditions and culture. ‘| was one of the people taken from my home in Gitwinksihlkw to residential school so I have a th ¥: ‘i BRYAN SMITH (middle, in shorts) has been rere SANDRA WESLEY'S native art has taken over half of the living room in her Kitsumkalum home. She has become an accomplished artist in tradtional Tsimshian and Nisga’a basketry and carving. lot of catching up to do on Nisga’a culture,”’ she said. “Slowly ['m learning what my heritage is all about.”’ She recently sold 10 head- dresses to the Gitwinksihlk Four- Crest Dancers for their per- formance at the Commonwealth Games this past summer. a part of the cub program for the past three years, “The {celing when thase people came to get their headdresses was ‘overwhelming — I got the greatest feeling from secing the expressions on their faces,’ The Prince Rupert museum cur- rently houses three of Wesley’s masks and five baskets. While she turned half of her rarely missing any meetings or activities. One of these activities including the summer camp at Lakelse Lake where Smith received his first badge. Phato by Eric Harkonen. Leading pack to understanding A LOCAL CUB PACK is leam- ing how rewarding a few simple changes to the rules can be, Leading the Jesson is Bryan Smith, a member of the Choices program for adults with special needs, Smith started attending cub meclings about three years ago, said Nick Bains, Smith’s former Choices key worker. ‘E just thought we'd try it out and give him something new to do,” Bains said. “We figured we'd give it a shot and see if it worked out or not.’ Worked it did. In the past three years, Akela, or cub leader, Charles Johnstone sald Smith rarely misses any. meeilng or activily and attends on his own. “He participates in every- thing,’’ said Jahnstone. ‘"The few ilmes he does miss an event we definitely notice — he adds an unique and different flavour.” While Smith helps run ac- tivities, he has also started work- ing on his own badges. Last June Johnstone awarded him with his first badge, the woodsman badge for basic out- door survival skills. “T was so choked up giving it to him I had to stop and collect myself,” said Johnstone, ‘‘It just felt so good to do something so special and it caught me off guard,”’ Smith communicates through sign-language, a skill no one in the cub pack understands well. But Johnstone said communica- tions problems rarely impede them. - "At first we were a little con- cerned but-he has this amazing ability to make people understand _ him,’’ he said. *1 guess he’s had a lifetime of trying to communi- cate with people who’ don’t un- derstand his language.” living room into an art gallery in June, Wesley is running out of space. “Some days when I’m feeling” down, I just come sit in here amongst afl my work and I feel so good,”’ she said. ‘‘It’s a feeling I can’t describe, SECTION B JEFF NAGEL 638-7283 Rotary auction 1994 is a success THE ANNUAL ROTARY auction Was a success once again. , Auction chair George Clark estimatcs it raised between $34,000-35,000. They already have $31,000 in the bank and a few dona- tions have yet to be added up. All but five sold items were picked up and paid far, Clark said these remaining ilems would be auctioned off 1o members at the regular Rotary mecting on Monday. We're delighted with how it all turned out,” he said. ‘It was a success but more impor- tantly, it was a lot of fun.” Because this year’s auction was two hours longer than last year, Clark said the auction was more relaxed. “It was longer so we were selling fewer items per hour and it went at a much nicer pace,” he said. While the Rotary Club in- vests a lot to time organizing the auction, Clark emphasized they couldn’t do it without the support of businesses and the public. ; “We really do appreciate all the companics and professional bodies that donated items and the public that took part.’”