JENNIFER LANG

Around Town

m@ Up, up and away

COLOURFUL HOT AIR balloons made
out of tissue paper, like this one floating
by Samantha Graziano, rose majestically
towards the ceiling at Skeena Junior Sec-
ondary last week as Dennis Cook's math
9 students put their creations to the test,
using hair dryers as a heat source.

Acting out

FIND OUT what happens to good Ol’ Saint
Nick when he decides to take a New Zealand
vacation in a performance presented by the
Terrace Little Theatre’s Youth Troupe.

Santa's Weird Vacation takes the stage at
the McColl Playhouse Saturday, Dec. 13.
There are two shows planned, ‘a matinee that
starts at noon., plus an evening performance
starting at 7:30 p.m. Some famous actors are
lampooned, as is a rather popular movie tri-
logy. The show also includes music provided
by members of the Thornhill Junior Secondary
School band. .

The youth troupe is a group of teenaged ac-

‘tors who get together at the playhouse on Fri-

day afternoons. It’s a recent off-shoot of the
TLT's wildly popular Summer Drama Days

| program, which offered something for teens for -

the first time this year.
“It’s completely run by. the kids,” says TLT
representative Dawn Marshall, who, along

with husband Jason, provides adult supervision .

to the youth actors.

“They went, ‘You know what? We would
like something that goes the enlire year. All
the kids showed up at the [TLT’s] executive
meeting to let them know they wanted this to

happen.”
_The only cost for participants is a $5 mem-
bership i in the TLT society.

Speech art workshops
ANYONE who’s gearing up for the 2004 Paci-
fic Northwest Music Festival in the discipline
of speech arts is invited to workshops with
Jennifer Orr Friday at Uplands Elementary.

The first is aimed at students, parents, tu-
tors and teachers. It’s on speech arts techni-
ques such as breathing, voice projection, re-
laxation and body language.

That's followed by an afternoon workshop
aimed at teachers on choral speech. Learn
more about choral presentations, whether
they're for fun or competition.

An evening workshop for students involves
an informal group discussion and participation
session on individual presentations, choice of
material and questions and answers.

For more information or to register for the
three speech arts workshops taking place Dec.
12, please call 635-3563 or 635-2721.

Raffle your feathers

THE DARE to Dream Foundation invites you
to take flight. The foundation has organized a
fall raffle in support of the elementary band
program in Terrace and Thornhill.

First prizé is a weekend getaway for two —
courtesy of Hawkair and Sandman Hotels.
Second prize is a 20-minute helicopter flight
for five people through Canadian Helicopters.
Third and fourth prizes are stunt kites, compli-
ments of Dr. Peter Okimi.

Tickets are available at Misty River Books,
the Northern Motor Inn, Sight and Sound and
Dr. Okimi’s office. The draw takes place Fri-
day, Dec. 19 at 6:15 p.m. on NTV.

The foundation is looking forward to a busy
2004. Plans include an elementary band retreat
in February that culminates in a concert and a
possible spring raffle shared with school PACs.

Donations needed

YOU CAN help someone play Santa this year.
Businesses are being canvassed for donations
or discounts to help support the Kitselas Band

Council’ s annual Christmas party for low in-.
come families, says band social worker Win-

nie Wells.

Organizers are shopping for.more than 200 °
gifts for children. They..are also buying: dtems

for goodie bags, as Well, like candy: canes, or-
anges and chocolates. °°.
To help, please call her at 635- 5084, ms

TERRACE STANDAR

The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, December 10, 2003 - BI

JAMES MCDONALD has written a new book about Kitsumkalum. He teaches First Nations studies at the University of Northern B.C,

People of the Robin

A new book celebrates the rich heritage and culture of Kitsumkalum village

By JEFF NAGEL
SUE SPALDING never met her great-grand-
mother or knew what she looked like.

But she heard all about the powerful Kit-
sumkalum woman from her father, who learned
the ways of their people at his grandma's feet.

“She taught him about the herbs, about. the

land and about. the foods they” eat from the’

land,” Spalding -said.

‘Tt was a special moment when she opened
one of-the first copies of the new book People
of the Robin and saw a photo of Lily Spalding
for the first time,

“I was just floored when I saw it,” Spalding
said. “This woman had a big impact on my
dad’s life.” —

The new book documents the rich culture
and history of the Kitsumkalum. It has just
been printed and was officially launched at-a
Nov. 22 feast at the village just west of Ter-
race.

For Spalding, the project has come full cir-
‘cle since she helped get it off the ground five
years ago.

Back then she was the coordinator of the
First’ Nations Education Centre.

A comprehensive book on the Kitselas band
had just been written by Rocque Berthiaume.

And Spalding -wanted to create something
similar for her own people to help educate
local teachers about the band.

“T felt strongly that when teachers choose to
serve in.communities where there are First
Nations, they need to learn about the histories
of the First Nations communities,” she said.

If people understand aboriginal culture bet-
ter, she believes, they will fear it less.

As a girl in school, Spalding still remem-
bers how her non-nalive friends were never al-
lowed to visit her home, because she lived in

Local teens
sign up as
army cadets

the village.

“For some reason people see vil-
lages as scary places to be,” she
said.

Grant money from the school dis-
trict got the project started and the
book's author, UNBC First Nations
Studies professor’ James ‘McDonald,
was hired.

He has studied the band for the
past 25 years and-was a natural
choice.

What started as a three-month
project ultimately expanded to eigh-
teen months.

And McDonald has emerged with
not just a teachers’ guide ‘but a book
of general interest.

He hasn’t written the book as an
outsider’s view of a people — as so
many other academics have before.

Instead, he worked closely with a commit-
tee of Kitsumkalum elders to craft a text the
entire community can call their own.

People of the Robin
James McDonald
162 pages, CCI Press. $25

“It represents their own way of thinking
about their society, their own social theory of
Tsimshian society,” McDonald said.

“The main theme is the connection be-
tween the culture and the land and how that
has sustained the community over the mille-
nnia.”

The book details the history of the village
and its people, how the Kitsumkalum relate to
the other six Tsimshian bands, and an expla-

nation of the social structure of
the village.

It details the chiefs and territories
of the Kitsumkalum territories
and how the pteex — ‘the: raven,
eagle, killer whale and wolf
clans — function,

Also explained is the. nickriame
“people of the robin". It comes
from Robin Town, which’ was the
name of the old capital of the
Kitsumkalum further upriver in
the canyon of the Kalum River,
Many stories that make up the
oral history of the Kitsumkalum
are also in the 162-page book.
“They help us understand our
connection to the land,” Spalding

Sue Spalding © said.

There’s much confusion about the
village's culture and history even among its
own people. . (

“Our history was denied for whatever reason
and we did not learn about who we are,”
Spalding said. “This is new for my people and
myself as well ~ we are learning about. who we
are again.”

Unlike other northwest aboriginal groups,
she added, the Kitsumkalum were only men-
tioned in passing by the major anthropologists
who first documented native culture here.

Spalding said she also hopes the wider
community in Terrace and the northwest reads
the book, ;

“I hope it opens eyes in the. Terrace com-
munity that-this is a viable, existing commun-
ity, that we don’t live in museums,” she said.
“We are alive and we are still here.”

People of the Robin will be available at
Misty River Books.

638-7283

By JENNIFER LANG
A BRAND-NEW ARMY
cadet corps is attracting
more than 35 youths —
many of them girls, na
doubt intrigued by the pro-
mise of mastering challen-
ging skills like rock repel-
Jing, map ‘and compass

training, and bush training, .

And those are just some

of the skills army cadets’

will be learning. says Offi-

cer Cadet Hilda Martin.
The new :.1867 Royal

Canadian: Air Cadet Corps

_ was recently founded by «
~ Cpl. Ken MacKenzie and

Martin. Both were pre-

ia viously involved with Ter-
“race's existing 747 Air

Cadet Squadron.-

While a few of the new
7 amy cadet members are

ve

former air or RCMP ca-
dets, the majority of the
new corps is comprised of
newcomers who are driven

to find out more about’

army cadets by sheer cur-
idusity.

“We try to tell them it’s
a lot of team. work,” Mar-

tin says. “It's ‘a lot of hard

work. But. you get whal

you pul into. it.”
Newcomers are encour-

aged to drop by the meet-

“ings to check it out, Mean-

while, non commissioned
members have been
speaking with Grade -7
classes in Terrace to help
get the word out about the
néw corps, :which. meets

Tuesdays from’ 6:30-9, PB m.

al the: Kitselas Hall.
“You. can come out and

CADET Niko Wesley (left), helper/volunteer Jeremy Beaudetta and Corporal
Devin Cote were just three members of the new army cadet corps taking part

in a recent botile drive.

JEFF NAGEL PHOTO

watch see if it's for you,”
Martin says. “You don't
have fo commit.”

Uniforms: are provided
‘al no cost. 7. 7
“Weekend exercises. will .
bo. another: component of

the program. Foreign ex-
changes, earning credits
towards school and .the op-

tion a two-week: summer:
camp in Vernon: are other.
-Posetblltes.

The: camp” is

as summer employement —
cadets can carn money

through the Department of |

National Defence.
“It’s something for. the

-youth.to do,” says Martin,

- Continued page Ba

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