Posts Tagged “Kitimat”
On Monday, Nov. 1, 2021, a student at Kitimat’s Mount Elizabeth Middle Secondary School wore traditional regalia for picture day. At that time a teacher allegedly asked the student “What’s the costume.” This led to a protest against racism the following day by indigenous and non-indigenous students supported by members of the Haisla Nation and Kitimat residents on Nov. 2.
Members of the Haisla Nation and supporters from Kitimat gathered at Mount Elizabeth Middle Secondary School on Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2021 (Robin Rowland)
Greg Smith and his grandson Greg Bolton at the protest. (Robin Rowland)
Students, many in regalia, supported the protest. (Robin Rowland)
Students supported the protest. (Robin Rowland)
Shelley Bolton of the Haisla Braid Singers led the group in protest songs. (Robin Rowland)
Elders and residential school survivors joined the protest despite the poor weather. (Robin Rowland)
Video: Story I shot for Global News.‘It’s not a costume’: B.C. teacher’s alleged mocking of student’s Indigenous regalia sparks protest
Statement from the Haisla Nation (on the school board site)
Look closely and you will see the white head of a bald eagle perched in a tree at MK Bay, taken from MK Bay West Park.
The weather in Kitimat has been awful during most of the fall, cold, windy, rainy, foggy and generally miserable. Not unexpected in a La Nina year.
I went down to Kitamaat Village for the monthly bird count in a rain squall. So the visibility was pretty bad. As I was about to leave, a half dozen northwestern crows landed right beside me, in the pouring rain and stayed long enough for me to shoot their portraits.
Members of the Haisla Nation and people of Kitimat braved an Environment Canada storm warning with heavy rain and wind on September 30, 2021 to mark The National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.
Haisla elder Marilyn Furlan opened the proceedings with a prayer. (Robin Rowland)
Most participants wore orange to mark the other name, Orange Shirt Day. It marks the time an indigenous girl had an orange shirt taken away in a residential school. (Robin Rowland)
Marking Truth and Reconciliation in a rain storm. (Robin Rowland)
Sunny Stewart-Pollard helped organize the reconciliation event hosted by volunteers from the Haisla Nation and members of the Kitimat community. (Robin Rowland)
Barb Campbell watches the event. (Robin Rowland)
The tables with decorations and gifts represent all the holidays that children in residential schools missed. (Robin Rowland)
A boy waves a Truth and Reconciliation flag. (Robin Rowland)
Watching in the rain. Kitimat Counsellor Terry Marleau (second from right) and Mayor Phil Germuth (far right) (Robin Rowland)
Shelley Irene Bolton drums as she leads the Haisla Braid drummers and dancers. (Robin Rowland)
The sun did come out briefly for the Haisla Braid dancers and drummers. (Robin Rowland)
Three flocks of geese flew over the ceremony, the first and largest flock are snow geese, followed by a small group of Canada geese and then more snow geese.(Robin Rowland)
Geese fly over the ceremony. (Robin Rowland)
Musician and artist Arthur Renwick closed off the event with his own songs. (Robin Rowland)
A varied thrush confronts a steller’s jay at my feeder during the blizzard of January 3, 2020. (Robin Rowland)
The decade of the 2020s came in like a mountain lion on January 3, 2020 here in Kitimat, with (up until now) 75 centimetres or 30 inches of snow.
I came inside after digging out the first time (I would dig out twice more today) and sat down for lunch only to see at least a dozen juncos at my feeder in the midst of the wind and blowing snow. I have an older camera on the table so I can photograph any birds that might come to the feeder. A varied thrush flew down, scattering the juncos. The varied thrush was too big for the feeder (or at least it thought it was) so it waited while the juncos gorged themselves and picked up and seeds that dropped from the feeder.
About an hour later a steller’s jay joined the group. The thrush and the steller’s jay seemed to get along at first but later this was a confrontation between the two while the juncos watched. The steller’s jay, being a smarter bird (like all corvids) did find a away to get at the feeder.
Juncos congregate at my feeder in the midst of the blizzard. (Robin Rowland)
A junco waits its turn at the feeder. (Robin Rowland)
The varied thrush perches just below the feeder. (Robin Rowland)
The patient varied thrush waits for the juncos to drop some seeds. (Robin Rowland)
The varied thrush lands under the feeder beside the steller’s jay (Robin Rowland)
The varied thrush looks up at the feeder (the juncos had temporarily departed) as the steller’s jay watches. (Robin Rowland)
A shot of the steller’s jay. (Robin Rowland)
The steller’s jay finds a way to get at the seeds in the feeder. (Robin Rowland)
Most of the juncos and the varied thrush were still there a few hours later as it began to get dark.