National Aboriginal Day – Corner Brook

Monday, June 19
10:00am Mi’kmaq Flag Raising at Corner Brook City Hall with formal Greetings
11:00am Mi’kmaq Flag Raising at Royal Newfoundland Constabulary Corner Brook Regional Office
11:30am Mi’kmaq Flag Raising at Grenfell University

Wednesday, June 21 National Aboriginal Day
6:00am Sun raise ceremony at Margaret Bowater Park
7:00am Light Breakfast at 1 Church St. (Qalipu Community Room)
11:00am & 2:00pm Medicine Walk
10am – 2:00pm Royal Newfoundland Constabulary Squad Car
10:30am – 2:00pm Wampum Belt Crafting and Demo
10:30am Drum Making Demo
10:30am – 2:00pm Aboriginal Artists and Crafts Vendor Tables
11:00am Little Planters (While Supplies Last)
11:30am – 1:30pm BBQ
12:00pm Cake Cutting & Welcoming
1:00pm – 3:00pm Music and Sharing

June 17 to 24, 2017
Rotary Art Centre – Open Gallery
Aboriginal Artist and Craft Persons Exhibition

Community Happenings
Tina Dolter Gallery – Rotary Arts Centre
Emerging artist Melissa Tremblett first solo show entitled: 1876 changed my life.

June 12th-July 13th.
Reception on June 16th 4pm-6pm.
Artist Talk on July 8th, 11am.
Description: 1876 changed my life is a mixed media installation focusing on the effects of colonialism on Indigenous people. Drawn from personal experience, Melissa Tremblett uses the process of making art to create conversation and promote healing.

Rotary Arts Centre
Meagan Musseau will be doing an artist talk titled “Indigeneity, Intermedia and land-based practice” on June 24th at 11am.
Green Roof – Corner Brook City Hall
Meagan Musseau will be doing a performance piece titled “Do Not Cross | Status Line” on July 4th at 4pm.

Grenfell Campus Art Gallery
Jordan Bennett Wije’wi (Come With Me)

June 17th—September 16th
Reception on June 17th 4:30pm—6pm
Description: The artist uses known Beothuk and Mi’kmaq visual patterns, symbols and colours to create landscapes which represent the island of Ktaqamkuk (Newfoundland).

Multiethnic friends with coffee cups sitting near campfire on lakeshore

A Taste of the Great Outdoors

We’ve all roasted hot dogs and made smores but, you would be surprised about the culinary delights that can be prepared around an open fire.

Let Executive Chefs Frank Widmer and Alain Bosse be your guide to exploring the possibilities!

Accompanied by songs and storytelling by Mi’kmaq Park Interpreter Kevin Barnes and friends, the Chefs will incorporate Mi’kmaq traditional foods to show you how to create something beautiful in a hands-on, interactive evening around the campfire.

June 28, 2017 at 7:00 PM
Shallow Bay day use area, Cow Head (Gros Morne National Park)

This event is a partnership between Qalipu First Nation, Parks Canada and the Gros Morne Institute for Sustainable Tourism. Everyone is Welcome!

A Taste of the Great Outdoors

Posted by Qalipu on June 12, 2017

We’ve all roasted hot dogs and made smores but, you would be surprised about the culinary delights that can be prepared around an open fire.

Let Executive Chefs Frank Widmer and Alain Bosse be your guide to exploring the possibilities!

June 28, 2017 at 7:00 PM

Shallow Bay day use area, Cow Head (Gros Morne National Park)

This event is a partnership between Qalipu First Nation, Parks Canada and the Gros Morne Institute for Sustainable Tourism. Everyone is Welcome!

LandMarks2017 Gros Morne

LandMarks2017/Repères2017 invites people to creatively explore and deepen their connection to the land through a series of contemporary art projects in

and around Canada’s National Parks and Historic Sites starting in June 2017. LandMarks2017/Repères2017 inspires dialogue about people, places and perspectives that have shaped our past and are vital to our futures.

Rebecca Belmore’s project Wave Sound is an invitation to listen to the land. The cone-like shape of the sculpture creates a natural amplification of the surrounding environment, while the surface of the sculpture is made from a cast of nearby rock formations. Visitors are invited to place their ear next to the small opening, and listen.

The sculpture will be installed on June 29^th, 2017 on a rock bed at Green Point in Gros Morne National Park of Canada in Newfoundland.

Event:

On June 29^th, 2017 at 4pm visitors are invited to join Assistant Curator Léa Toulouse and parks guides at Green Point in Gros Morne National Park of Canada to learn about the LandMarks 2017 national project and Rebecca Belmore’s art installation titled Wave Sound. Visitors will be guided from the Visitor Centre to the sculpture at Green Point to view the installation of the sculpture, meet the artist, and view the work of international renowned artist Rebecca Belmore.

About the artist:

A member of Lac Seul First Nation (Anishinaabe), Rebecca Belmore is an internationally recognized multidisciplinary artist currently residing in Montréal. Rooted in the political and social realities of Indigenous communities, Belmore’s works make evocative connections among bodies, land and language.

Her notable exhibitions, performances and artworks include Rebecca Belmore: Rising to the Occasion, Vancouver Art Gallery (2008); The Named and the Unnamed, performance (2002); the sculpture Trace at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights; Fringe, White Thread, and Untitled 1, 2, 3, photographs; and Ayum-ee-aawach Oomama-mowan: Speaking to Their Mother, performances (1991,1992,1996, 2008). Belmore received the Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts in 2013, the Hnatyshyn Visual Arts Award in 2009, the Jack and Doris Shadbolt Foundation’s VIVA Award in 2004, and an OCAD University Honorary Doctorate in 2005. Also in 2005, she was Canada’s official representative at the Venice Biennale. In 2016, Rebecca was awarded the prestigious Gershon Iskowitz Prize by the Art Gallery of Ontario.

Indigeneity, Intermedia, and Land-Based Practice

Rotary Arts Centre

5 Park St. Unit 101
(Lower Level, City Hall)
Corner Brook, NL
A2H 6E1

Girl With Guitar in the Park. Little Caucasian Girl with Acoustic Guitar in Hands. Young Guitarist.

Call for Musicians and Artists- National Aboriginal Day Music and Sharing

Posted by Qalipu on May 30, 2017

National Aboriginal Day festivities will be held at Margaret Bowater Park in Corner Brook, June 21, 2017. This special day will start with a sunrise ceremony in the Park, followed by a light breakfast at the Qalipu Community Room at 1 Church Street. There will be a variety of activities for the whole family throughout the day starting at 10:00 AM. Full schedule events coming soon.

As part of the day, we will host Music and Sharing, an opportunity for musicians, poets and dancers to take the stage and share something with all those gathered in celebration. Individuals or groups welcome.

Please contact Mitch Blanchard at mblanchard@qalipu.ca or phone 634-8046 to add your name to Music and Sharing. Honorariums will be provided. Deadline to add your name is June 16, 2017.

Message from the Chief May 29, 2017

Posted by Qalipu on May 29, 2017

Kwe’

We made it through the winter and can now look forward to warmer temperatures, sunny days and time outside. The Mi’kmaq of the island have weathered a lot together, still we find many things to be thankful for.

I am proud to share with you all that our Nation has again this year received an excellent rating in our General Assessment. Our score of 2.2, gauging effectiveness of our processes, financial management and reporting and other areas that measure our accountability, was among the best of First Nations in Canada. We are also poised to be the first Nation in Canada to implement an International Standards Organization (ISO) Quality Management System that is representative of our entire operation in the areas of education and training, health, tourism, employment, culture, economic development and natural resources.

Recently, I met with Chief Mise’l Joe of the Miawpukek First Nation. Along with our respective senior management teams, we looked at mutual areas of interest where we might work collaboratively and speak with a united voice for indigenous rights and issues in Newfoundland. I’m very excited about the possibilities that exist for teamwork between our Nations.

Also, this month we formalized a partnership with Parks Canada through the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). The partnership between our organizations, leading back to FNI days, has been the source of many positive shared initiatives. Mi’kmaq interpretation in the Park, summer employment opportunities for our members, development of a beautiful exhibit now stationed in our Mi’kmaq Museum, a travelling show that celebrated our Mi’kmaq heritage throughout the province and the very successful Outdoor Education Program which continues to benefit hundreds of our young people every year. Perhaps most dear to my heart was the HSMBC commemoration, and opening of the exhibits and walking trail for my great grandfather Mattie Mitchell, a renowned Mi’kmaq hunter and guide.

Through the MOU, we have simply agreed to continue looking for opportunities to work together in areas of mutual interest as we have in the past. This includes things like natural and cultural heritage resource conservation, public understanding and appreciation, visitor experience, conserving heritage places, providing education and outreach, and employment opportunities for our people to tell their own stories in a land where indigenous history reaches back well beyond 150 years.

As we come into the summer months, there are several exciting events coming up that many of us are looking forward to. For the first time, the Exploits Aboriginal Community Group will host a Mawio’mi June 16-18 in central Newfoundland. I expect there should be more detail about this event in the days to come.

As in previous years, our calendars are marked for the first and second weekends of July for our local Powwow Trail. The Miawpukek First Nation Powwow will take place July 7-9^th in Conne River, and the Bay St. George Mi’kmaq Powwow will take place in Flat Bay July 14-16^th.

I hope to see all of you out and about this summer, supporting our community events and spending time together with friends and family.

Wela’lin

Chief Brendan Mitchell

Commercial Space for Lease in Grand Falls – Windsor

Posted by Qalipu on May 23, 2017

There are no current spaces available for lease.

Location: 28 Hardy Avenue

Available: July 1, 2017

Approximately 790 square feet is available which is suitable for office or retail space. Common Kitchen and bathroom areas. Wheelchair accessible. Large parking lot. Centrally located. Heat and light included.

For more information, please contact Rob Dicks at 634-6895 or email rdicks@qalipu.ca

Partners Committed to Long-term Sustainability of the Outdoor Education Program

Posted by Qalipu on May 18, 2017

May 18, 2017, Corner Brook—This week, staff at the Outdoor Education Program in Gros Morne National Park welcomed its first groups of grade five students, their teachers and parent chaperones for the 2017 school year. The two-and-a-half-day, camp-based program, now in its 20th year, is an educational experience that meets

classroom curriculum requirements, while students benefit from immersion in the great outdoors.

Qalipu has been involved in the Outdoor Education Program since 2014 through the delivery of a cultural teaching module, and last year took on the enhanced role of coordinating the program in partnership with the Western Newfoundland and Labrador English School District and Parks Canada.

Ralph Eldridge, Director of Service Qalipu, said, “The program was a natural fit for Qalipu as it aligns with our mandate to engage youth in learning opportunities. The fact that it takes place in an outdoor setting helps to engrain a sense of importance of our natural world. It goes beyond the classroom, beyond the text book.”

Eldridge noted that the program is structured around seven modules that have children engaged in activities such as an archaeology dig, a night hike, painting, poetry writing, and exploration and appreciation of our natural environment. Each of the modules corresponds with grade 5 curriculum outcomes.

Michelle Matthews, Education Outreach Officer, hired by the Band to facilitate the program, works with children and teachers on the ground at Killdevil. She said, “while helping to coordinate this program, Qalipu will also continue to deliver one of the modules, Epsisi’tat Awia’tat (Little Feet Travelling in a Circle). The focus of the culturally based module centers on sustainability, history of the aboriginal people in Newfoundland and Labrador, and how the Mi’kmaq relied on mother earth to provide for the necessities of life. We will also continue to provide unique cultural experiences to students through participation in such things as talking circles, drumming and singing.

Future goals for the program include ensuring sustainability for generations to come, providing opportunities for schools in the central region to participate in the Killdevil program or offering a parallel program in that region, and integrating greater cultural content within the existing teaching modules.

For more information on getting your classroom involved in this opportunity, please contact Education Outreach Officer Michelle Matthews at 634-3856 or by email mmatthews@qalipu.ca

Maw-pemita’jik Qalipu’k April 2017 Newsletter

Posted by Qalipu on April 18, 2017

Well it’s April, spring is finally here, and I’m happy to say there is still much good news to report on.

In this edition of Maw-pemita’jik Qalipu’k, I’m really excited to share that Qalipu will be hosting an Indigenous Tourism Forum on May 4^th at Marble Inn in Steady Brook. The forum will feature guest speakers from the Gros Morne Institute for Sustainable Tourism, Hospitality Newfoundland and Labrador, and there will be an exciting tourism announcement by Qalipu Chief Brendan Mitchell and Parks Canada Superintendent Geoff Hancock. Finally, delegates will benefit from an afternoon of specialized training with Cal Martin of Frog in the Pocket. Find more details and a link to apply on page 7.

Did you hear that we have a new Band Manager? Keith Goulding has been a dedicated and strong leader as a Director at Qalipu for the past six years. This April, he stepped up to take on the prominent position of Band Manager, leading staff and working with the Chief and Council. Find the press release on page 2.

On page 3, find out about upcoming workshops and training opportunities happening soon with Qalipu and the Cultural Foundation. Here, you’ll also find links to the latest Council Meeting Report, and reports on all the End of Enrolment Community Tours.

On page 8, we finally get around to congratulating one of our own community leaders, Judy White, who recently became the CEO for the Assembly of First Nations. Ben Bennett, Ward Councilor for her home community of Flat Bay, wanted to make sure congratulations was announced by the Band. Congratulations Judy!

How about a good Mi’kmaq ghost story? Check page 5. Try page 9 for the point of view of one of our members, Brenda Paul, on the Daniels Symposium she recently attended with Chief and Council.

Find all this and lots more in Maw-pemita’jik Qalipu’k.

Click here to view this month’s newsletter

All the best,

Alison