Ghost River Rediscovery Celebrated
Our 10th Anniversary
September 3-6, 2004 at
Camp Jubilee
in
Cochrane, Alberta
We wish to thank everyone that attended
our 10th Year Anniversary Celebration.
It was a huge success! Over the course of
4 days we had over 200 people attend the events
which were many and varied.
Friday evening started out with a
buffet for all who traveled from far and near to
be with us. Our opening ceremonies, council
fire and round dance started at 8:00 pm and was
opened by one of our Elders, Christine Joseph.
Everyone in the circle had the opportunity to speak
which allowed us all to get to know people we had
never met. It brought everyone closer as a
part of the Ghost River Rediscovery family.
Saturday was a very busy day for
participants, staff and volunteers. Colleen Klein
joined us to open our Wilderness Skills Competition.
She then spent time talking with our Elders and
joined us for a traditional Aboriginal lunch.
Also, we had the pleasure of having Regional Chief
of Alberta Jason Goodstriker from Assembly of First
Nations, join us for lunch and share his background
on working with youth.
Our
skills competition was probably the most exciting
part of the day as 8 teams competed for $4000 in prize
money.
Some of the obstacles they had to overcome
were: no trace fire building, a non-life threatening
first aid situation, one person bear hang and other
Wilderness Skills that have been learnt through Rediscovery
International Training.
The
Rediscovery Olympics Winning Teams!
FIRST
PLACE
(from left to right, then bottom)
Dylan Jones, Vernon Hagen, Francesca Mancini and Phillana
Morin
SECOND
PLACE
(from left to right) Tanya Lickers, Mutang
Urud, Jim Angus (from the Gitxsan
Nation) and Tim Manual
Tanya Lickers has donated
her portion of the winnings to next years Rediscovery
Olympics which will be held in Kispiox, BC hosted
by the Gitxsan Nation.
THIRD
PLACE
Angela Mogus, B-Boy, Chris Redwood
and a young man who wishes to remain nameless.
CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL PARTICIPANTS!
There were craft workshops with Elders
sharing stories and legends about Aboriginal history.
David Lertzman held a special music workshop, sharing
different instruments he had collected during his
journeys. The session was thoroughly enjoyed
by everyone who attended.
There
were presentations given to our Board of Directors
who are a very important part of Ghost River.
The board members are: Kirby Redwood, Helmut Rotter,
Akasha Bopp and Judy Bopp. Due to family matters,
one of our board members, Francis Erasmus was unable
to attend though he was in our thoughts.
We
ended our evening with presentations from visiting
communities such as: Jim and Doreen Angus
from the Gitxsan Community; Christine “Wata” Joseph
from the Kwagvilth Community, Dila Houle from the
Blackfoot Community, Zhiish McKenzie
from Temi ‘agama Community; B-Boy from the Beauval
Community in Saskatchewan,
Ryan Derange (Gitz) from Ft McMurray and Niki Grant
from the Haisla Community. There was a lot of laughter,
tears and singing. It certainly brought us all closer
together.
Sunday was a full and an eventful
day as well. It was also a day to say goodbye to
some of our friends who had traveled a long distance
to celebrate with us. There were trips to the Ghost
River base camp, to the Pow Wow in Morley (for many
people it was the first time they attended a Pow
Wow and they were absolutely enthralled by the dancers
and costumes).
The evening ended with Julian Norris
(co-founder of Ghost River) doing a slide presentation
depicting the journey that Ghost River has been through
over the past 10 years. A special presentation
honored Michael Lickers (the co-founder of Ghost
River Rediscovery) for his direction and leadership
for the organization during the past 10 years.
Mike then made presentations
to the Elders, the staff and to Lisa Falkowsky who
had a acquired an entire buffalo as a donation to
Ghost River for the celebration. The evening
ended with dancing and singing and our final council
fire.
Monday was our final meal together,
our final prayer together and many heartfelt goodbyes.
Plenty of hugs and promises were shared to see each
other soon and to keep in touch with each other
throughout the year. Many old friendships
were renewed, many new friendships were forged.
All in all it was a wonderful weekend spent with
special people.
We would like to thank our Elders who
keep our Aboriginal Culture alive. They are
always there to teach our young people about their
heritage and to share their experience, strength and
wisdom: Christine Joseph, Christine “Wata” Joseph,
Olive Manitopyes, Dila Houle, Sykes Powderface,
Sequoyah Trueblood and B-Boy.
(pictured, left to right - Wata, Olive
and Dila)
All are truly beautiful people!
We would like to thank
our volunteers who put in many hours and had truly
dedicated themselves entirely to making this a special
weekend for everyone.
We thank immensely
our Volunteer Coordinator, Darren McNeil, whom without
his talents and devotion to keep everything going
smoothly, yet still always being friendly and cordial,
I know my job would have been a lot more difficult.
Many thanks to our
cooks: Gary Pirart, Larry Jones, Pahl Hawkins
and Katrin Hoffmeister (our fellow Rediscovery friend
from Germany) who provided us with delicious meals
that served us well.
Thank you to all the
volunteers who helped with serving, cleaning up the
grounds, the buildings, the cooks’ helpers and to
those who attended to the needs of our Elders - you
all did a magnificent job.
Also, with the volunteerism
of Tanya Lickers, Saundi Norris, Justin and Suzanne
Telfer, Aaron Schadeck, Delaine Lambert, Vernon Hagen,
Dylan Jones, Val Sommer, Jessica Johnson, Tatiana
Hohnke, Anita Schwan, Zhiish McKenzie, Greg Lowan,
Philli Morin, Francesca Mancini, Tim Kelly, Sharon
Thompson, Vicki Torres Pratt, Lorelei White, Geoff
Higgins, Bernice Gartner, Kathy Grebley, Jan Donovan,
and David Lertzman the celebration was made more amazing
than it already was.
We would like to thank our staff
for all the extra work they contributed to this
weekend:
Mike Lickers, Julian Norris, Thea
Cederberg, Corey Stevens, Hillary Runner, Kathy
Madjidi, Candace St Denis, Shannon Dixon, Sheila
LaVallie-Leicht, Ryan (Gitz) Derange, Emy Ulloa,
Jessica Ulloa, and Niki (craft wonder!) Grant.
As well as
our Youth Leadership Interns: Eldon Preston, Stacia
Loft, Brigitte Widmer, Robert Doane, Jade Monkman,
Mardi Dauphinee and Indrani Kar.
A
extra special thank you to those who donated their
wares and services. They were: Juliette from
Kost Fire Safety - medical supplies for the Rediscovery
Olympics; Joel from Ribtor - supplies for the Rediscovery
Olympics; Lloyd from Halford Hide - craft materials
for the workshops; Sherry from the Calgary Interfaith
Food Bank - the scrumptious meals; Steven Anslen from
Safeway - for the delicious breakfasts; Mike Cryre
from Driving Force - for the use of 2 vans and
a truck; Mel Benson in combination with Simone and
Mike Mrdjenovich who donated the buffalo (which was
delicious and satisfied many appetites). We
also must thank Gord Leggatt who did our name tags
and Kirby Redwood who mended our large drum from the
office which is one of the items that identifies Ghost
River Rediscovery
We wish the BEST to everyone who attended and
assisted during the long weekend and we hope to see you in 10
years for our 20th Year Celebration!
