Sports Arts & Culture Editors News Funnies 4) 7) k= =] ~ © Vv LL Page 10 Page 2 Page 12 Page 3 Page 14 Page 7 ver the Edge October 6, 2010 A Very Canadian Thanksgiving Move over Christmas, there is a new holiday in town ECATERINA CIUGURNEAU FEATURES EDITOR | absolutely love Thanksgiving. Autumn is the most beautiful season of the year. Plus, if there is anything | learned in Psychology, it is that gratitude is good for you and your psychological health. So the other day | decided to open this Pandora’s box and find out the history of this wonderful holiday, Canadian style. My research brought me to one question: Who’s Thanksgiving is it anyway? Some Say it all started with one English man named Martin. Like all explorers who tend to never get where they are actually going, Martin was trying to get to the Orient (East), but established a settlement in North America instead. Since he was the Situation of his day, he felt that this was an appropriate occasion to throw a party. He held a formal ceremony in Newfoundland to celebrate surviving his journey. That is considered the first Canadian Thanksgiving. At the same time, French settlers who arrived to Canada with the explorer named Samuel de Champlain (Pauly D?) held a similar feast. They even created the Order of Good Cheer, which basically was a written order to binge eat. Gathering Place Opens at UNBC More support is created for First Nations’ on the university campus HANNA PETERSEN NEWS EDITOR On September 21! UNBC’s gathering place was officially opened. The centre is also known as “Lhuhuhwhezdel’ which means “gathering place” in the Lheidli dialect of the Dakelh language. The Gathering Place is a part of a province wide initia- tive to enhance support for aboriginal students. UNBC’s gathering place is one of 27 like cen- tres created at public post-secondary institutions throughout British Columbia. The province invested $13.6 million in total witch allocated $600,000 for UNBC’s new Gathering Place. Located in the library building, the Gathering Place includes a fully equipped kitchen, two classrooms, and an event space. The centre was also designed with a unique ventilation system to exhaust all smoke from traditional smudging ceremonies. The facilities will provide space for ceremonies, cultural events, conferences, and workshops for local first nations and First Nations communities surround- ing Prince George. The centre will also be used by UNBC First Nations Centre, faculty, staff and the community. The province-wide program is meant to mediate pressures for First Nations students by building structures that reflect First Nations culture and history. The Gathering Place is a welcome addition to support offered through the First Nations Centre, the Northern Advancement Program and Peer Support Network. “Lhuhuhwhezdel is a terrific reflection of a goal in our new university plan to encourage a respectful, supportive, and friendly environment at UNBC” said George lwama, president of UNBC, via a ministry news release. The province also invested $600,000 for a gathering place to be created at Kwantlen Polytechnic University last May. Kwantlen’s gathering place known as Xthum which means “basket and drum” in Hul’quimi’num was awarded for its innovative architecture and especially noted for its artistic uses of wood. Another gathering place was recently opened at the William’s Lake campus of Thompson River’s University. TRU’s gathering place is designed in an octagonal pit- house style partially set in ground, emulating the winter pit houses that were used by the Interior Salish Peoples and Southern Carrier First Nations. Apart from architecture, these gathering places serve to honour the cultural traditions of the First Nations whose traditional territories B.C. universities have been established on. “Gathering Places are an important part of life for Aboriginal Students. When we can help improve that quality of life it enriches their university experience, and their success in post-secondary education helps create a stronger B.C. for everyone,” said Shirley Bond, MLA for Prince George — Valemount who attended the opening ceremonies of the centre on the 21°. Volume 17, Issue 3 Halifax also felt the need to get in on this action since they apparently started celebrating Thanksgiving after the Seven Year’s War. Another story holds that it was American refugees who fled the newly independent United States who brought Thanksgiving to Canada. The American’s just have to take credit for everything! | have been also told that various First Nations in Canada have been celebrating Thanksgiving for centuries before all of these shenanigans. Thanksgiving was in place to celebrate and give thanks for the harvest. There was dancing and singing and it really sounds like a good time. So as you can see, the Thanksgiving story is a messy one. But it is also beautiful too. Who cares who came up with this wonderful holiday (my bet is on the First Nations for sure), what really matters is the spirit of it all. Each group of individuals celebrated something that meant a lot to them: Martin and the survival of his intense journey, the French and their arrival to Canada, Halifax and the end of the war, First Nations tribes and the new harvest. My biggest wish for you this Thanksgiving is a) eat a lot of Pie and b) despite the fact that it ONLINE source. §S always inconveniently located around midterms, make sure you take a moment to feel thankful. HANNA PETERSEN ‘The Gathering Place is Icoated in the library building.