Kicking it Special O-style
Special Olympics Yukon enriches the lives of Yukoners with an intellectual ability through opportunities to train and compete in sports, and the gala is a fundraiser to help them provide programming.
Yukon See It Here: Tamara Neely
Hello Everybody, We invite you to share your photos of Yukon life. Email your high-resolution images with a description of what’s going on to [email protected]
Looking after each other
in 1996, the Mount Lorne fire hall opened it’s doors with a 1977 Ford cabover truck with an 800-gallon tank and a 125 horsepower pump
Invitation for an Authentic Experience
Yukon First Nations are planning ways to offer authentic cultural experiences for visitors. The plan to bolster cultural tourism among the Yukon First Nations has been in the works for a while, but this week people from across the Yukon Territory are getting together for a conference in Whitehorse to discuss ways to strengthen this …
Where There’s a Wig, There’s a Way
If you’re under pressure to get a Halloween costume together, take note that going as a ghost in a sheet with holes cut for eyes seems quick and easy, but it’s a ball and chain that will be annoying all party long. The whole night will be spent trying to keep the eyeholes in place …
Thanks Dr. Jim
It’s been a month and a half since the Traditional Chinese Medical practitioner Jim Zheng passed away. Those who he helped will remember him fondly, and those who depended on him to help manage ailments will be wondering how to manage the void he has left in their lives. “Dr. Jim,” as he was known, …
A Tribute to a Colourful Artist
“I’ve had a good demand for my work, so I didn’t have to hang anything.” Jim Robb says. “It was never my thing to put stuff on exhibition.”
Now’s a Good Time to Help Farmers Feed Us
Now that spring has officially sprung, local farmers are waiting for the ground to warm up enough to put seeds and seedlings into the earth. Every year, farming is a gamble. It takes a pile of money to get started, and then farmers are at the mercy of factors such as frost and insects. Eaters …
The Art of Winning and Losing
A pack of roughly 260 teens and tweens are in Alaska this week last to compete in the Fairbanks 2014 Arctic Winter Games. The 10-year-olds right up to the 19-year-olds, will have been managing their adrenaline all week, bolstering their courage and drive to compete against youth from around the northern tip of the globe …
Northern Pride
Art has the power to heal — and the artwork that comes out of the healing process can be amazing. Not always, sure, there are some art-therapy drawings only a mother could love. But check out the woodcarvings, prints, and copper art on exhibit at Arts Underground March 7 to 29. They’re impressive. The new …
What Does the Future Hold for our Famous Eagle Family?
There is real-life drama unfolding in the nest of a Whitehorse eagle couple. Right now the question is, who is the eagle that has appeared and is repairing the nest from last year? Is it the dad eagle, or the mom eagle, or is it some squatter that has taken a shine to the couple’s …
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Making a Living by Making Art
There’s a classic struggle among artists to find a part-time job that will afford them enough money to pay the bills and enough time to make their art, but won’t suck the soul out of them. Another classic struggle is justifying the pursuit of money, when, as an artist, passion, creativity, communication, love, light, colour, …
The Power of Limitation
It was pretty impressive what MacGyver could come up with when faced with a problem, some string, a piece of gum, the gum wrapper, and a battery. That Canadian television show from the 1980s was predicated on the idea that when one finds oneself in a pickle, one can dip into a deep well of …
Simple Beauty
You know a painting is really good when you can lose yourself in it. Just like looking at a fire; you get hypnotized. Faro artist Jay Hambleton’s paintings of mountains are like that. They will be on exhibit at the North End Gallery in Whitehorse until Feb. 1. They’re impressionistic, rather than realistic, but the …
The Real Value of Athletic Excellence: Alain Masson inducted into Hall of Fame
Helping an athlete to manage mental pressure is one of the most important factors for Alain Masson. Athletes need this kind of mental skill if they’re going to try out for the Olympics — and we’re all pretty proud when hometown athletes take the podium. Masson knows that kind of pressure – he has competed …
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Just Exactly How Big is Big
It’s going to be all antlers, horns, and skulls for hours on end next Saturday at the Big Bull Night. From 5 p.m. until way past dinner time, big game hunters will be bringing hardware from animals they harvested to the Yukon Inn, and Yukon Fish and Game Association guys will be waiting with measuring …
Spooky Noises are Okay, but No More Showing Up in the Flesh
Imagine working alone in an older building where, on occasion, people have seen ghosts, heard them walking around, and had them messing with their stuff. It’s not that freaky as long as you don’t believe in ghosts. Jenny Hamilton is the Guild’s general manager, and she’s a general skeptic. However, when she saw a ghost …
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To: Japan, With Love From: Whitehorse
A hand-drawn card from a child — featuring a heart, or people holding hands — is powerful stuff. It can bring a lump to the throat for moms and other sensitive types. That’s the kind of innocent beauty that can be found in a set of quilts that arrived in Whitehorse from Japan this month, …
When Home isn’t a Happy Place
For 20 years Eleanor Millard has been providing support to grandparents who want to rescue their grandchildren. Year after year, Millard’s phone rings, and an anonymous person on the other end needs help figuring out what the options are for taking a grandchild away from the parents. “They usually say they’re worried about their grandchildren, …
Being Brave
Brave New Words is a forum for writers to be brave and read their work. This season Susanne Hingley is taking the reins from Lauren Tuck.
Seeing the Yukon Through Artists’ Eyes
When painters look at rocks, they see colours like purple, yellow, pink, and red. Colours that seem like not-rock-colours to the rest of us. And when we check out their paintings on the wall, we still might only see “rocks” — we may not notice that the rocks are painted with purple, yellow, pink, and …
Mixing Business With Pleasure: Hiking, biking, and skiing in the Research Forest
Apparently forest bathing is big in Japan. It’s viewed as a way to reduce stress, and it has healing effects. We’re lucky to be encircled by forests, so we’ve got plenty of options of where to forest bathe – which, by the way, is not an activity performed naked. The idea is to leave the …
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Kennedys: Making Waves and Making Headlines
The wild beauty of the Yukon is the décor of our daily lives. But when famous types make a special trip to the Yukon, it’s a reminder that this is a special place. We will soon have a Kennedy in our midst, and it’ll be the second visit from the Kennedy family in nearly 50 …
Tiring the Kids Out: Frog Mountain Music Festival features plenty to keep kids busy on July 27
Frog Mountain Music Festival’s third annual event will feature a diverse program of activities to tire out the youngsters.
The Beauty of Biodiesel
One of these days soon a couple from Chile is going to arrive in Whitehorse, their inter-continental road trip fuelled by vegetable grease from restaurants (see story on page 7). Restaurants have to pay to dispose of that fryer grease, so it shouldn’t be too hard to get some. With any luck they’ll be able …
Local Farmers Need Us to Gobble Their Stuff
When the highway flooded-out last spring it meant that cargo trucks full of food couldn’t deliver their goods to grocery stores. It was a wake-up call that as a whole, we’re pretty dependent on food from hot, foreign places. Still, there are Yukoners with a passion for supplying healthy, chemical-free food produced using sustainable practices. …
Soooo Cute
Some pretty cute babies have been born at the Yukon Wildlife Preserve this spring. There are several sheep lambs, four lynx kittens, a mule deer fawn and a caribou calf. And their cuteness is drawing people out to see them. “Babies are the big hit,” says Marjorie Powers, a volunteer at the preserve. “They all …
A Northern Recipe from a Southern Chef
The Yukon Culinary Festival takes place over the next few days, with an Ontario television personality hosting the five-day showcase of Yukon flavours. Christian Pritchard dishes up what he calls gastrotainment, via television shows, social media, cooking classes, catering, and his website ChrisCooking.com. Pritchard has been the guest chef on various TV shows, including The …
Making New Tracks
In the past 10 years more and more First Nation dance groups have been popping up. People have decided it’s pretty cool to learn their traditional drumming, singing and dancing. Bracken Hanuse Corlett calls it de-colonization. Hanuse Corlett is an audio-visual artist with the group Skookum Sound System, which uses current technology and traditional sounds …
Tooting our Horn of Plenty
For most normal people, an ideal vacation destination includes delicious food experiences. Like in Italy, for example, you can see the art and architecture while fuelled by hand-made gnocchi with Gorgonzola sauce that transcends physical sustenance and becomes a heavenly experience. In the Yukon, people like Miche Genest have been having ethereal experiences with ingredients …
Five Minutes of Fame
Every 10 minutes Ben Barrett-Forrest gets a message on his cell saying that someone in the world is Tweeting about his new video on YouTube. The Whitehorse resident says he’s tempted to shut that function off and just stop paying close attention. But then, he decides to keep riding the rollercoaster of YouTube fame. Who …
For Those Who Love Horses and Helping
A flood of teenagers are about to finish school for the year and descend upon couches across Whitehorse, or wherever teens go. If you’re a parent looking for something productive and community-oriented for your kids 14-years-old and up to do, consider sending them to Freedom Trails Riding Association to volunteer. Freedom Trails offers horse-riding therapy …
Gearing up to Hammer the Trails
If you ride a mountain bike from the 1990s with your kick-around shoes on and some jeans, have no fear, you are welcome at the Contagious Mountain Bike Club (CMBC). Kristina Gardner, treasurer of the club, says everyone is welcome, from beginners to those that go hard and are dialed into the scene. “There are …
This is What They’ve Been Up To: Part 2
It must be a wild ride to work at the Yukon School of Visual Art (SOVA) in Dawson City. This year they had a student bring a horse into the gallery as part of an art project; another student made a set of musical instruments from a bunch of stuff; and many others dug deep …
Don’t Throw that Tea Bag Out
Small things can have a big impact on our lives. Like a used tea bag. Before Nicole Bauberger’s dad passed away, they were just the end product of a nice cup of tea. But then they became a symbol of a life gone too soon; of the dreams we hold on to as time slips …
Making Culinary Art from Local Trees
You know that thing that happens when you taste something and it is so delicious that the experience goes beyond just eating something to this ethereal, transcendental, whole body experience? High-end chefs are always on the hunt for a new source of that experience and according to Whitehorse cook and author Michele Genest, there is a …
Heavy Love
Yukoner Willow Gamberg, left, and Annastasia Fairbanks launched the online magazine Not Your Scene to promote the Vancouver underground heavy music scene. We shouldn’t judge bands such as The Almighty Excruciating Pain, Xenocide and 3 Inches of Blood by how they look and their creepy names. If we do, we won’t get past the macabre …
The Trippy Path Towards a Career in Art
All two-year-olds have the ability to impress a crowd with their drawings. Easy. The real trick is to impress a crowd as we progress into the age of inhibitions, self-censorship, self-doubt and the pressure-to-earn-a-good-living. F.H. Collins Secondary School graduate Dustin Sheldon got his start in art at age two and has continued developing his ability …
Indoor and Outdoor Art
by Tamara Neely There are two opportunities coming up to socialize and pick up some art at bargain prices. Both are fundraisers, both are in Whitehorse and both feature art with heart. The first is the Yukon Artists @ Work’s silent auction on April 5 and 6. The second is the Rendezvous Rotary Club’s Experienced …
Inspirational Stories of Everyday Life
How many times have you felt like you’re in the midst your own particular difficult situation, and then when you hear an inspirational story you think, “Wow, my crappy problem doesn’t seem so bad anymore.” That’s the power of an inspirational story. And on April 4, two Whitehorse residents are going to share their stories …
Pretty, Dreamy Songs in the Sci-Fi Section
They say that plants thrive when played classical music. And humans do pretty well, too. A Whitehorse musician is finding that her twin babies are enraptured with the pretty, dreamy classical songs she has been playing them. Kim Barlow, who is five-and-a-half months pregnant, is performing every second Friday through March and April with Micah …
Learning New Tricks from Older Ladies
Some of the women in the Arctic Blonde Strippers have been practicing their skills for 60 years, maybe more. And some learned the art from their mothers. But these days it’s not as common for moms to teach their daughters how to quilt. Quilting slipped into one of the endangered arts somewhere in the 1980s …
It Takes a Village
As nine-year-old Alexis Crystal Jim focuses on picking up a brilliant blue bead with her sewing needle and fastening it to a piece of hide, the women several decades older than her chat and laugh and sew. And as the time flies by, the little girl soaks up traditional knowledge and the Southern Tutchone language …
The magic of a living room concert
There’s a certain magic in the air when a living room full of people tune their ears, minds and hearts towards a soulful musician. That’s the scene at Barrett and Carol Horne’s place four times per year. And they’re gearing up to host another concert on February 9, when Celtic duo Qristina and Quinn Bachand …
Paintings to Make People Happy
The paintings are harmonious, beautiful and warm Barr says. “They’re not trying to challenge” Modlinski mentored a traditional European style.
Testing Yukon Gold
Four Whitehorse comedians are putting their stand-up routines to a rigourous test this month. They’re aiming for laughs, and if they get silence, or coughs, they’ll know they’ve got to continue tweaking their show. “It’s good to have audiences, because you know instantly if the joke works,” George Maratos says. He’s one quarter of the …
New Show of Portraits Mixes Softness of Beauty with Edge of Reality
There’s a feeling of gentleness and raw humanity to Whitehorse artist Suzanne Paleczny’s portraits, which is an amazing thing considering they are, at their base level, “blobs of colour” on a flat surface. Paleczny’s show of new portraits, on exhibit at the Rah Rah Gallery in Whitehorse until Jan. 2, are oils on canvas — …
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Winterval Event Promises Fun for All Ages and a Hint of Craziness
Last year ESL students were handing out free hugs and kids were crawling all over the snow globes art installation at the Winterval event. With any luck there will be some craziness again this year. The annual celebration of winter — which includes a parade and live entertainment in downtown Whitehorse — is gearing up …
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Visiting Youth Offer A Taste of Mozambican Food and Culture
When nine Mozambican youth arrived at the Whitehorse airport last month, we were basking in temperatures barely below zero. But for the group of Africans leaving their plus 30°C homeland, they were stepping onto frozen ground, they had never seen snow, never seen their breath freeze in the air, never worn a parka… Now armed …
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World Traveler Pops Into the Yukon on His Way Around the Globe. Again.
English adventurer Mike Perham popped into the Yukon Territory on his journey to wrap around the globe three times in the name of adventure and fundraising. Perham, who’s just 20 years old, has already sailed around the world once. By himself. Now he’s driving around the world, and next year he plans to learn how …
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New Free Film-and-Chat Series Has a Place for You on the Couch
It’s a nice feeling when you come up with an idea for good times with people, and you make it happen, and it works. That’s what’s going on with Heather Finton and Bianca Martin right now. They came up with the idea of hosting a series of free film-and-chat nights at the Sundog Retreat and …
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The Highs and Lows of Biking to Work Through the Snow
Riding a bike to work on a frigid winter’s day brings the kind of reward that only those who have done it can really know. But the City of Whitehorse wants to encourage all residents to give it a try and they’re hosting a workshop on winter commuting by bike tonight at 6 p.m. at …
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