Join the annual Winter Solstice Lantern Festival online and share your homemade creations as we zoom into a new world of virtual connection and community building.
The Secret Lantern Society is not only pivoting but “pirouetting joyfully”. Join them in celebrating with:
an interactive Lantern Dance Party
a virtual walk through the Labyrinth of Light
dark tales of solstices past
live music
headdress-making with plants
astonishing astronomy
and you!
The annual Festival exists to celebrate the ways in which cultures around the world honour the return of the sun: in a single night, members of various First Nations groups and the Chinese, Persian, Ukrainian, Southeast Asian, Japanese, African, Middle Eastern and European communities of Vancouver all participate. This diversity is reflected among performers and participants alike; their vitality and imagination are integral to our celebration.
More Content Online, Anytime
When everything changed in the blink of an eye, Secret Lantern Society artists stayed home and developed a series of cool workshop videos to help the public create lanterns, headdresses, and sun-coloured foods in the warmth and safety of their own homes. Check out the videos on the Secret Lantern Youtube channel.
The Secret Lantern Society celebrates art, culture, beauty and light through the annual Winter Solstice Lantern Festival and various community events. It was incorporated in 2001 to develop the annual Winter Solstice Lantern Festival created in 1994 by Founding Artistic Director Naomi Singer. This free, inclusive and non-denominational event is celebrated in multiple Vancouver neighbourhoods, with an average of 8,000 annual participants.
Canuck Place Gives Short Lives the Chance to Shine
North Vancouver’s Mireille Larosa and Martin Archambault were alarmed when seven-month-old baby Charles had what would be the first of many tonic-clonic seizures that lasted 30 minutes.
In shock and complete disbelief, they found themselves at Children’s Hospital in the neurosurgery ward, where they were introduced to Canuck Place Children’s Hospice Medical Director, Dr. Hal Siden, and it was in that moment that everything changed. Not only were they faced with the gravity of Charles’ diagnosis with Alper’s Syndrome, a rare and incurable mitochondrial disorder, they were given a saving grace that would keep their family whole during their darkest moments.
“Pediatric palliative care is complex and uncertain and has to be approached as both an art and science,” says Dr. Siden. “The magic of Canuck Place is that we see and recognize the unpredictable, that uncertainty, and we lead with a gentle therapeutic approach that respects the uniqueness of every family’s situation.”
The family, including older brother William, went to Canuck Place directly after being referred from Children’s Hospital. While staying in-hospice, Canuck Place nurses and doctors cared for the whole family and ensured they had the strength and skills to manage Charles’ complex medical care at home.
“I knew I could fully trust them to take care of baby Charles. I could sleep, read a book, spend time with William and Martin and bring back a sense of normal even if only momentarily,” says Mireille. “Canuck Place nurses cared for me wholeheartedly too, they empowered me and taught me so much.”
In addition to the complex medical care they received both in-hospice and in-home through the 24-hour clinical careline, the family also received invaluable grief and bereavement support from Canuck Place counsellors.
“The terminal diagnosis of our sweet baby Charles shattered me to my core. Canuck Place counsellors helped me navigate my new reality, guide me, ground me, and by extension my family, as our world fell apart,” says Mireille.
Every light is precious, no matter how long it shines. Baby Charles’ light, with his beautiful golden hair, and his big brown joyful eyes, shone bright and touched the lives of many. The Canuck Place clinical team helped the Archambault-Larosas create lasting memories that are now priceless reminders of a life lived.
“The day Charles passed away, William had an excursion to a farm with Canuck Place recreational therapists, and brought back a sunflower for Charles. To this day, sunflowers have a special meaning for us,” says Martin.
There is a sense of isolation that comes from caring for a terminally ill child. Death and grieving of a child are unthinkable. Canuck Place makes dying a part of living; they honour a family’s individual grief journey, which reduces suffering and helps the whole family live well after the child has passed.
“To all the donors, no amount of words can explain how important Canuck Place is to our family,” says Martin. “The care we received allowed us to get through the toughest time of our lives. We are stronger than ever as a couple, and William has made new, joyful memories of baby Charles with his younger brother Theo.”
For 25 years, Canuck Place Children’s Hospice has been providing exceptional complex medical care, while helping children and families embrace living fully with the time they have left together. But not without donor support. Light a life this holiday season for Canuck Place children like Charles. Light the way. Give today.
Follow Canuck Place on Facebook and Twitter for more information.
The SFU Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (“FASS”) has announced the scholars selected for the 2020-21 Jack and Doris Shadbolt Fellowship in the Humanities Program: Otoniya Juliane Okot Bitek, Eden Robinson, Fabian Romero, and prOphecy sun.
SFU’s 2020-21 Shadbolt Fellows
The Shadbolt Fellows will engage with Metro Vancouver communities through exhibits, performances, artworks, workshops and events that realize FASS’s values of advancing reconciliation; equity, diversity and inclusion; and collaboration.
Otoniya Juliane Okot Bitek — an Acholi poet whose collected published poetry and essays provide revelatory new insights into, and narratives of, war and processes of reconciliation based on a deeply-rooted cultural understanding of the practices of storytelling.
Eden Robinson — a Haisla and Heiltsuk novelist who is currently working on the final stages of the last book in her Trickster trilogy.
Fabian Romero — an Indigenous community-based artist and filmmaker from Mexico who lives in Washington State. Romero brings a depth to their work formed from their own struggle as a Purepécha non-binary youth activist.
prOphecy sun — a Canadian emerging artist scholar who has an accomplished record of scholarship, research-creation, experimentation and teaching experience in the arts sector. She has co-authored several peer-reviewed book chapters on installation, sound art, film and domestic spaces.
Meet the Fellows Online Discussion
Join the Shadbolt Fellows in a panel discussion moderated by Stephen Collis (Professor, SFU Department of English) and June Scudeler (Assistant Professor, SFU Indigenous Studies).
When: Wednesday, January 27, 2021 at 6:00pm Where: Online Tickets:Free with registration
The program increases the visibility of the contributions of the humanities and arts to the university community. It also engages the wider community through publicly involved scholarship and creativity.
Miss604 is the proud Blog Sponsor of VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation in 2020. The following has been contributed by their team.
Before Nick Kanaan was even born, tests from his mother’s amniotic fluid determined Nick had cystic fibrosis, an inherited disorder that had already claimed two of his sisters’ lives, and would leave Nick fighting for his own life in 2019.
Throughout the years Nick managed the disease with daily medications. Then in October 2017, Nick started having difficulty breathing and was hospitalized for two and a half months. Although he would eventually be discharged and in stable condition, Nick’s lungs would never fully recover.
Gasping for air
Fast-forward. January 2019. After more than a year of regular check-ups, tests have determined Nick’s lungs are steadily declining, and he is desperately in need of a lung transplant.
Nick would keep taking his daily medications, hoping to find a match before his lungs got worse. But before long, Nick caught a lung infection. He would spend several nights coughing up blood at home before being hospitalized.
Time was slipping away. And so Nick was transferred to Vancouver General Hospital (“VGH”) — the only hospital in B.C. able to perform a special surgery that would buy him vital time.
Nick Kanaan suffered from cystic fibrosis since birth. One day, medications were no longer enough and Nick nearly died. It was only after receiving the life-saving ECMO machine was he able to survive long enough for a double-lung transplant at VGH.
A life-saving bridge to surgery
At VGH, Nick was placed on ECMO, a portable, donor-funded, heart-lung machine that oxygenates the blood and reinfuses it into the body, essentially taking over the role of breathing and allowing Nick’s lungs to rest. The procedure was a success, buying precious time while Nick waited for a lung donor.
Three and a half weeks later a match was found. Dr. John Yee of VGH performed the double-lung transplant. Nick awoke two days later, breathing on his own with a new set of lungs.
Going home
Following his surgery, Nick’s recovery was guided by teams of medical experts at VGH.
“Recovery after the transplant was one of the – if not the – most challenging parts of this journey,” says Nick. “I essentially had to learn how to move every part of my body, I had to learn how to breathe, I had to learn how to eat, I had to learn how to stand, sit, walk. This was painful and exhausting in every way.”
Today, Nick is nearly back to living his normal life. He still has to take it slow and he can’t lift heavy objects, but he can safely chase his nearly three-year-old daughter, Ameera, around the house.
“For the first time in my life I laid on Nick’s chest and I listened to him take in these deep, wonderful breaths,” says his wife Lindsay. “I can’t describe that feeling.”
Nick Kanaan, Lindsay Kanaan, and their daughter Meera.
Honour Your Angel
We all have Angels in our lives. This year Nick is honouring Dr. John Yee and the medical team at VGH who helped save his life. Join Nick in honouring your Angel this holiday season.
Your donation will help fund the most urgent needs of our health care system, providing the best and most specialized health care for you and your loved ones when you need it most.
Settle in for cozy nights at home, watching virtual entertainment and then perhaps bundling into the car with your household to view some drive through holiday light displays. Find this and more things to do in Vancouver (virtually) this weekend below:
