New residency to send Indigenous artists undersea to Titanic wreckage
CBC
An initiative to send two Indigenous artists to the Titanic site is aiming to help commemorate the site and raise interest among Indigenous people in maritime careers.
"It's very important that the expedition captures the last days of the Titanic as it slowly dissipates," said Shayne McDonald, director of Miawpukek Horizon Maritime Services, a joint business venture between Miawpukek First Nation and Horizon Maritime Services that offers marine services like tugboats and subsea cable repair and maintenance.
"It's a unique story in history, and as we keep it alive, we keep alive the stories of the individuals that died on the voyage."
More than 1,500 people died when the passenger ship sank off the coast of Newfoundland in 1912. The wreckage was discovered in 1985 but over time the sunken ship is eroding.
The artist residency project is a partnership between Miawpukek Horizon Maritime Services and OceanGate, a submersible charter company that offers expeditions to the Titanic site.
McDonald, a band councillor with Miawpukek First Nation, a Mi'kmaw community in Newfoundland 553 kilometres west of St. John's, will work with the community's chief, Mi'sel Joe, to help ensure the artists are connected to an Indigenous community.
The artists will join an eight-day expedition this summer from St. John's to the Titanic site, about 750 kilometres off the coast, and are to create an artwork based from the journey.
McDonald said he thinks it will be great for the artists to be exposed to the marine research.
"We're quite excited for the project and quite excited that it offers up opportunities for Indigenous artists," said McDonald.
Jasmine Saunders, business manager for Miawpukek Horizon Maritime Services, said the project is another opportunity for the company to engage with Indigenous people.
"It's something that is really rewarding, to provide these opportunities where they might not have had the chance otherwise," said Saunders.
She said she hopes programs like this introduce Indigenous people to maritime careers.
The Canadian government has lost in court — again — to a First Nations grandmother fighting to fix extensive mould at her home on Oneida Nation of the Thames, near London, Ont.
Indigenous community members in British Columbia say they are celebrating after OneBC said it had removed MLA Dallas Brodie as its party leader.
Before NASA astronaut Sally Ride’s historic launch aboard the space shuttle in 1983 as the first American woman in space, she was asked a question: Would 100 tampons be the right number for her week-long mission?
Ashley Stevens has scars inside and out from her time in an Ontario jail.
Winnipeg resident John Ruhland first began taking medication for his depression in 2000 when a period of enormous stress — both at work and in his personal life — landed him in the hospital.
A group of young adults from Cumberland House Cree Nation travelled to British Columbia in November to take part in a program designed help them develop the skills needed to succeed should they decide to move away from their home northeast of Saskatoon.
In just a few short months, Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen will make history.
Chiefs from Treaty 8 First Nations of Alberta are calling for a pause on the pipeline memorandum of understanding until they are consulted and sign off on the potential project. And they're threatening legal action if that doesn't happen.
When dolphins swam onto the scene during a study on northern resident orcas off the coast of B.C., at least one researcher admitted to being a little annoyed.
Researchers say there's been a dramatic rise in the number of people going on medications to treat attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder in Ontario, suggesting factors such as more time spent online and the rise of private assessments for the mental condition could be behind the increase.
Baby, it’s cold outside — but it’s worth putting on that heavy winter coat, scarf and boots and heading out for one of the best meteor showers of the year: the Geminids.
Health officials are reminding Canadians to maintain healthy habits during the holiday season, as influenza leads to more school absences and hospitalizations.
For 40 years, staff at Nova Scotia's Annapolis Royal Historic Gardens thought their ginkgo tree was male.