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Archive for February, 2014

Salish Coast LIVE Winter Gathering – Warrior Up! Walk & Feast on Sat Feb 22, 2014

February 23, 2014 Leave a comment

A gathering to honour Tsleil-Waututh culture, land & water in the face of a proposed Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion.

Hosted by the Tsleil-Waututh Nation Sacred Trust, the two-day Salish Coast LIVE Winter Gathering brings together Indigenous and non-Indigenous people to learn about the issues and understand the threats to the Tsleil-Waututh Nation’s Territory and culture. The federal government and National Energy Board are attempting to fast-track the Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion. A Tribe Called Red (the most popular Indigenous music group in Turtle Island) comes to Tsleil-Waututh to stand with us to protect our Territory from tarsands threats.

The Winter Gathering also helps inspire connections between different Coast Salish Nations (from Tsleil-Waututh to Sto:lo to Tswwassen) as well as Urban Indigenous people, non-Indigenous, environmental groups and other opponents of Kinder Morgan. With many speakers the participants over the two days will learn more about Coast Salish People’s spiritual, cultural, and legal rights to the Salish Sea.

Part III: Walk, Paddle & Sacred Fire – Saturday, Feb 22, 1-5pm, Whey-ah-Wichen/Cates Park
An exciting wintery afternoon of programming brings us on the land and water at Whey-ah-Wichen. Directly facing the Kinder Morgan pipeline and oil tanker terminus, a Fire Ceremony will be held with Mike George. Traditional canoes will be on the water with Takaya Tours. A ceremonial 1-hour Walk will lead back to the Tsleil Waututh Community Centre lead by a Tsleil-Waututh youth banner and lead by TWN Elders and members of Council. It is expected 250-300 people will participate.

194th DTES Street Market at Pigeon Park in Vancouver Downtown Eastside (DTES) on Sun Feb 23, 2014

February 23, 2014 Leave a comment

194th DTES Street Market and 8th Street Market of 2014

Roland Clarke, Coordinator of the DTES Street Market says:

 

This was the 194th Street Market on Sunday at Pigeon Park.
The weather was terrible, but we survived. Snowy all day and not a lot of vendors. On the bright side, we survived, and if we had not worked so hard to buy tents then we probably would not have survived at all.
There was a fight in the drinker’s corner around noon, but it was handled fairly rapidly.
A few incidents were handled by the police. Apparently there was a care broken into earlier in the day and some of the stuff ended up at the street market.
We battled the cold and snow, and made a market happen. We should be proud.

 

Cover for 8th street Market

Salish Coast LIVE Winter Gathering – Stop Kinder Morgan Solidarity Night on Fri Feb 21, 2014

February 22, 2014 Leave a comment

A gathering to honour Tsleil-Waututh culture, land & water in the face of a proposed Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion.

Hosted by the Tsleil-Waututh Nation Sacred Trust, the two-day Salish Coast LIVE Winter Gathering brings together Indigenous and non-Indigenous people to learn about the issues and understand the threats to the Tsleil-Waututh Nation’s Territory and culture. The federal government and National Energy Board are attempting to fast-track the Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion. A Tribe Called Red (the most popular Indigenous music group in Turtle Island) comes to Tsleil-Waututh to stand with us to protect our Territory from tarsands threats.

The Winter Gathering also helps inspire connections between different Coast Salish Nations (from Tsleil-Waututh to Sto:lo to Tswwassen) as well as Urban Indigenous people, non-Indigenous, environmental groups and other opponents of Kinder Morgan. With many speakers the participants over the two days will learn more about Coast Salish People’s spiritual, cultural, and legal rights to the Salish Sea.

Part I: Launch Event – Friday, Feb 21, 6-10pm, Vancouver Aboriginal Friendship Centre, East Hastings.

An evening launch event to connect to the language, culture, land and waters of the Tsleil Waututh and Coast Salish Peoples. This will feature a light dinner, plus speakers and breakout sessions on building crosscultural alliances. Learn how settlers to Unceded Coast Salish Territory are standing as allies to defend the Salish Sea.

 

193rd DTES Street Market at Pigeon Park in Vancouver Downtown Eastside (DTES) on Sun Feb 16, 2014

February 16, 2014 Leave a comment

193rd DTES Street Market and 7th Street Market of 2014

Roland Clarke, Coordinator of the DTES Street Market says:

Rain, Wind, and Power

This was the 193nd market at Pigeon Park on Sunday. The weather started off great. A little cold, but no rain, and the rain began slowly around noon. Later in the day, the rain started to really come down and chased away most of the vendors and shoppers.

We had a great gift this weekend with the addition of power.

Thank you again, City of Vancouver!

Our revenue was not stellar for the day, only $215, which represents only 65% of our best single day total. Adjusting, however, for the fact that we had torrential rain in the later half of the day shows how well we can survive inclement whether now that we have many 10×10 canopy tents for our vendors.
Sandi Swanigan from the City of Vancouver Events department came down and opened up the power box for us. There was much rejoicing. Even though we did not advertise it at all, we had many vendors ask to test their chargers, laptops, and monitors throughout the day.

We had two porta potties again this weekend, and they were much used. The report from Jacek (who tries to lock them on Friday morning when they are dropped off) is that there was a line immediately for both bathrooms the moment they were dropped off. This shows anecdotally how high the demand is for bathrooms in the Downtown Eastside.

We had a few encounters with the VPD today. A vendor was taken away in the morning, but no one recognized him, so there was little interest on the part of the volunteers. Also, in the afternoon, a vendor – Ali – had some items confiscated. There is some debate about whether he lives in the DTES, and we probably need to research this.

A good story for the day involve a new RPIC – Chris H – and a female vendor that was shivering in the rain. Chris noticed that she was standing in the rain and walked over to another vendor who had a number of coats for sale. Horatio immediately offered her one of his coats for free. This is the kind of thing that we can all do for each other in the DTES.

0 AHA MEDIA at DTES Street Market on Sun Feb 16 2014 in Vancouver

192nd DTES Street Market at Pigeon Park in Vancouver Downtown Eastside (DTES) on Sun Feb 9, 2014

February 10, 2014 Leave a comment

192nd DTES Street Market and 6th Street Market of 2014

Roland Clarke, Coordinator of the DTES Street Market says:

This was the 192nd market at Pigeon Park on Sunday. We are always proud of this number because it represents the DTES Street Market as one of the longest running events in DTES history.

We had two porta potties this weekend!

Thank you, City of Vancouver!

By the end of the day, the first one was completely full and clogged like normal, but the second one was still usable. Progress!

It was again great weather for Vancouver in the winter. Cloudy, cold, but no rain.

We had no major incidents throughout the day, and most of the volunteers showed up as they promised.

The police interaction during the day was very positive. We had a visit from Mark Bradshaw, who was friendly and cracked some jokes as usual.

Later in the day, we asked two officers to help with the erratic couple that we frequently have problems with. The woman that likes smoking meth openly in the market fired one up in front of everyone. The volunteers tried to get her to be respectful of the families and children that may be walking by, but she just denied it and argued with the volunteers. The police were flagged down and helped us move them out of the market. The police were helpful and just stood around while the couple packed up, and therefore assisted the volunteers immensely. The couple were told that they could come back to the market next week, but had to leave today. They left peacefully. Hopefully this is a new era of cooperation between the VPD and the DTES Street Market!

We also had a celebrity visit from MaryClare Zak from the City of Vancouver. She wandered around the market and spoke to a few of our volunteers. She had nice things to say, and I hope that it showed how proud the volunteers were of their work.

DJ did outreach for the DNC at the market, and polled a number of vendors on their opinions of the DTES LAP process. She will present these findings at our next board meeting.

We had good sales again. Sold out of Coffee and Hot Chocolate at about 1:30pm.

AHA MEDIA sees 192nd DTES Street Market in Vancouver on Sun Feb 9 2014