Encircling Light Conference Update

As of this update there are 123 participants in total, from 12 countries. Included in this number are 87 participants from across Canada: British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, and Nova Scotia, with 3 participants from the Yukon.

Please go to the What’s New slot under the Home link for current developments in forming the Conference. Whitehorse pianist, Barry Kitchen, has volunteered his services for the Encircling Light in Movement performance on Monday, August 3rd, and Yukon singer/songwriter Joe Bishop will highlight our closing evening on Saturday, August 8th, in company with other local musicians.

Workshop #13 – Towards a Christ Relation to Nature has one place left. Workshop #1 (The Calendar of the Soul in the North) and Workshop #5 (Indigenous Sensibility and the North) have only a few places left. And on May 1st the Riverview Hotel will release the rooms not yet taken by Conference participants. June 1st is the release date for the High Country Inn. So please register if you do intend to take part in the Conference. Registration will close on May 31st.

Some more reading suggestions:
The Inuit Imagination: Arctic Myth and Sculptures, by Harold Seidelman & James Turner (Douglas & McIntyre: 2001). This work is a fine weaving together of art works and storytelling, giving a remarkable insight into the being of the Inuit.

Stories Told: Stories & Images of the Berger Inquiry, by Patrick Scott (The Qedzo Institute, 2007: ISBN 9-780973-884517). Patrick Scott has gathered together a number of the Dene and Inuit voices and stories that sounded during the 1975 Berger Inquiry concerning the proposed gas pipeline through the Mackenzie River Valley, at a time when the pipeline project is being revisited.

The Arctic Grail: The Quest for the North West Passage and the North Pole, 1818 - 1909, by Pierre Berton (McClelland and Stewart, 1988). This is the other work by Canada’s classic storyteller that is worth reading in preparation for our week in Whitehorse.