Aboriginal Awareness Days & Pow Wow at York U
The Native Cultural Arts Museum earns Recognized Museum Status
Aboriginal Awareness Days & Pow Wow at York U
First Nations dancers in colourful regalia opened Aboriginal Awareness Days and Pow Wow at York University on March 1st. The three-day celebration featured traditional singing and dancing, dramatic performances, workshops and film.
“Honouring Our Women” was the theme for the fifth annual event, organized by the Aboriginal Students Association at York and the Office of Aboriginal Student Community. Elder Jacqui Lavalley, a student in the Master in Environmental Studies program at York, opened the event with a prayer and song. Following the opening ceremonies there was a screening of “A Shot in the Dark,” a film about Ipperwash and the death of Dudley George – a thesis project by Pamela Matthews, who recently graduated from York’s Master of Fine Arts program.
Aboriginal Awareness Days and Pow Wow concluded on March 3rd with a traditional pow wow, which was held for the first time in the beautiful rotunda of Vari Hall.
York University is the leading interdisciplinary research and teaching university in Canada. York offers a modern, academic experience at the undergraduate and graduate level in Toronto, Canada’s most international city.
The third largest university in the country, York is host to a dynamic academic community of 50,000 students and 7,000 faculty and staff, as well as 190,000 alumni worldwide. York’s 11 faculties and 23 research centres conduct ambitious, groundbreaking research that is interdisciplinary, cutting across traditional academic boundaries.
This distinctive and collaborative approach is preparing students for the future and bringing fresh insights and solutions to real-world challenges. York University is an autonomous, not-for-profit corporation.
The Native Cultural Arts Museum earns Recognized Museum Status
Granted Designation within First Year of Museum Affirmation Program
The Native Cultural Arts Museum is one of the latest museums in Alberta to receive the Recognized Museum designation from the Alberta Museums Associa-tion. The museum earned this designation after participating in the Museum Affirmation Pro-gram, a new initiative designed to strengthen the Association’s accountability toward the public funds it distributes through grants and programming to the province’s museums.
“The Alberta Museums Association is pleased to present the Recognized Museum standing to the Native Cultural Arts Museum. The Native Cultural Arts Museum worked very hard to reach this goal. They showed dedication in taking part in a program which will undoubtedly raise the standards for Alberta museums,” said Executive Director, Gerry Osmond.
The Native Cul-tural Arts Museum has been provided with the Recognized Museum logo to display at their museum. To earn this designation, the museum
provided a panel of museum professionals with evidence demonstrating how they are meeting the internationally recognized definition of a museum.
Starting in the summer of 2007, visitors to Alberta’s museums can begin looking for the Recognized Museum logo.