Elsie MacGill Awards Honour Top Canadian Women in Aviation
Jasmine Stevens, and Murray
Strom, VP of Flight Operations at Air Canada.
Air Canada introduced a new Indigenous award for male and female students enrolled in post-secondary aviation programs. Called the Indspire Awards. Jasmine Stevens is from Eskasoni First Nation in Nova Scotia.
Pictured here (R to L): Dr. Suzanne Kearns, Education, Maj Alexia Hannam, RCAF, Flight Operations, Kathrine Stewart, Government, Taylor Williams, accepting the Business Award for mother Wendy Taylor, Lyndsey Poynter, Engineering, Capt Mary Cameron-Kelly, RCAF, Pioneer, Lauren Egglestone, Rising Star, Dr. Joelle Thorgrimson, Rising Star, Joy Parker Blackwood, President, Elsie MacGill Northern Lights at the gala event on the evening of Sept. 28. Andy Cline Photo
The presentation began with special awards for young Indigenous women starting their careers in aviation. Jazz and Northern Lights jointly sponsor an award for two recipients, presented by Jazz vice-president of Flight Operations, Steve Linthwaite. The scholarships went to Doris Ipeelee, a student at the First Nations Technical Institute, who was inspired as a child when an RCAF helicopter landed at her elementary school on Canada Day. Another FNTI student, Zoie Michelin from North West River in Labrador, received the other award.
For more information about the organization, awards, and recipients, check out this Skies Magazine article!
Of Planes and Pilots: Guest Post by Anne Gafiuk
“Today, as I read Alis the Aviator with my cousin, Laura, and her 8-year-old nephew, Kyle, the three of us learned more about the different aircraft seen in the skies. We took turns reading about each plane. I told them that when I first started writing about WWII RCAF aviators, I had never heard of a Tiger Moth or a Mosquito. I thought they were flying insects!
As we read through the book, memories of men who I had the honour and privilege of interviewing came to mind. I told Laura and Kyle about them. George Hogg, Mosquito pilot. Bob O’Connor, Mosquito navigator. Hugh McGregor, Lancaster mid-upper gunner. Bob Petersen, Lancaster rear gunner. Cliff Black, Lancaster pilot. Larry Robinson, Lancaster rear gunner. And of course, Gordon Jones, Tiger Moth pilot instructor.
I met other World War II veterans because of Gordon and his Tiger Moth: Rae Churchill, Albemarle and Whitley pilot. Bob Spooner, Tiger Moth instructor then Typhoon pilot.
After reading the book and putting it aside to start the paper airplane craft I brought along with me from Danielle’s book launch at Owl’s Nest Bookstore here in Calgary, I asked Kyle what his favourite plane was from the book. He said it was the Lancaster. He told me that he and his family during their summer trip across the country visited the National Air Force Museum in Trenton, Ontario. He was able to sit in a Hercules. I suggested he visit The Hangar Flight Museum in Calgary and the Bomber Command Museum in Nanton, Alberta to see more planes featured in Alis the Aviator.
My cousin, a teacher (like I used to be), commented to me afterwards how wonderful the book was for school and she was going to recommend it to many of her colleagues who teach Grade 6 Science. Always looking for connections, she thought about reports on each type of aircraft — and then of course, creating paper airplanes.
Alis the Aviator brought back fond memories for me — not just of the Tiger Moth and Gordon Jones, but also of the many men, most no longer with us now, who trusted me with sharing of their wartime stories and experiences.
Anne Gafiuk is a Calgary-based researcher, writer, and personal historian. Check out her work at www.whatsinastory.ca and www.thetyphoonproject.org
Calgary Herald features Alis the Aviator!
“This ABC adventure is all about aviation. The cut paper art is part of the charm of this unique alphabet book. Young readers who love airplanes will learn the A to Z of different kinds of aircraft. A must have for future pilots. “
Q&A with Dene Artist and Author Antoine Mountain
Antoine Mountain has received many awards for his art, community activism, and athletic achievement—including the NWT Premier’s Award, the Queen’s Jubilee Commemorative Medal, the Tom Longboat Award—and was recently inducted in the NWT Sport Hall of Fame. Mountain is currently completing a PhD in Indigenous Studies at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario, but will always call Radelie Koe (Fort Good Hope), Northwest Territories home. From Bear Rock Mountain: The Life and Times of a Dene Residential School Survivor (Touchwood Editions, 2019) is his first book.
A Wholistic Point of View
Indigenous scholars are challenging the academic world from an Indigenous perspective. We’re redesigning the PhD so Indigenous artists can do visuals and stories, and not just written works. A wholistic point of view – much more complete.
DANIELLE METCALFE-CHENAIL IN CONVERSATION WITH ANTOINE MOUNTAIN
Danielle Metcalfe-Chenail: When did you start working on From Bear Rock Mountain?
Antoine Mountain: I started five years ago – in May or June of 2014. I was at a friend of mine’s place in Calgary doing a series of paintings for an art show and somehow there was an image of a young woman that showed up in a painting of the northern lights and I just left it like that. When I woke up the following morning there was news of one of my niece’s daughters that was murdered in Fort Good Hope. So it followed along with the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women’s issue – the urgency of issues like MMIW really pushed me to start.
To read the whole interview, please visit the Hamilton Review of Books page
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