Profiles
Creative Space
Whatever we create, the environment we are in leaves an imprint on our work. Many artists crave isolation during the creative process, but some encourage outsiders to interrupt and even influence the direction of the pieces. Six northern BC artists discuss their creative spaces and what makes them so significant to the work they produce.
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Revolving Doors
What happens when you come to a place temporarily and never leave? Or when you leave everything behind and venture out to northern BC for a job, but it doesn’t pan out? As our economy becomes increasingly reliant on transient workers, Dan Mesec investigates the temporary world in our half of the province.
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Beginnings
Check out Northword's latest publication, a collection of northern stories and amazing images.
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Cultural Conservation: A Tahltan fights to preserve his first nation’s language
It’s a well-worn cliché that the Inuit have dozens of words for snow.
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“It’s All About the Caribou” How the Gwaii Haanas Agreement inspired a national park
John “Muffa” Kudlak was born and raised in Paulatuk, NWT, a hamlet of just over 300 residents and one of the most northerly permanent settlements on the Canadian mainland.
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Orchestra North: summer music program is serious fun
The audience hushes as the conductor and co-director stride down the aisle. At the front of the room, the orchestra members fall quiet.
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The Unplanned Exodus: Smithers opens doors for refugee families
Every morning, Akram Khalil and Montaha Awil awake to social media.
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Forging Into the Past: Camp worker re-ignites a family tradition in blacksmithing
“Hey, does that smithy work?” Curtis Hampton asked a summer student at Terrace’s Heritage Park Museum three years ago.
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Drinking in the North: A celebration of northern libations
Raise a glass to the little guys. Over the past few decades, the number of small-scale producers of beer and wine in BC has grown dramatically.
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Leadership Development on the Land
It was more than a decade ago that I was backpacking in the remote and isolated Spatsizi in the heat of the day and the weight of the pack was taking its toll.
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Tumbler Ridge wins Global Geopark status. What’s next for northern BC’s geological mecca?
Folks in Tumbler Ridge aren’t strangers to uncertainty. Perhaps that’s why a delegation at the sixth International UNESCO Conference on Global Geoparks in Saint John, NB wasn’t going to celebrate until they heard the name they were waiting for: Tumbler Ridge Global Geopark.
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Stone women: The water girls
what is it with us water girls always looking for the current in the current, the secret in the water that is the water…
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A nose in the snow: How avalanche dogs are making the northern backcountry safer
Stewart-based Canadian Avalanche Rescue Dog Association (CARDA) handler Bree Stefanson remembers the first time she and her four-legged companion responded to an avalanche independently.
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Small Town Love: Rekindling the romance with our local businesses
Ever been to Yarn and Sew On?
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Northern landscapes on the big screen: Local filmmakers raise awareness through imagery
In a place where our day-to-day lives are lived between a vast network of grand landscapes, it’s easy to appreciate the North’s natural environment.
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Artists put creative talent toward social justice
A crowd files through the narrow entrance to the Old Church in Smithers, one by one unpeeling layers of sweaters and coats that protected them from the cold.
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Tumbler Ridge: Canada’s newest geopark?
Tumbler Ridge was founded over 30 years ago on a single resource: coal.
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The Art and Science of Ski Making
James Fisher’s shop is a thing to behold. It dwarfs his house in downtown Smithers and is immaculate, despite the faint smell of epoxy.
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Coming out of the cave—Finding my diabetic tribe in the North
The chairlift seat sways gently as it whisks me up the hill. I lower the safety bar and catch my breath. Those steep runs through powder burn tons of calories! It’s time to check my blood-sugar level.
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Lost in definition Art lives in Smithers
The creative process is a great and beautiful mystery.
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Meeting Mountains: Kitwanga wilderness camp hosts international students
What does a teenager from India have in common with a teenager from Peru or a First Nations youth from northern British Columbia?
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One hundred years wiser Reflecting on our joint kungax during Smithers’ centennial
In the Witsuwit’en language, “yin tah” is the word for “land,” but it carries more weight and more context than its English equivalent.
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The World’s Largest Fly Rod: A true community art project
In the 1980s, tourism promoters in British Columbia encouraged cities and towns to develop a roadside attraction or landmark that would draw visitors.
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The House that Rick Built: back to the land along the Stikine
After spending the winter of 1972 in a tipi north of Terrace, Rick and Barb McCutcheon were looking for somewhere to set up a permanent homestead.
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At the Wheel: Prince Rupert gets a brewery
Prince Rupert gets a bad rap for its weather. The North Coast town is like the geeky kid in a schoolyard—often overlooked. But, also like that geeky kid, the town is full of hidden talents. When you look beyond its weather, Rupert is a truly spectacular place. Its air is fresh, clean, and invigorating—even breathing here feels good. Its water is clean and tasty, too, though its tannic colouring might suggest otherwise. And its people—those residents who choose to call Rupert home—are among the friendliest, happiest, and most welcoming people around. Three of those people are now poised to do something that will go down in Rupert history: they’re going to open a brewery.
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The Accidental Activist: how a back-woods crew of local yokels mobilized the North.
When faced with environmental threats, community advocates became environmental activists. They've won the battle for the Sacred Headwaters, but their biggest fight may be yet to come.
READ MORE➦Winter 2018-19: Slow
Slow repairs, slow pace, slow recovery, and much more.
