History Archives - Page 7 of 11 - Marja-Leena Rathje

by Marja-Leena

BC’s Finnish settlers

Nordic Spirit: Early Finnish Settlements in B.C.
A gallery presentation of over 100 moving historical images depicting the life
and times of the early Finnish settlers on the West Coast
Clinton Hall
Finn Slough
Sointula
Webster’s Corner
and others

Saturday, March 29, & Sunday March 30, 2008
11 to 4 p.m.
Scandinavian Community Centre
6540 Thomas Street, Burnaby, B.C.
Sponsored by:
Finnish Heritage Society
Scandinavian Cultural Society
Finland House Society

As an immigrant myself, I’m looking forward to seeing this exhibition. (Links are mine, plus I’ve added a couple more below for any interested readers.) I’ve been doing casual study of Finnish emigration over the years. As some readers know, in the 1950’s I came to Winnipeg, Manitoba as a child with my family. Though there were struggles, they were relatively easier times than that experienced by the large numbers of early pioneers from Europe in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

More links:
The Finnish Connection in Gibsons
Finland – A Land of Emigrants*

Addendum April 14, 2008: Please read about the story of one Finnish family’s experience immigrating and settling here!

(* link has expired)

March 25, 2008 in Canada and BC, Finland, Estonia & Finno-Ugric, History by Marja-Leena 7 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

Looking back: Joulupukki

Isn’t it fascinating how the Santa Claus figure has evolved in different countries? In Finland, the jolly fellow is called ‘Joulupukki’ and his home is on Korvatunturi Mountain, in Finnish Lapland. (Some links have since died, sorry.)

Recently, I read a fascinating article concerning the possible source of the name Joulupukki, which means literally ‘Jule goat’. Eventually he evolved into the American style Santa, who, surprise! was designed by the son of Finnish emigrant, Haddon Sudblom. Enjoy the reads, and have fun getting ready for Christmas!

UPDATE Dec.23rd, 2007 – Just read this in our weekend paper: Never mind the North Pole: Santa’s in Lapland, by Polish student Grzegorz Wieclaw.

December 19, 2007 in Culture, Finland, Estonia & Finno-Ugric, Folk Legends & Myths, History by Marja-Leena 6 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

Range Creek Canyon art

It’s been awhile since I wrote about rock art…

Many of us know about the fantastic collections of native rock art in Utah, USA. The quality and quantity of beautiful rock art in the Range Creek Canyon of Utah first sparked my interest when I read an article in the August 2006 issue of National Geographic magazine. It’s an interesting story…

For 50 years Utah cattle rancher Waldo Wilcox protected an astounding collection of artifacts left by the prehistoric Fremont culture–including countless panels of rock art. “The Indian stuff? My father always said to leave it alone,” he says. Which he did–and more. By gating the road to his property near the mouth of Range Creek Canyon, he blocked access to tens of thousands of acres of unspoiled backcountry where the Fremont had farmed, hunted game, and gathered wild plants from about A.D. 400 until their culture mysteriously disappeared almost a thousand years later. Ready to retire, Wilcox sold his land in 2001. The state of Utah, its current owner, is now responsible for managing the future of this priceless legacy.

Check out the amazing examples of work in the photo gallery.

Fremont petroglyphs at McKee Springs, Utah. Photograph by Ira Block, National Geographic

Today, I came across an update on the current situation in Range Creek Canyon in an article and excellent video at Remote Central, an archaeology and anthropology blog by Tim Jones that I’ve been following for some time.

By the way, there’s another interesting article in Tim’s blog on a subject I’ve written about several times: Fungus Once Again Threatens Lascaux Cave Paintings.

December 17, 2007 in History, Rock Art & Archaeology by Marja-Leena 4 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

Sagrada Família in danger

I still remember well my art school days and the many hours of Art History classes, viewing thousands of slides of art and architecture, sometimes sleepily but often excited. The courses were taken by students of art, architecture and interior design. Architecture has always interested me and Antoni Gaudi’s fantastic creations fascinated me. I still have only seen them in pictures.

La Sagrada Família, a basilica in Barcelona, Spain is one of those incredible projects. The building is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Still unfinished after 40 years, it is now in danger of being destroyed by the construction of a tunnel for a high speed train going underneath!

I find it incredibly shocking and disheartening to hear about developers destroying art works. I think of the vast area of incredible aborigine rock art of the Burrup peninsula in Australia currently threatened by gas developers as another example.

There’s a campaign to stop the construction and even a YouTube film of what the potential disaster may look like.

Thanks to Viides Rooli (in Finnish) for the link.

October 31, 2007 in Culture, History, Other artists by Marja-Leena 9 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

dying languages

Image credit: Enduring Voices Project

Finnish was my first language. I was five years old when my family emigrated to Canada. Arriving in Winnipeg, I was promptly placed in school, not knowing a word of English. Now that was language immersion! I don’t remember much of those early scary days. I was already reading Finnish and we continued to speak Finnish at home. I learned English quickly enough as children do, but my parents’ English was never perfect. LIke many working class immigrants, they were too busy working hard to survive to take more than a couple of basic language classes. Some immigrant parents, wishing to learn English through their children, did not allow their native languages to be spoken so some of my friends lost most of their mother tongue. I’m sure this was typical of many immigrant experiences in North America and other parts. These days, I’m sad that my Finnish is not a strong as English from lack of everyday practice since my parents are no longer with us.

Perhaps because of that, I’ve developed strong feelings about language being part of a person’s identity and connection with his or her roots and culture. So whenever I read about how many languages are dying around the world, I feel sorrow at the world’s loss of so many cultures.

Yesterday’s Vancouver Sun has one such story, B.C.’s native languages rapidly dying: linguists

Indigenous languages are dying off at an alarming rate in British Columbia, prompting linguists to include the province on a list of the five worst global “hot spots” for language extinction. Most fluent aboriginal speakers are aged 60 or older, and their languages will be lost forever when the last speaker dies, said David Harrison, co-director of the Enduring Voices project, which seeks to document and revitalize languages slipping towards oblivion.

and…

Much of the blame for language loss can be tied to residential schools, UBC linguistics Prof. Suzanne Gessner said. For decades, children were taken away from their families during the school year and educated in English. A compensation package designed to address the wrongs of residential schools did nothing to revitalize languages, she said — and last November, the federal government cut $160 million in funding for aboriginal languages.

Further links:
Enduring Voices Project
Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages
Why preserve languages? – my post of spring 2004

September 20, 2007 in Culture, Ethnicity, History, Linguistics by Marja-Leena 6 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

Sámi cultural heritage project

On a recent visit to Arkeo Net**, a Finnish portal for archaeological and prehistoric information, I found an interesting, informative and beautifully designed website: Recalling Ancestral Voices, concerning the repatriation of Sámi cultural heritage.

Recalling Ancestral Voices is a project dedicated to recording the material cultural heritage of the Sámi. The project was launched in April 2006 and will end in November 2007. In Finland, the Sámi Museum Siida is participating in the project, in Sweden, the Ájtte Museum in Sweden and Varanger Sámi Museum in Norway. The project is part of Interreg III, which is funded by the European Union.

The site is presented in Sámi, Finnish, Swedish and English, with detailed information about the project, the issue of repatriation common to all indigenous people, the people involved in the project, the artefacts and much more.

As some readers may know, I’ve been interested for quite some time in learning about this branch of the Finno-Ugric poeple so this is welcome information. Here are some related earlier posts:

the Sámi and the Siida Centre
about Baiki, the magazine about the Sámi in Alaska and North America
photographs of the Sámi by Pekka Antikainen
some Sámi music
a Sámi and Inuit art exhibition, initiated by the Hamilton Art Gallery and now at the Winnipeg Art Gallery, both in Canada
and the North American Sámi culture and news blog Árran

(Image: Shaman drum, Sweden – from Ancestral Voices)

Later note: One small criticism though – I wish active links had been posted, such as to the various museums mentioned.
** Arkeo.net no longer exists, sadly

June 29, 2007 in Anthropology, Finland, Estonia & Finno-Ugric, History by Marja-Leena Comments Off on Sámi cultural heritage project

by Marja-Leena

Portraits of Women

A superb collection of portraits of women from about the past 500 years. I love how the expressions melt from one face to another, set to the lovely cello music. I recognize many of the famous faces. Well done!

Thanks to Dave Bonta for this wonderful tip!

Update Nov. 19th, 2008: A list of the artists and paintings

Check out the Male Self-Portraits by the same creator, Philip Scott Johnson.

May 29, 2007 in History, Other artists by Marja-Leena 5 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

International Women’s Day 2007

Today we are celebrating the achievements of women around the world on this International Women’s Day. It’s an important way to remember the struggles of women who fought for equality for their sisters and coming generations of women. My own gratitude and thanks to all women!

Canada is well-known for its human rights and the rights and equality of women. Yet there are still problems with violence against women whether they are prostitutes or wives of abusers. This day is also a reminder that there are still severe problems in many parts of the world. Read Where the equality gaps still exist.

Finland is noted for being the first European nation to grant women the right to vote and to hold a seat in Parliament. Learn more about Finland’s parliament: pioneer of gender equality.

Image above: the colours of IWD, with some controversy about the white.

March 8, 2007 in Current Events, History by Marja-Leena 4 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

OriginsNet

Chauvet. Owl, engraved in mud. (c. 28-30,000 BC)
Photo © Chauvet, J-M., Brunel Deschamps, E., and Hillaire, C. (1995). Dawn of Art, The Chauvet Cave: The Oldest Known Paintings in the World. New York: Abrams.

Reader Bill, knowing my interest in prehistoric art, recently sent me a link to a very informative website. OriginsNet is about Researching the Origins of Art, Religion, & Mind. The oldest period, predating early Paleolithic, is called Oldowan, a new term for me (an interested amateur). There’s a great deal of research material presented, but naturally the photographs interested me the most. In particular, the gallery of Upper Paleolithic Art is stunning with its exceptional quality photos of pictographs from famous sites like Lascaux, Chauvet, Altamira and others. The above image, which I’ve borrowed, struck me for NOT being a pictograph, but instead it’s engraved in mud.

James Harrod, the site manager, is a scholar specializing in prehistoric art, religion and semiotics. He argues that by the time of the Magdalenian, there appears to be a religious symbol system in which four animal symbols, horse, bison, ibex and deer, are structured in a complementarity relationship or ‘quaternion’. Once utilized in such a semiotic system, the animal symbols can function as a complex, multi-leveled mnemonic device, an ‘encyclopedia’ of Magdalenian social and naturalist knowledge and spiritual values.

Fascinating. Thanks, Bill!

February 21, 2007 in History, Rock Art & Archaeology by Marja-Leena 6 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

Dream Anatomy

Aboriginal “x-ray style” figure. Kakadu National Park, Northern Territory, Australia. Rock painting, ca. 6000 B.C.E. © Archivo Iconografico, S.A./Corbis

Hot on the heels of our most interesting visit a week ago to BodyWorlds, I’ve just come across in my bookmarks another anatomy based exhibition online, called Dream Anatomy. Put together by the US National LIbrary of Medicine, it is a more traditional and historical exhibition that demonstrates how the study of anatomy melded science and art. There are many interesting pages to peruse and a large gallery of images to view.

My own interest in prehistoric art and culture is piqued by this page which includes the above image:

Fascination with the interior of the body goes back to the dawn of humanity. The ancient Egyptians had specialized knowledge in some areas of human anatomy, which they used in mummification and, to a limited degree, surgery. Even before the advent of large organized cultures, prehistoric peoples performed rituals with remains that indicate familiarity with gross anatomy. Because they hunted and slaughtered large animals for food, the Inuit and Australian aborigines, developed a detailed knowledge of mammalian anatomy, and a complex vocabulary of anatomical terms, which they applied to animals and humans. Rock paintings dating back to the Neolithic in Europe, Africa, and Australia show schematic and expressive representations of the human interior, as do some European, Islamic and Asian pre-modern manuscripts.

And of course, as a printmaker I enjoyed reading about the technologies of anatomical representation, which mentions the use of many printmaking techniques.

January 14, 2007 in Art Exhibitions, History, Printmaking by Marja-Leena Comments Off on Dream Anatomy

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