Author Archives: Todd

Food: Phnom Pehn – great food, cheap prices… perfect for post-paddling appetites

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Food:  Phnom Pehn – great food, cheap prices… perfect for post-paddling appetites


Our dragon boat team is really a food club.  Paddling is just an
excuse to work up an appetite.  During the 2006 paddling season
from April to October, we have gone Japanese, Chinese, Irish,
Vietnamese, South Asian… even Burger King.  We have tried frog
legs at the Phnom Pehn and kangaroo at the Locust.  We have even
wrapped our own home made haggis won ton for our Gung Haggis dragon boat team end-of-season wrap-up party.

But one of our favourite restaurants is the Phnom Pehn, tucked away on
Georgia Street on the outskirts of  Vancouver Chinatown. 
Over the summer we had some great dinners.  Sometimes we had two
tables full of paddlers, sometimes one table.  But the food,
service and company was always good, even if the restaurant is always
crowded and we had to wait for a table.

Tonight, some of our keener paddlers who want to keep paddling for
fitness and fun, went out on marathon canoes on False Creek. 
Afterwards we decided to go to Phnom Pehn for dinner.  We started
with a Fish Soup which was so savoury everybody commented on it. 
Deep fried spicy squid was wonderful with a light batter.  Deep
Fried chicken wings with the lemon pepper sauce is a definite
favorite.  Chinese broccoli was nicely done.  The deep fried
spring rolls with ham, were not well-recieved by our spring roll
fans.  The Vietnamese rice rolls were good – but strange that
these supposed “appetizer” items arrived last.  Everybody was
happy and full.  Next time I want to order the lemon-grass chicken
drumsticks. 

Eating together and sharing food is a good way to build community, and one of the best features about the  Gung Haggis Fat Choy Dragon Boat team,
 dragon boat team.

photo Roland Tanglao

Chicken Wings with Lemon Pepper Sauce  is one of our team's favorite dishes!

here are some reviews by my friends Roland Tanglao and Barb Lee + more links.

Roland's Mini-Review: Phnom Penh

Barb's Fave Restaurants June 2000

Latest reviews of Phnom Penh Restaurant, Vancouver, BC

Georgia Straight: Diversity and tolerance outweigh idiocy on-line

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Georgia Straight:  Diversity and tolerance outweigh idiocy on-line


As part of the Georgia Straight's contribution to the Think Vancouver
theme of Diversity, Technology writer Dave Watson checks out websites
that are pro-diversity, as opposed to racist hate-mongering rant
sites.  He does a good job finding Asian Canadian webzines such as
Ricepaper or the Asian American Web zine Jade.  Watson even checks out Canadian heritage websites too. 

There's even a cartoon of a male dressed in kilt, sporran, wooden clogs and a turban.  Hmmm… doesn't look like anybody “we” know.

But somehow he missed the weblogs such as www.gunghaggisfatchoy.com  or Susanna Ng's
Chinese in Vancouver BC – Chinese Canadian news, stats or Asian Canadian writer Alexis Keinlen and her writing blog, or my friend Jeff Chiba Stearns who created the award winning animation short :

Check out Dave Watson's story
Diversity and tolerance outweigh idiocy on-line

Once in a while, a story hits the traditional media about some nasty
hate-mongering Web site hanging out there in cyberspace where young
people or other impressionable minds could find it. It’s true that such
things do get established, but it seems to me that they’re greatly
eclipsed by the number of sites that either actively promote tolerance
or provide a forum where people within an ethnic group can discuss
common problems (and people from outside the group can drop by and
learn something). And then there are all those self-selected
communities that are based on some kind of shared interest (a TV show,
author, hobby, job at McDonald’s, or whatever) and thus are usually
colourblind.

All of these on-line venues provide opportunities
for communication and challenging preju?dices, a means for people to
meet mind to mind on neutral ground. It’s difficult to dislike someone
retroactively on some generalized, arbitrary basis when you’ve already
considered or accepted one of their opinions. Communicating via the
Internet also frees people up from their herd instinct (the tendency to
follow the dominant personality in the room) because typing your
thoughts focuses you down into yourself.

Sure, some people are
too weak-minded to develop their own thoughts, and they simply parrot
the opinions of whoever last influenced them, while others have no
capacity to analyze or challenge their prejudices and have to seek out
similarly close-minded people in order to reinforce their beliefs, but,
in general, people who are smart enough to use the Internet have the
potential to learn new things. Here, then, are a few Web sites that
might prove useful for that purpose.

read more Diversity and tolerance outweigh idiocy on-line

Check out these websites on Chinese Canadian History that I list on www.gunghaggisfatchoy.com

Alexander Won Cumyow -first Chinese born in BC

Asian North America History Timeline
CBC Archives: Chinese Canadian Issues on TV
Canadian Steel Chinese Grit Project
Chinese Canadian Biographies and Family Histories – Vancouver Public Library
Chinese Canadian Historical Photos – CCNC Toronto
Chinese Canadian History at the Vancouver Public Library
Chinese Canadian Military Museum
Historical Chinese Language Materials in BC
Imogene Lim's webpage
Multicultural Canada Project
The Chung Collection at UBC
Vancouver Chinatown Attractions


Think Vancouver goes Diversity with the theme: Living Together

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Think Vancouver goes Diversity with the theme:
Living Together

Check out the this year's Think Vancouver theme.

They are doing some stuff that is soooo…. “intercultural”
soooo…. “Gung Haggis”

The Georgia Straight and CBC Radio One
and CBC Television's Canada Now have combined for stories that explore
how a multicultural / intercultural society lives together or lives
separately in the same space.

There is also a very cool contest – CBC is looking for a family that
celebrates cultural fusion and diversity.  Diversity can be
interpreted many ways:  ethnic backgrounds,
age, gender, sexual orientation, religious affiliations, political
affiliations, and more.

Hmmm…. would my family qualify?  All my maternal cousins married
non-Chinese caucasians.  All my cousins children including my
nephew are “hapa“- the Hawaiian language term meaning bi-racial or multi-racial.  My cousin Rhonda Larrabee
is “hapa-First Nations.”  Our family definitely includes the
nursery rhyme description of: “doctor, lawyer and Indian Chief.”

Check out:
Fusion Family Contest

Check out: http://www.cbc.ca/thinkvancouver/

Think Vancouver: Living Together

“People from all over the world call Vancouver home. Some of us have
been here for generations, others are moving in today. Some are very
wealthy, others are struggling day to day, and most of us fall
somewhere in the middle. More than one third of us are visible
minorities, and that percentage is steadily growing. With all of this
diversity, do our cultures fuse or are we living together, yet apart?

Turn to CBC Radio One, CBC Television's Canada Now and The Georgia
Straight newspaper for Think Vancouver: Living Together, as we explore
what it really means to live in a city with so much diversity. What
does it take to fit in? And does everyone want to?

From October 15 to 22, we will bring you special Think Vancouver: Living Together
programming, stories and events ranging from marriage and dating, to work,
school and home, to food, music and art. Vancouver's true colours revealed!” 

see http://www.cbc.ca/thinkvancouver/

Toronto Star: “Beautiful touching award winning book” article featuring Janice Wong's book CHOW

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Toronto Star: “Beautiful touching award winning book” article featuring Janice Wong's book CHOW

My painter/writer cousin Janice Wong was written up in the Toronto Star this weekend.

Janice
is the author of the award winning CHOW – from China to Canada:
Memories of Food and Family.  Janice was recently in Winnipeg to
recieve the Gold Award for the category of “Canadian Food
Culture.”  Here is an excerpt from Toronto Star writer Marion Kane.

Read the full article here: beautiful touching award winning book

Wong's book CHOW
(Whitecap; $24.95) garnered gold in the Canadian Food Culture category… Hers is a tale of growing up in Prince Albert in
north-central Saskatchewan, where her father, Dennis, was in the
restaurant biz.

His second venture in this field was a Chinese
Canadian eatery called Lotus on the town's main drag, which he opened
in 1956 and operated for more than 20 years.
“He never succumbed to
putting red dye in the sweet-and-sour sauce,” recalls Wong, adding that
her dad came from a family of cooks. “We grew up on his food,” she says
fondly of the man who died in 1999.

He left a slew of handwritten
recipes that were the inspiration for her book. “I thought I'd collect
all the recipes and notations, using his handwriting as an abstract
element,” she says, “as a gift to my family and to sum up my loss.”

The
result was heart-warming. “It caused a chain reaction of reunions of
family and friends,” she adds, including a book launch in her hometown.

Writing
the book helped Wong get to know her father better. “He worked six days
a week,” she continues. “When we were little, we were pulled out of bed
to see him at midnight.”

Honouring Theatre: Frangipani Perfume – dynamic and fragrant theatre for the mind

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Honouring Theatre:  Frangipani Perfume
– dynamic and fragrant theatre for the mind


Firehall Arts Centre
October 13 to October 21st

Frangipani is known as the traditional Hawaiian lei flower.  Frangipani Perfume
is a dynamic three woman play that tells the story of three sisters who
left their native island of Samoa to find a better life in New
Zealand.  The play opens with three woman dancing to a beautiful
musical piece of opera, only to reveal that they are actually scrubbing
washrooms in New Zealand to make ends meet.

This is a play that I found astounding.  It works on many levels.

  It is not the didactic memory play style of  Windmill
Baby, nor the linear time line of the historically interpretative
Annie Mae's
Movement –
each part of the tri-national tour of 3 plays from Canada, Australia
and New Zealand – titled Honouring Theatre.  Frangipani Perfume is an exceptionally creative
work that incorporates dance, drama, martial arts, comedy, memory, and
so much more.  There were many times that I have to admit I said
to myself “Wow!” or “What did they just do?”

Actors Dianna Fuemanna, Fiona Collins and Joy Vaele, together give an
incredibly dynamic performance.  The sisters dance together, they
fight against each other, they support each other, they argue with each
other, and they reveal truths for and about each other.  The
transitions and topic flow smoothly.  Just as easily as the actors
themselves move across the floor, climb to stand on their chairs,
threateningly fight each other or hold each other lovingly. 

Anything seems to be able to happen in this play.  One moment they
are discussing boyfriends and marriage to escape the drudgery of
scrubbing toilets and cleanning skid marks off the tile floors, the
next they are literally flying across the stage floor, or dreamily
recalling the fragrance of frangipani perfume which their mother used
to make back on the island of Samoa.

And yet… social commentary fills the content of this play. 
Thousands of Pacific islanders left their island homes to work in New
Zealand as unskilled labourers.  They deal with the conflict of
traditional island life and values pitted against contemporary morals
and behaviors.  Post-modern sexuality threatens church morality
and values.  Margaret Mead's anthropological views are rebuffed by
native attitudes of knowingness.   Somehow the greatness of
Einstein and the terror of nuclear war find their way into the
balance.  And it all works brilliantly.  Kudos to playwright
Makerita Urale for her imagination and daring. 

I was able to speak with the actors after the performance, and they
were wonderfully friendly.  They shared that they were enjoying
the visit to Vancouver after travelling across Canada, but were really
looking forward to going home soon, as this is the last stop of the
Canadian tour, before remounting for Australia and New Zealand in
2007.  They each spoke enthusiastically about being on this
tri-national, three play tour, and watching the other
performances.  We talked about the issue of including Pacific
Islanders into Asian Heritage Month (as is done in the United States)
and the fact that Pacific Islanders have their own identity and
culture.  I shared my experience of learning Pacific Island
culture in my visits to Hawaii, where my Aunt lived, and how I remember
her teaching me one day to make a Hawaiian style frangipani / plumaria
flower lei.

My companion had said that she smelled something fragrant at the start
of the play when the actors took the stage.  Yes… the actors
revealed.  They are wearing frangipani fragrance in their hair.  We
talked about the frangipani / plumeria flower, and how it is also known
as the “lei flower” in Hawaii.  Definitely a play that hits on all
the senses including the mind and the nose…  very rare and
fragrant indeed.

Honouring Theatre: Annie Mae's Movement

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Honouring Theatre: Annie Mae's Movement


Annie Mae's Movement
Firehall Theatre, Vancouver BC
October 12 – October 22, 2006

All three plays for the Honouring Theatre project are great.  They
are aboriginal theatre plays from Australia, Canada and New Zealand.

On Wednesday night I attended the opening night for Windmill Baby
(Australia).  Thursday night, I returned for Annie Mae's Movement
(Canada), and Friday Night for Frangipani
Perfume (New
Zealand).  Each play is different in setting, style, and story – yet each allows
the audience member to step into the culture and share the experience
of being aboriginal in New Zealand, Canada and Australia.


Annie Mae's Movement is a powerful two person play with strong acting
from Michelle St. John,
who plays Annie Mae, the MikMaq woman who
travelled to Wounded Knee to become involved with the American Indian
Movement (AIM).  There is a reference to AIM leaders Leonard
Pelletier, and Dennis Banks whom Annie Mae becomes involved with, but
the play is really Annie's journey through empowerment, hope,
resistance and her eventual death.

Based on the true story of Annie Mae Pictou Aquash, Yvette Nolan has
written and directed a true piece of Canadian history.  While this
abidged version of the original production is much revised, it still
vividly portrays the personal story and conflicts of what it may have
been like for Annie Mae to be a woman in a man's movement, a Canadian
in the United States, and person of colour in a White dominated world,
while still actively believing that she had the power to create a
better world for herself, her daughters and her people.

A creative set makes good use of screens with landscape designs that
evoke both the forest, and a camp setting.  They also serve as
backdrops for shadow theatre when one of the actors dresses up as a
wolf to signify the mythical “Loup Garou” wolf creature.  It is a
simple but effective example of the “magic” of theatre to take a simple
idea and transform it into a powerful revelation.

Grahame Merke plays multiple male characters who each interact with
Annie Mae.  He handles the transitions nicely giving each
character a distinctly different personality and manner to make it
believable that each character is different.

One of my favorite scenes is the opening where Annie Mae is speaking to
the audience and uses a bright red cloth as a stage prop to signify
that she is holding a baby, then with a few quick deft moves, she demonstrates that her hands are tied up.  It's a
wonderful display of St. John's acting skills and of the theatre
direction to both communicate with the audience while performing
physical tasks, and give the audience a visual hook.

Annie Mae's Movement is definitely something to recommend to friends, as well as the New
Zealand Maori play “Frangipani
Perfume.” 


Vancouver's Two Solitudes… 2001 Census results: Scottish? Chinese? How many?

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Vancouver's Two Solitudes…
2001 Census: Scottish? Chinese? How many?

Many people ask me why the fascination of Scottish culture, or the
unlikely fusion of Scottish and Chinese traditions for Gung Haggis Fat
Choy?

I usually reply that the Scots and Chinese are really Vancouver's
earliest pioneering cultures, along with First Nations of course. 
I regard the Scots and Chinese as British Columbia's “Two Solitudes,” which  Wikipedia describes as “A phrase expressing Canada's bilingual and bicultural nature.
Traditionally, French and English Canadians have had little to do with
each other — hence the “two solitudes”, together but separate, alone
but together.

The phrase originally comes from Hugh MacLennan's 1945 novel  “Two Solitudes” which the McGill-Queens University Press describes as “

“A landmark of
nationalist fiction, Hugh MacLennan's Two Solitudes is the story of two
races within one nation, each with its own legend and ideas of what a
nation should be. In his vivid portrayals of human drama in prewar
Quebec, MacLennan focuses on two individuals whose love increases the
prejudices that surround them until they discover that “love consists
in this, that two solitudes protect, and touch and greet each other.”

Gee… it's kind of a love story similar to the hate between the
Montague and Capulet families in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet
story.  Maybe this is the reason there are so many people with
Scottish  names in my extended family tree now.

According to the 2001 Census results for Vancouver. 

The top ten total responses for ethnic origins were:

Total population:  1,967,480

English                   
475,075
Canadian                 378,545
Chinese                   347,985
Scottish                   311,940
Irish                       
234,680
German                  187,410
East Indian             142,060
French                    128,715
Ukrainian                 76,525
Italian                      
69,000

These results are for people who checked these responses in the
ethnicity box.  In reality they could choose as many boxes as
applied to them, or as they wanted.  But ideally, these are the
people who most count English, Chinese, Scottish as the ancestry.

Of people who selected only one ethnic group the results are:

Total responses:   1,226,280

Chinese                   312,180
East Indian              123,570
Canadian                 141,110
English                   
112,910
Filipino                    
48,510
German                    
44,470
Scottish                    
41,920
Italian                       
29,665
Korean                     
27,745
Irish                          
23,125
Dutch (Netherlands)  21,115

These are the people who chose only one ethnicity.  These numbers
also would most likely represent the newest immigrant groups. 
People who checked “Canadian” most likely did so, because they did not
want to be defined by “ethnic origin” or simply didn't have a clue as
to what to check.  Former Governor General Adrienne Clarkson
admitted that she checked “Canadian” even though it is documented and
widely known that she was born in Hong Kong.

Now it gets more interesting with people who chose multiple ethnic
boxes.  Groups below can be said to represent the groups that have
inter-married most with a different ethnic culture.  Although this
could be misleading if you lump English, Scottish and Irish together as
“British”- just make sure you don't separate them into Catholic and
Prostestant because some Irish Catholics would be more likely to marry
a Filipino Catholic rather than an Irish Protestant.  But in
Canada, we are all “Canadian” and the great thing is we are more likely
to be open-minded about race, religion, and culture…. aren't we?

Total responses:    741,195

English                   362,165
Scottish                   270,020
Canadian                 237,435
Irish                    
    211,555
German                   142,945
French                     113,655
Ukranian                   58,375
Dutch (Netherlands)  46,050
Italian                        
39,335
Polish                        
36,760
Nowegian                  35,735
Chinese                     
35,800
East Indian                 18,495

Georgia Straight: Head-tax redress fails to account for total toll

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Here's a Georgia Straight story
about how the Harper Conservative government falls short on their
promise to provide a redress that is fair to everybody. 

Harvey Lee and I both became active in the Head Tax redress campaign
at the November 25th rally against then Prime Minister Paul Martin's
feeble attempt to provide redress – by no apology, and no individual
compensation or head tax refund.  It was a day that will go down
in Chinese Canadian history, when head tax descendants told the
government that they wanted a fair redress with negotiation, similar to
the Japanese-Canadian 1988 redress.  We did it with placards,
chants and media interviews.  We told our truth.  see
article:  Chinese Head Tax: Protest in Vancouver Chinatown


The
Conservative's redress package will give $20,000 to surviving head tax
payers and spouses.  But if your father, mother, grandparents, or
great-grandparents died before the Conservatives came to power, then
you are out of luck.  An estimated 81,000 paid the the head tax,
including my grand-father, my great-grandfather and many other family
members. They have all passed on now.  Under the Conservative
program, only and estimated 430 people will recieve a redress
compensation package.  This is 0.6% of the people who paid. 
The Mulroney Conservative government gave $21,000 to each
Japanese-Canadian person born before 1947.

My friend Sid Tan reports that today's
(Oct. 12/06) Sing Tao has Mary Yang's exclusive interview with PM
Harper. In the interview, Harper says “that's it”for head tax/exclusion
redress from his government.   Sid Tan says”

“Harper
has shown political acumen for buying votes but no sense of justice and
honour. Shame on him and his government for taking an issue of justice
and honour and trying to pander for votes. As far as I'm concerned, the
gloves off. Was never good at the touchie-feelie-smilie-schmoozie stuff
and will work to ensure Harper and his government loses or at least
does not acrue any political capital from this incomplete redress.

A
just an honourable redress requires good faith negotiations between the
government and  representatives of head tax families seeking
individual redress and direct refund of head tax.  Our movement is
strong and lasting. We have outlasted the Trudeau, Mulroney, Chretien
and Martin governments. We are growing stronger by the day and will
outlast Harpers's government if a just and honourable redress is not
coming.”


Head-tax redress fails to account for total toll

http://www.straight.com/content.cfm?id=21219

By charlie smith

Publish Date: 12-Oct-2006

Harvey Lee, whose family was forced apart by racist immigration laws, says Stephen Harper’s reparations have come to appear largely political.

Harvey Lee, whose family was forced apart by racist immigration laws,
says Stephen Harper’s reparations have come to appear largely
political.

A
Vancouver man has attributed the death of his mother to the Chinese
head tax. But he won’t be among those receiving federal compensation
because his parents died before Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced
that $20,000 payments will go to surviving head-tax payers and their
spouses.

Harvey Lee, a retiree, told his tale to the Georgia
Straight shortly before attending an October 10 dinner at Floata
restaurant in Chinatown. “There are a lot of descendants who suffered
just as much as their parents did due to the head tax and the exclusion
act,” Lee said. “Myself, I was separated from my family for years. I
was a teenager before I got to see my father.”

At the dinner,
Prime Minister Stephen Harper spoke of his pride about issuing an
apology for the head tax, which he described as “a moral blemish on our
country’s soul”. Harper also emphasized how “especially important and
satisfying” it was to him that his government will make payments to
survivors.

Beginning in 1885, the Canadian government imposed a
$50 fee on Chinese immigrants, which was raised to $100 in 1900 and to
$500 in 1903. Vancouver East NDP MP Libby Davies told Parliament that
this would be the equivalent of about $30,000 in 2005 dollars. In 1923,
the government passed a law, which wasn’t lifted until 1947, banning
almost all Chinese immigration.

Lee said that his father paid
the $500 head tax when he came to Canada in 1910. His mother paid the
$500 fee when she arrived nine years later. He said his mother
eventually took the family back to China because of all the racism in
Canada, and Lee was born in Hong Kong in 1939. His father stayed in
Canada, eventually operating a restaurant in Souris, Manitoba.

When
war broke out in the Far East, the family was separated. Lee said that
his mother could have avoided the hostilities and legally returned to
Canada because she had already paid the head tax. However, Lee said,
she remained in China because she didn’t want to leave him as a little
baby with relatives. Canadian law at the time banned the children of
head-tax payers from entering the country, so Lee wouldn’t have been
permitted into Canada with his mother.

In 1943, Lee said, his
mother was killed by Japanese invaders while she was trying to flee
with her family. He was only four years old at the time. “She
sacrificed her life,” Lee said, wiping a tear from his eye. “She died
because she couldn’t bring me over.”

He then apologized, saying
that he gets emotional every time he tells this story. “My grandmother
brought me up until after the war. Then my dad sent for us, and then my
brother and I came over.”

Lee said he arrived in Canada in 1951
when he was 12 years old. He eventually went on to a career in
management, but expressed regret that he never got to know his father
very well. “We never really bonded,” he said. “That was another problem
with the separation.”

When asked how he feels about Harper’s
handling of the head-tax issue, Lee replied, “Initially, he started
well. He kept his promise of the apology. But the redress has fallen a
little bit short. It’s a little bit more politics there than it is
redress.”

At a demonstration outside the event, Sid Tan,
president of the Association of Chinese Canadians for Equality and
Solidarity, said that only 0.6 percent of head-tax families will be
redressed because the vast majority of head-tax payers and their
spouses died before Harper issued a federal apology last June. “We want
the other 99.4 percent of head-tax families to be redressed,” Tan
shouted.

Moments later, the crowd joined him in a chant, “Head tax, redress, head tax, redress…”

John Oliver and Zhimin Yu in Concert – Sunday October 15, VECC

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John Oliver and Zhimin Yu in Concert 
- Sunday October 15, VECC

John Oliver and Zhimin Yu are one of Vancouver's newest intercultural 
musical duos.  I first met Zhimin Yu, master of the ruan (Chinese "moon guitar")
back in 2003 when she performed with Silk Road Music for the CBC
television performance special "Gung Haggis Fat Choy."


Oliver and Yu perform June 22, at the announcement for Chinese Head Tax 
- photo Todd Wong

The duo of Oliver and Yu had one of their first public appearances at the June 22nd, 
Hotel Vancouver site for Prime Minister's announcement for the Chinese Head Tax 
redress.  Oliver and Yu performed at the break time.  Yu also performs with a number 
of Chinese and World Music musical ensembles including Red Chamber,  

You can buy tickets directly from the artists until Friday October 13  
and save the Ticketmaster charge. Just call the phone numbers at the  
bottom of this message or contact the artists 

Tickets are also available at the door.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here's the official PR.

Oliver Yu Duo
"From a Place Far Away"
Sunday October 15, 8pm
Vancouver East Cultural Centre

Music from China, Canada, and other corners of the world and the  
imagination.

Vancouver musicians Zhimin Yu and John Oliver team up to delight with a program 
of new and old music from China, Canada and other corners of the world and the 
imagination, written for Chinese and Western guitars. Oliver plays classical guitar and 
a beautiful fretless MIDI classical guitar. Yu plays the Chinese "moon guitar" (the ruan). 
The program will feature the premiere of new works written by Oliver for ruan, guitars 
and synthesizer, and  music by Xing Liu and Wu Jun Sheng. 

Come hear an evening of plucked  music From a Place Far Away.

THE PROGRAM

Between the Sky and the Land by Xing Liu
Camel Bell on the Silk Road by Yong Ning
Song of the Mountain by Xing Liu
Evening of the Torch Festival by Wu Jun Sheng
Happy Days, traditional
Poema Singelo by H. Villa-Lobos
A Dream of Africa by John Oliver
Avoid the Cliff!	by John Oliver
Dreaming of a Far Away Place	by John Oliver

LOCATION AND TICKET INFO

1895 Venables Street, Vancouver
Tickets $18 General / $15 Seniors & Students
(plus applicable charges)
available at TICKETMASTER
604 280 3311  www.ticketmaster.ca

John Oliver and Zhimin Yu  
http://earsay.com/oy/

Information
604-527-2358­
778 998 5375

RECENT REVIEW QUOTE from September 30 premiere.
"Both intellectually stimulating and a great deal of fun, Eagle Flies  
to Mountain deserves to become an intercultural standard."
The Georgia Straight

Honouring Theatre – A tri-national tour of 3 plays from Canada, Australia & New Zealand: What Colour is Love?

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Honouring Theatre – A tri-national tour of 3 plays from Canada, Australia & New Zealand:

What Colour is Love?

Windmill Baby – written and directed by David Milroy

Firehall Arts Centre

part of a repertory theatre tour

Oct 11-Oct 22

What colour is Love?  Is it Black?  Is it White?

This question is asked to the audience at a pivotal moment in the play
Windmill Baby.    Set in Australia, an aboriginal woman returns to the
now abandoned former cattle station of her young adult life.  Fifty 
years have passed as she shares her tale with the audience in a mixture
of oral story-telling, and dream-time revelations.

Pauline Whyman,
as Maymay, is a captivating performer in this one-woman play,
accompanied only on stage by guitarist Adam Fitzgerard and a simple but
amazing set.  As Maymay recognizes each object such as a bed, a
clothesline or a can – she interacts with it, bringing it to life with
a story.  Each story segues into the next, paced nicely both by
script
and by acting.  Nuances and expressions are sometimes subtle or
enhancingly dramatic.  Whyman is careful to balance her
story-telling
while also interacting with the audience.  My favorite scene is
when
she tells the story about the dog, using a surprising stage prop.

As the play unfolds, we learn that she used to live at a cattle station
which had a large windmill.  She had a husband named Melvin who minded
the livestock, and a crippled man named Wunman tended the garden.  They
worked for a white man and his dainty wife who is “like a candle that
melts in the heat”.  Racism is a fact of life in Maymay's
storytelling.  She never complains or editorializes on it.  It's just
what happens when the characters of her story interact.  Life was
different 50 years ago. This is a memory play, which makes makes the
stories so much more poignant, when we discover why Maymay must return
to the deserted Kimberley cattle station for “unfinished business.”  A
cell phone rings, and we are jarred back to the 21st Century, awakened
from our reverie.

The themes are universal: love, life and loss.  Beautifully written and directed by David Milroy, the play could have
been set in an Alabama cotton plantation with African-American slaves,
or a BC ranch with Chinese servants.  But it is culturally interesting
to hear the cadence of an Australian accent with strange words and
phrases.

Windmill Baby is the first of three plays presented at Firehall Arts Centre,
as part of an aboriginal collective from three continents.  Vancouver
is the final stop on a Canadian tour that started in Peterborough ON,
then travelled to Toronto and Regina each for a week, before closing
with a two week run here. 

Annie Mae's Movement (Canada), written and directed by Yvette Nolan
opens on Thursday, October 12.  Frangipani Perfume (New Zealand)
written by Makerita Urale, and directed by Rachel House, opens on
Friday, October 13.  Each play goes into repertory, rotating for
evening and afternoon performances until October 22nd.

By witnessing 3 different aboriginal plays from 3 different countries,
we learn that while we are different, we have many similarites. 
Cultural differences are merely cultural, and human imposed
structures.  But love, tragedy, spirituality, passion, humour and
social activism all transcend geographical boundaries.

Below is a description of each play and the schedule.  Check it out.
Here are some links:
Arthur: It’s No Spin: Windmill Baby Shows Spirit
www.publicenergy.ca/archive_details/honouring_theatre/windmill.htm

Windmill Baby – Honouring Theatre – September 19 to 24 …
www.publicenergy.ca/archive_details/honouring_theatre/windmill.htm

Presents
NATIVE EARTH PERFORMING ARTS
HONOURING THEATRE
A Celebration of the Human Spirit – 3 indigenous Plays from 3
Countries
 

Honouring Theatre, an ambitious global initiative showcasing a
triple bill of powerful and authentic indigenous theatre from Canada, New
Zealand and Australia, will be playing at the Firehall Arts Centre
from October 11 � 22, 2006.  
 
The theatrical stage provides the avenue for these Aboriginal nations
to reveal both their similarities and diversities.  The first of the
plays is David Milroy's Award-winning play Windmill Baby
from Australia.  It is a gentle tale that centres on Maymay, an
Aboriginal woman, who returns to the now derelict station of her youth
because she has some “unfinished business.”  It encapsulates
universal themes of love, life and loss. 
 
Annie Mae's Movement by Canadian playwright, Yvette Nolan
follows. Loosely based on the life of a Mi'qmak woman, Annie Mae Pictou
Aquash, it explores a woman in a man's movement, a Canadian in American
and an Aboriginal in a white dominant culture.
 
The final play from New Zealand is Frangipani
Perfume,  a powerful and sensual black comedy about escape
and dreams of thousands of Pacific people who work as unskilled
labourers.  Playwright Makerita Urale flicks out satirical slaps at
Margaret Mead while bowing down to the greatness of Einstein and
mesmerizing tropical fragrances.
 
All three plays are a celebration of the human spirit sharing their
humour, passion, belief, spirituality, social activism, tragedy and
love.  The plays reiterate that no matter where people are from we
all share the same universal themes. Honouring Theatre has been touring
Canada and will head overseas in 2007.  
 
Play Schedule:
Windmill
Baby                        
Annie Mae's
Movement                      
Frangipani Perfume
Weds. Oct. 11  
8pm                 
Thurs. Oct. 12  
8pm                             
Fri. Oct. 13    8pm
Thurs. Oct. 12 
1pm                  
Fri. Oct. 13      
1pm                             
Sat. Oct. 14   2pm
Sat. Oct. 14     
8pm                 
Wed. Oct. 18    8
pm                            
Tue. Oct. 17  8pm
Sun. Oct. 15    
2pm                 
Thur. Oct. 19   
1pm                              
Wed. Oct.18  1pm
Thur. Oct. 19   
8pm                  
Sat. Oct. 21     
8pm                             
Fri. Oct. 20    8pm
Fri. Oct. 20      
1pm                 
Sun. Oct. 22    
2pm                             
Sat. Oct. 21   2pm
 
Tickets $24/$20 in advance or buy a three pack for
all three plays for $55.
Available at the Firehall Box Office 604-689-0926 or online
www.firehallartscentre.ca