Supporting Vital Work in Our communities

Click this image for our 2021 Annual Report, highlighting more work EHC has supported within our communities

As we celebrate the work funded via FIRE (Funding Indigenous Resurgence in Edmonton) and HCIP (Heritage Community Investment Program), we at EHC enthusiastically note the range of themes being explored in diverse ways by community members.

It means many things to many people to live in this place – ᒥᐢᑿᒌᐚᐢᑲᐦᐃᑲᐣ, amiskwacîwâskahikan, Edmonton – and it is the defining challenge for the heritage community to interpret and animate the many aspects of life here in their own ways. Individuals and organizations from a variety of backgrounds, each bringing a special sets of skills (and those of their collaborators), help us get closer to understanding the land we all call home.

With You Every Step of the Way

Recognizing that heritage work is an ever-evolving process, we have organized our grants to encourage applicants to seek out our support for every stage of their projects:

• Past HCIP applicants and recipients have gone on to find a great fit with FIRE (offering grants up to $10,000, next deadline October 3) since its 2021 introduction.
• The HCIP streams progress to support your work and/or that of your organization as it evolves.
• Research & Planning (offering grants up to $5,000, next deadline September 2) funds preparation and exploration, which can blossom into work eligible for Project Accelerator grants up to $10,000 (next deadline September 2).
• A good next step is to seek funding up to $20,000 for larger projects via Community Impact Project (next deadline TBA) grants.
• Our Operational (next deadline October 3) stream helps sustain the day-to-day work of heritage organizations, with up to 25 percent of an applicant’s eligible expenses, while Change Capital (applications open through 2022 via rolling intake) provides up to $20,000 to organizations looking to build resilience within the sector. These complementary streams support organizations in remaining relevant for the heritage community of tomorrow.
• As a stream supporting individual skill development, Career Development (up to $4,000, applications open through 2022 via rolling intake) is vital for the sector’s advancement. Whether individual practitioners or affiliated with heritage organizations, anyone taking advantage of this funding is positioned to improve future applications in various streams.
• Many practitioners have found a fit with our granting programs as well as ECAMP (Edmonton City as Museum Project) and its various opportunities for community contributors (ranging from writing to online/in-person tours to podcasting).
• If you’re not sure where your work and/or interests most align with EHC, please reach out to info@edmontonheritage.ca. You are also encouraged to contact grants@edmontonheritage.ca, fire@edmontonheritage.ca, and/or info@citymuseumedmonton.ca to learn more about our flagship programs.

With the sector’s growth resulting in even more strong applications than we are currently equipped to fund, EHC is refocusing on plans to better support the work of the heritage community, which positively impacts the lives of everyone in the larger community.

Recent Grant Recipients

At this midpoint of the year in early summer 2022, it is our pleasure to share with you some details on the projects recently awarded funds through our granting programs.

Spring 2022 FIRE recipients (Next application deadline October 3)

Jessica Sanderson-Barry

Jessica Sanderson-Barry’s project, Storytelling Through Resurgence of Urban Moose Hide Tanning, will take place this summer at PÎYÊSÎW WÂSKÂHIKAN at the Stanley A. Milner Library. This safe space will allow folks an opportunity to learn how to try moose meat, flesh and scrape a moose hide, work with finished smoked moose hide, and make a pair of hide earrings. Hide tanning is a form of reclamation, sovereignty, and cultural resurgence. This urban hide camp will revitalize traditional practices in amiskwacîwâskahikan.

Jessica Sanderson-Barry is a nêhiyaw-iskwêw, mother, full-time Cree Artist, Designer and Hide Tanner from Chakastaypasin Band, Treaty 6 Territory.

Facebook: facebook.com/JShineDesigns; Instagram: @jshinedesigns.

Kyla Pascal

Kyla Pascal’s project, She Said So, is going to showcase stories and art from Métis community writers and illustrators in an Edmonton-based art show. This show will be a place to share stories, ideas, passions, and histories through an exhibit as well as a zine. The art will focus on the stories of women and gender diverse folks, featuring both new and emerging artists.

Kyla Pascal is an Afro-Indigenous (Métis and Dominican) woman born and raised in amiskwaciwâskahikan ᐊᒥᐢᑲᐧᒋᐋᐧᐢᑲᐦᐃᑲᐣ (Edmonton, Alberta). Over the years Kyla has worked with several organizations focusing on social planning, advocacy, and community-building.

Facebook: @kyla__shell; Instagram: @kylaShellan

Meghan and Tamara Eaker

The miyo pimatisiwin storysharing circle is organized and hosted by cousins Meghan and Tamara Eaker. In this storytelling series, Indigenous community members and allies will gather in community, sharing stories, poetry, and art as medicine. The circle is guided by nehiyaw-informed storysharing approach called e-mamawi niâcimowinân (we share our stories all together). The miyo pimatisiwin storysharing circle is a way of responding to the need for Indigenous community mutual aid, empowered healing, and the co-creation of joyful and just futures for ourselves and our communities in this time of colonialism. Each circle brings together community members, an Elder, a ‘supportive listening auntie,’ organizers, and guest readers.

Tamara Eaker is an Indigenous artist; half Ojibwe-Anishinaabe, from the Long Plain band, and half Cree/Métis from Little Saskatchewan. It is her artistic goal to inform, inspire, and help others.

Meghan Eaker (she/her) is an amiskwaciywâskahikan-based poet, registered nurse, and beading artist of mixed European and nehiyaw ancestry and is a member of the Woodland Cree First Nation in treaty 8 territory. She is currently pursuing a PhD at the University of Alberta studying storysharing as a practice towards miyo pimatisiwin (a good life).

Facebook: facebook.com/groups/3119045984975527; Instagram: @meghaneaker

Heather Shillinglaw

Heather Shillinglaw’s visual art project ᒫᒥᑐᓀᔨᐦᒋᑲᐣ ᑯᑖᐄᐧᐤ mâmitonêyihcikan kotâwîw (my mind digs in the soil like a turtle) will consist of stitched landscapes examining lost creeks, ponds, and lakes in the Edmonton river valley. With teachings from Elder Shirley Norris-Shillinglaw on oral histories, ethnobotany, harvesting ancestral lands, and further information from Ruth McConnell, an ethnologist/genealogist, Heather is researching the recorded history of these Edmonton landscapes and then will reproduce the physical land changes of the water loss into her designs. Her work will be shown at various art galleries in 2023.

Heather Shillinglaw is an Appetogasan, Cree/Dene, Salteaux Chipewyan & Scots/French looking to her Awas Nohkom’s (Grandmothers before) for guidance by contemplating the bush for healing, life, and sustainability. These grandmothers carried all they owned, balancing their lives within the landscape and following the buffalo. Shillinglaw aspires to make art to honour them.

Facebook: facebook.com/shillinglaw.heather; Instagram: @shillinglawheather; Twitter: @hshillinglaw

The Red Road Healing Society

The Red Road Healing Society, with the assistance of Bent Arrow Traditional Healing Society, Ben Calf Robe Society, and with the support of Enoch Cree Nation, will provide the Shoonka Wakan Youth Memorial Horseback Ride program to Indigenous youth experiencing homelessness, youth in government care or transitioning out of care, LGBTQ2S+, and youth with mental health and addiction challenges. These groups will benefit from traditional healing ceremonies and group therapy supported by equine therapy. The in-depth pilot program will be offered annually, giving youth direct access to ceremonial teachings, stories from Elders and trained counsellors, and each other in a group atmosphere.

The Red Road Healing Society‘s mission is to walk with relations on the Red Road of life by remembering, renewing, and restoring traditional roles and values that bring life. Programs and services are delivered from a cultural grassroots perspective. The society also participates in a “hub and spoke” collaborative model with other Indigenous agencies.

Spring 2022 Project Accelerator HCIP recipients (Next application deadline September 2)

Jordon Hon – A Portrait of Chinatown

Jordon Hon‘s project A Portrait of Chinatown explores Edmonton’s Chinatown through a historical and contemporary lens, using video interviews, photography, book making, large format printing, and an exhibition to spotlight different voices in and around the community. This grant will help to support the organization and programming of the event in Edmonton’s Chinatown this year.

Project Team: Jordon Hon, Project Lead; Sean Tse, mentor and aiya collective member; Emily Chu, contributor; Mei Hung, Chair of Chinese Benevolent Association

Instagram: @jordhon

Navjot Kaur – Creating New Stories Multicultural Learning Circle

This project is a means to come to terms with the Indigenous friends and advocates who have requested to “see” or experience protocols of new immigrant communities via visits to local heritage sites that include mosques, gurdwara, and mandirs. Team members’ respective communities (Indigenous, Muslim & Sikh) are seeking meaningful ways to deal with prejudice and discrimination within Edmonton and learning how to host Indigenous community members with authenticity and truthfulness in a crucial step toward understanding reconciliation.

Project Team: Navjot Kaur, Lead, administrator and project facilitator; Keeysha Knight, Co-Lead, Indigenous workshop developer; Rabia Nasser, Co-Lead, Pakistani Canada Women’s Association of Alberta

Miriam Mahaffy – Land-based Learning programming expansion

The project builds on work Miriam Mahaffy began during early COVID-19 with a mostly volunteer team to curate a monthly Curiosity Club in which families received a package of artistic educational resources to help them embark on a self-guided outing at an Edmonton park. On the outing, they explored evidence of the land’s heritage and learned about the plants, animals, and humans that live on the land. This work builds upon learnings supported by a previous Research & Planning HCIP grant to make similar land-based outdoor learning experiences accessible to more Edmontonians, including under-served populations.

Project Team: Miriam Mahaffy, lead program developer; Ian Amundson, Club Manager Boys & Girls Clubs Big Brothers Big Sisters of Edmonton & Area; Tara Beck, Edmonton Forest School Society; Etienna Moostoos-Lafferty, Indigenous Education Consultant; Tom Monto, historical research; Sandra Gluth, educational resource development; Dorothy Penner, trainer with Edmonton Overlanders Orienteering Club; Charlotte Kruszewski, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion with Alpine Club of Canada; Cheryl Mahaffy, consulting writer and editor; Naomi Mahaffy, partnership development and pilot evaluation.

Omar Mouallem – Feature-length documentary: Lebanese Burger Mafia

Omar Mouallem‘s The Lebanese Burger Mafia, currently in post-production, is a new aspect of the short TV documentary The Last Baron, produced in part through a previous Project Accelerator grant. Even before its release, the fanfare surrounding the project inspired the team to begin planning to rework it into a 90-minute feature film for international audiences, especially in North African and the Middle East. The heartfelt, comedic, and proudly local feature film will be shopped to major festivals like Sundance or SXSW, and, ultimately, the world stage. This funding will also support developing the current website to include a timeline of the company and interactive map of Burger Barons past and present.

Project Team: Omar Mouallem, director/producer/writer; Ashraf El-Assaly, composer; Moh and Mazen Mahfouz, cinematographers; Sarah Taylor, editor; Humanate, animation studio

Facebook: facebook.com/burgerbaronmovie; Instagram: @burgerbaronmovie; Twitter: @OmarMouallem

Amy Skrocki – Artists with Invisible Disabilities video series

Amy Skrocki‘s 9-episode video series will feature Edmonton craft artists working at (or near) a professional level while struggling with invisible disabilities. The intention is to bring attention to the contributions of these individuals by showing what they have accomplished in spite of the challenges they face. The series will show that that they are just like everyone in the arts with the same kinds of dreams, career aspirations, and the desire to express themselves through their work. The series will air on TELUS OPTIK TV to an audience of 200k+ and also be uploaded to TELUS’ YouTube channel to ensure equity to access.

Project Team: Amy Skrocki, director and project lead; Tanner Wilson, producer and editor; Daniel Forman, consulting filmmaker; TELUS Storyhive, funder and mentorship facilitator

Facebook: facebook.com/skrockimedia

Spring 2022 Research & Planning HCIP recipient (Next application deadline September 2)

Arts on the Ave – Edmonton Culinary History Project

Through this work, Arts on the Ave will research the interplay between cultural communities and the creative enterprises that anchor them – leveraging more than a decade of collaboration and community involvement in the process. AOTA is uniquely positioned to collect, share, and synthesize qualitative storytelling centring the heritage reflected by Alberta Avenue’s vibrant business community. This community is made up of successive waves of Indigenous and newcomer populations – with both intergenerational and newfound enterprises acting as cultural anchors for largely underserved communities.

Facebook: facebook.com/ArtsOnTheAveEdmonton; Twitter: @artsontheave; Instagram: @artsontheave

Spring 2022 Career Development HCIP recipient (Applications open via rolling intake throughout 2022)

Kelsey Steil – University of Alberta, Writing About Science

At the Canadian Energy Museum, Kelsey is responsible for developing text for new exhibits, many of which are science-based. This course will teach help turn scientific research into an engaging exhibit for a broader audience. Kelsey’s communication will become more engaging and accessible to the museum’s audience.

Spring 2022 Community Impact HCIP recipients (Next application deadline TBA)

Alberta Workers Association for Research and Education (AWARE) – Surviving the Canadian Dream: Stories of Undocumented Families in Edmonton

Audio recordings of the lives of families without immigration status (undocumented) in Edmonton will be collected for this project from AWARE. Each family will be paired with a comic artist to illustrate their story. To raise awareness of the situations of undocumented families in Edmonton, the audio clips and comics will form a website and be part of a traveling exhibition and podcast. This will connect Edmontonians to the invisible families living in the shadows of our city, combatting often racist stereotypes and stories of “illegal immigration.”

Project Team: Whitney Haynes, Project Lead; Marco Luciano, Project Advisor; Migrante-Alberta, organizational partner; ALHI, archival support and destination for completed interviews

Islamic Family and Social Services Alberta – Community on Treaty 6

Through this work, Islamic Family and Social Services Alberta (IFSSA) will document the histories, cultures, and experiences of Muslim communities on Treaty 6 territory utilizing storytelling and artistic production. Creating a new plaque at the historic site of North America’s first built mosque in collaboration with inter-generational Muslim and Indigenous community members.

Project Team: Timiro Mohamed, Project Lead; Edmonton Historical Board; Al Rashid Mosque; Fort Edmonton Park

Facebook: facebook.com/IFSSA.SERVES; Instagram: @ifssa.serves

Michelle Lavoie, Edmonton Queer History – Researching and Documenting Old Strathcona

This project from Edmonton Queer History Project will support 2SLGBTQ community researchers in finding, documenting, and creating written records of 20 sites of 2SLGBTQ history in Old Strathcona. Documents, photographs, and records will be sought to contextualize the write-ups. These resources will be added to a recently-created publicly accessible website, which maps these histories to present physical locations in Edmonton.

Project Team: Michelle Lavoie, Project Lead; Michael Phair, advisor; Dr. Kristopher Wells, advisor; Darrin Hagen, writer; Rob Browatzke, writer

Facebook: facebook.com/edmontonqueerhistoryproject; Instagram: @edmqueerhistory; Twitter: @edmqueerhistory

Marlon Wilson – Edmonton Cricket Documentary

This new documentary from Marlon Wilson aka Arlo Maverick and team will explore Edmonton’s Caribbean cricket history and the community that shaped it. The primary purpose of the project is to restore the memory and preserve the stories of the elders in the cricket community. Their ages are a signal that some of their stories may be lost forever if they are not documented soon.

Project Team: Marlon Wilson, director, producer, editor; Natalie Meyer, camera operator and DoP; Cameron Brown, Music Supervisor; Aristoteles Canga, Sound and Mastering Engineer; Tyrell Bonnick, Drone Operator

Facebook: facebook.com/ArloMaverick; Instagram: @arlomaverick; Twitter: @arlomaverick

Strategic Priorities & Related Reading

For more context on the strategies that guide our programs’ development, please refer to Connections & Exchanges: A 10-Year Plan to Transform Arts and Heritage in Edmonton and the illustration of our current priorities below. Learn more about our work with the community through EHC’s 2021 Annual Report and other relevant reports.

Click the image to download a larger PDF version of our Strategic Priorities illustration.