A Safe Haven
I had the chance recently to re-visit my 1980 roots in the movement to assist abused women when I attended the 2014 Annual General Meeting of the Haven Society and had the opportunity to meet and reconnect with current and past Board members and volunteers. Back in 1978-79, shortly after I moved to BC, I began working to stop violence against women, and helped start Haven House in Nanaimo. Within a year or so we’d raised enough attention to society’s quiet permission and shameful silence that we attracted the attention of Rosemary Brown, the only MLA brave enough to speak up for women and...
Read MoreWomen Empowered in Rwanda
When I told family and friends that Rwanda was on the itinerary for my visit to Stephen Lewis Foundation funded projects in Sub Saharan Africa, many expressed concern, wondering whether it was safe. For most of us, the gruesome pictures and stories of the genocide are our first thought when Rwanda is mentioned. I didn’t really know what to expect when our bus entered the Village of Hope, the Kigali center of the Rwanda Women Network (RWN). I was prepared to be serious and empathetic in the presence of women who had gone through severe trauma. Instead, we were greeted by exuberant song and...
Read MoreOur Own Unique Master Plan
Mahalo and greetings beautiful Island women. It is a pleasure and an honor to be among you, not only as a contributing author but as a woman and a resident of this vibrant Island. Although I am fairly new to the area, my passion for exploration has created a giant gateway for deep discovery on all levels of life. I have tasted deeply and juicily of the Island’s many delights and feel the thrill of those not yet savored. Closing the door behind a life that had completed itself and courageously leaping into new passageways made possible the incredible journey that took me all the way...
Read MoreSelf Discovery Through Weaving
Imagine a world where you can play with colour and texture, where you can follow your intuition, and experiment to create unique items of clothing or works of art that express your individuality; imagine a world where there are no mistakes. This is the world of Saori Weaving, a world Terri Bibby inhabits and shares from her studio on Salt Spring Island. Nestled into the trees on a hill at the north end of Salt Spring Island, Terri’s studio is a treasure trove in the woods. Cones of cotton, wool and silk fibre, in every imaginable colour and shade line one wall, along with boxes of local...
Read MoreCustomizable Dog Beds
Most dog beds are made for small to medium sized beds – not any more. The Xena-Bed by Design House BC is customizable to the size of your dog. Made from Douglas-fir it comes with either Purple Heart or Walnut wood detailing and while the bed size is a variable, the one pictured here has a 46”L x 30”W sleeping area and an overall size of 49-1/4”L x 33-1/4”W x 9”H. We came up with this dog bed design for Xena, our 10-1/2 year old Golden Retriever. She is still as active as ever – bombing through the forest on our hikes (with Dax, our 4 year old Golden Retriever) and still...
Read MoreSinging United
Greetings from one Island Woman to another! My name is Carlie Kilduff and I am pleased to be a guest writer for Island Woman. I live in Victoria, BC with my wonderful husband and my energetic and amazing boys who are five and two years old. Previously a high school teacher, I am following a new direction as a writer, speaker, intuitive, and visionary. How I went from there to here is another story and you will have to trust me that it is great. I am writing my first book all about it! I am passionate about spreading messages of hope, love, compassion, self value, and peace. As a mother, I...
Read MoreFarm Dancing
“Everything want to be loved. Us sing and dance and holler, just trying to be loved.” – Alice Walker, The Color Purple Ahhhh, the celebration of life that signals the fall, the harvest, food aplenty, with cool clear evenings and bright sunny skies greeting the day! ‘Twas not that surprising then to see the beautiful Jackie Moad, my long-suffering partner who puts up with me through many and varied intrigues, slowly dancing through the orchard. I stood and gazed upon her from across the field. How lucky I’ve been, marrying such a free spirited, happy woman, so...
Read MoreA Hand Up, Not a Handout
Nestled in the highlands of Guatemala sits the new village of Chukumuk. Its inhabitants are survivors of one of the worst natural disasters in Central American history, the 2005 Panabaj Mudslide. This mudslide killed hundreds of Tzutujil Mayans, leaving many more without families, homes or belongings. The mudslide was up to 40 feet thick and half a mile wide, and decimated half of the village of Panabaj. This disaster occurred in the middle of the night and a disproportionate number of men died as they tried desperately to save fellow Mayans. Due to the size and scope of the disaster, massive...
Read MoreGrandmothers on Bicycles
28 grandmothers riding their bicycles from Campbell River to Victoria – 275 km in three days. What for? Good question … they do it for the grandmothers in Sub Saharan Africa who walk long distances as they look after their grandchildren who have been orphaned by AIDS. We bicycle; they walk. We have bicycles and cars, safe houses and government pensions; they don’t. Their struggle is not reported in the Canadian news media, unless there is a new horrible crisis like the kidnapping of schoolgirls in Nigeria or the outbreak of Ebola in West Africa. And yet, there are over a...
Read MoreErased from Public History
Listening to North by Northwest on CBC radio this morning, my favourite source of entertainment and information, I heard for the first time the name Thérèse Casgrain. Her granddaughter was being interviewed, and what an amazing woman she was!!! Thérèse Casgrain was the power behind the the movement that finally allowed the women of Quebec to vote in provincial elections in 1940. Yes 1940. She went on to be the first woman leader of a provincial political party in Canada and the first woman to be nominated to the Canadian senate. Thérèse died in 1981. The following year, the Thérèse...
Read MoreAnd A Bird Sang
Her mother-in-law followed her to the gate. “When are you going to do it?” “What do you mean?’ “The abortion.” When Lei becomes pregnant with her second child, she faces the decision of continuing her pregnancy or having a forced abortion as required by Chinese law. And a Bird Sang presents a realistic backdrop for a story illuminating the universal challenge for women who must decide between subservient obedience or honouring their inner voices. In China, millions of women annually face a similar choice to that of the main character in my novel – and 25 abortions are...
Read MoreMusic Educator Extraordinaire
She is the Ann Landers of the flute world and a world class music educator. From her home on a small island, just off Nanaimo, flutist Jennifer Cluff provides expertise, encouragement, and a stunning wealth of resources to flutists around the world. Her website is easily the largest of its kind in the world, and receives 20,000 hits a month. It is the quality, and not the size of this website that is so remarkable. Jen provides expertise on every imaginable aspect of flute playing, from tone production to solutions for technical problems and repertoire. Her articles and discussions are rich...
Read MoreTake the Room by Storm
Take the room by storm by calming the sea of anxieties. We have all had the butterflies just before entering a room filled with people. It all comes down to variations and degrees of nervousness and anxiety. Here are some recommended tips to alleviate the stress, build confidence and camouflage your insecurities until you become more relaxed at entering events and social gatherings. 1. The best thing to do is to accept the fact that you are nervous and don’t fall victim to playing the blame game. For example; “What is wrong with me?” or “Other people don’t have this...
Read MoreGeneral Malaise & Colonel Sloth
Inertia – noun – the state of being inert; inactivity; in physics – the property of matter by virtue of which any physical body persists in its state of rest or of uniform motion until acted upon by some external force. Inertia is the resistance of any physical object to any change in its state of motion. It comes from the Latin word, iners, meaning idle, sluggish. So there you have it: a perfect description from Funk and Wagnall and Isaac Newton that aptly describes the frequent dips in energy that characterize the 50s – not the decade, but the age. (I was...
Read MoreDependent: A Novel
At first I hated it. I cannot tell a lie. The notion of reading about “a dependent” despised me. The term conjures up visions of this pathetic, clingy housewife of a service man who lives vicariously through her husband’s career, yet wears the rank as though she were the one serving in uniform. I will admit, I came to this conclusion through my own personal bias toward service “dependents.” I too once served in uniform and could neither understand the attitude of some of my colleagues’ spouses nor care to venture into their shoes. I couldn’t fathom not being a careerist,...
Read MoreBeach Bliss
Noooooo! Picture it. The family has gathered on the crowded Parksville Beach on a July Sunday afternoon. Off in the distance, kites are flying and some are even buzzing as they do somersaults over their thirty foot long tails. There is a rainbow-coloured pirate ship sailing in the azure sky. Listen to the sound of the live music coming from the gazebo and the hum of hordes of happy children. Look out over the mountains in the distance, rising above the perfect Pacific, and above, just few enough fluffy clouds to declare it a scorcher of an Island day. There’s a lot less sand on the beach...
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