22 - 29 May 2010

Vancouver has been a recovery spot for us after 2 months of constant travel, change, work and jet lag. We stayed in a spacious apartment in the western part of Downtown with views toward Granville island, the North Shore, the "Rainbow" neighbourhood and community gardens - great spot as it was in walking distance to all that we did.

Vancouver is a stunning city - surrounded by water, rich with vegetation and birdlife - the business district is set amongst high density residential areas - it is a vibrant and culturally rich city. Vancouver was very spruced up, given the Winter Olympics had only finished two months ago - the energy of that time was still evident.We enjoyed walking the streets and beaches; sipping the best coffees in North America (Caffé Artigiano - if you are going to Vancouver); dining at stunning restaurants (as recommended by Sue and Dan) - Coast, the Italian Kitchen and Sanafir; getting high quality cheap and easy meals such as Greek food at Stepho's (where there is always a queue to get in - the queue has three stages: out on the street, a chair inside the door then a chair in the middle of the restaurant, then finally to your much-waited for table), numerous sushi bars, pasta joints and fantastic Thai food.

The public market at Granville island was fab - fresh seafood, meats, fruit, veges, bagels, artisan breads and other gourmet delights - all set on the waterfront.The artisan gift shops were fantastic as it is a central area for artist training (at Emily Carr University) and for artist studios and galleries to be established.

Homelessness is a huge issue in Vancouver - people told us that this was because it is the warmest city in Canada, especially during winter. While we were there, a local business man has contributed $5 million (CAD) to a StreetHome program and has achieved a $5 -8million co-contribution from the provincial government to provide appropriate and safe housing and food security for people who have found themselves homeless.Canada has weathered the GFC storm much better than the USA, but many Canadians feel that the worst is yet to come. This is probably true for Australia as well.

A highlight of Vancouver was spending time in the Bill Reid Gallery of NorthWest Coast Art (http://www.billreidgallery.ca/) & (http://theravenscall.ca/en/who). Bill Reid lived from 1928 to 1998, the last 25 years with Parkinson's Disease. He is a descendant of the Haida people in northwest Canada who discovered his Indigenous roots as a young adult.This propelled him to embark on a creative art journey as well as being a radio broadcaster - this journey demonstrated his exquisite gifts as an artist in the forms of sketching, painting, wood carving, stone and bronze carving and jewellery making. His aim was to celebrate, and capture in perpetuity, the rich culture of Haida people and advocate for their rights and protections in a dominant global world that has failed Indigenous peoples.Again, this collection was presented with such sensitive and innovative curation, along the lines of the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian in Washington DC.Raven, Bear, Dogfish Woman and killer Whale all figure strongly in his works as he artistically represents the Haida culture, legends and stories.If you want more accurate and in-depth information about this brilliant man, please see the websites above.

We have uploaded a 20 second video clip of a Canadian Afro-Cuban percussion band, Kutapira, that we saw busking in one of the main streets of downtown Vancouver. The video clip doesn't really capture how tight the band members were, how they rotated among the various percussion instruments (drums, xylophones) and their incredible energy and rhythm - they had the whole street captivated and sold dozens of CDs. If you want to hear them, we have their CD!! Watch out for them in future Womadelaide programs!

Lynda had interviews scheduled at the Forest Sciences Centre at the University of British Columbia, so we spent time out there exploring the campus and the surrounding beach parks.What a spectacular spot, on its own peninsula facing out to sea. The campus is enormous and has a botanical garden, rose garden, Japanese garden, Performing Arts Centre, Museum of Anthropology, a hospital, accommodation and housing and extensive sport and recreation facilities - a mini-city in an idyllic setting.

All in all, Vancouver deserves to be named the "most livable city in the world" - the people are incredibly warm, friendly, hospitable and helpful.

Next journey for us will be to UBC Okanagan in Kelowna - will update you further from there!!

Cheers……….R&L xx