Explore Siksika Skies at Night

Star Gazing Night!

Saturday, April 10, 8:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m.

Take a tour of Siksika constellations, such as the Bunched Stars and the Seven Brothers, all under dark rural skies at the beautiful interpretive centre at Blackfoot Crossing Historical Park, east of Calgary.

The program will also include storytelling of native skylore legends by Siksika elders. Members of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada will be on hand with telescopes for viewing Venus, Saturn and other deep-space wonders.

The indoor program of storytelling goes ahead even if skies are cloudy.

Star Gazing Night PDF- Information of this event or visit Astronomy Calgary

In Memory of Joane Cardinal-Schubert

Joane CARDINAL-SCHUBERT R.C.A.
Kainai (1942-2009)
Dream Bed Lover-Tipi Flap, 1999
acrylic on canvas
Collection of Glenbow Museum.  Purchased with funds from the Suncor Energy Foundation, 2008
 
“So many stories are in each work, they are not just my story, they are the stories of all the people that are a part of me ... my friends, my opponents, my teachers, my colleagues and my family.” Joane Cardinal-Schubert, 2008

Renowned Blackfoot artist Joane Cardinal-Schubert passed away on September 17, 2009, after a long struggle with cancer. Cardinal-Schubert was born in 1942 in Red Deer and studied art at the Alberta College of Art, the University of Alberta and the University of Calgary, where she received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1977. She was an accomplished artist, published writer, director, curator, poet, volunteer and social activist, and was a central figure in Canadian contemporary art for over three decades.  Her artwork and writing were instrumental in exposing hierarchies and oppressive systems that have marginalized Aboriginal art and politics.

In 1985, she became the fourth woman in Alberta to be elected a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. Cardinal-Schubert was awarded the Commemorative Medal of Canada in 1992, the Queen's Jubilee Medal a decade later and, in 2003, an Honorary Doctor of Laws (LLB) from the University of Calgary. In March 2007 she was honoured with the National Aboriginal Achievement Award for arts and culture. The Red Crow College, on the Kainai Reserve, Alberta, recognised this achievement by presenting the artist with an Eagle Feather on behalf of the community.
 
Cardinal-Schubert’s work “springs from personal experience but is related to a larger cultural ethic." Dream Bed Lover-Tipi Flap reflects a difficult time in her life, when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. It explores a sense of fragility in her own life as well as that of the natural world. The top of the painting is a reference to the Fort Mc Murray landscape, with a bridge across the Athabasca River and swampy groves of spruce. A sundog glows above the landscape and forms a protective sweatlodge shape. The tipi flap is not a solid cover but rather filled with openings that provide glimpses of both inside and outside views, of both land and sky and past and present, offering a sense of protection as well as of exposed pain.

We will remember Joane as a fierce, passionate and strikingly candid spirit, remarkable in her refusal to step down in the face of conflict. Her life and work will continue to inspire a new generation of artists to be bold, unconventional and innovative.

2009 World Chicken Dance Championship

This year's event was a great success again. We had dancers and guests from near and far come to join us for this championship.

Check back soon to see if our World Chicken Dance Photo Gallery is posted as its coming soon!

We look forward to hosting the 2010 World Chicken Dance Championship.

New- 360 Virtual Tours

Blackfoot Crossing is proud to present 360 Virtual Tours- New to our web site. If you have not found this new area, it's under "Tours".

We have 11 different tours you can view of the building and displays at Blackfoot Crossing.

We encourage you to take one of our new 360 Virtual Tours

If that is not enough, you can also take a virtual tour on UTube!

Blackfoot Crossing goes to Parliament

MP Menzie's excerpt about Blackfoot Crossing from the official transcript of yesterday's  (January 29)  debate posted on the Parliamentary web site.   

Mr. Ted Menzies (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance, CPC):
Mr. Speaker, I would like to congratulate my colleague and neighbor, the member for Medicine Hat. I also want to recognize that he traveled many miles last Friday to join me in the wonderful announcement at the Blackfoot Crossing. I would encourage any hon. members who are within traveling distance or when they are in Calgary to visit the Blackfoot Crossing on the Siksika Nation.

New School Programs!

BCHP is pleased to announce the return of the Cultural Programming Sessions and the Blackfoot Language classes for Siksika Nation members. Sessions will start this fall. Please check back to this web site for exact dates and times later this summer.

Sessions ranging from “How to Make Your Own Hand Drum” to “Traditional Plants & Their Uses” will be offered!

The sessions are designed to be drop-in classes where Siksika nation members can drop in and learn from community resources about these various cultural topics. See the listing of sessions.

Award!

Blackfoot Crossing Historical Park is pleased to announce we are the 2007 winner of the:

Travel Alberta ALTO Award for Sustainable Tourism.

The award was received at a ceremony October 2007 in Banff.