Feel-good Friday: Global BC’s highlights of the week

Here are the five stories we want to share:

Librarians create educational tool for accessing residential school survivor stories

A lot can be learned from the stories of residential school survivors.

Inspired by a desire to have these stories accessible, three librarians set out to create a publicly-available online storybase of residential school survivor stories.

“We recognize that for a long time our institutions have not been very responsive to community needs,” said Indigenous studies librarian at the University of Toronto, Desmond Wong.

“We are really working as a library system to respond to the prompts that have been put forward by Indigenous people.”

The storybase is searchable and links to approximately 250 survivor stories in various formats; visitors can search by survivor name or former school.

1:39 Librarians create tool for accessing residential school survivor stories

Return of Nisga’a memorial totem pole to be celebrated with ceremony and feast

The House of Ni’isjoohl memorial pole was carved from red cedar in 1860 in memory of a Nisga’a chief, and was taken from the nation in 1929, without the nation’s consent, by an ethnographer and later sold to the National Museum of Scotland.

Last year, a Nisga’a delegation travelled to Scotland to ask for its return. Following a year of negotiation, the museum agreed to return the pole, and arrangements were made to use a Canadian military aircraft to fly it back to British Columbia.

1:00 Timelapse of the Nisga’a memorial pole’s return from Scotland

Fan-favourite Roberto Luongo to be inducted into Vancouver Canucks’ Ring of Honour

The goalie with the most wins of all time in Vancouver Canucks history will soon be the newest member of the Ring of Honour.

Fan-favourite and former team captain Roberto Luongo, better known in the stands as “Luuuuu,” will be inducted into the Vancouver Canucks Ring of Honour this upcoming season.

0:33 Roberto Luongo to be inducted into Canucks Ring of Honour

‘A symbol of sharing’: Totem pole embodies cross-cultural connections

The totem pole ‘Pacific Song of the Ancestors’ was finally unveiled after eight years of work.

The 25-foot, 2,600-pound pole stands tall inside the northwest corner of Emily Carr’s Vancouver campus and was a collaboration between master carvers Dempsey Bob, Stan Bevan and Lyonel Grant.

“Every time I look at it I’m thinking of Dempsey and Stan and the tradition that they bring to the table,” said the Grant, a Māori carver. “I think of our ancestors and how that collective song and that totem is in harmony.

“At a very fundamental level it’s really a symbol of the connection of our ancestors, and we are just the instruments of those ancestors — it’s deep and spiritual but it’s also just friends working together to create something beautiful that’s going to last lifetimes, long after we’re gone.“

1:16 Indigenous artists come together to unveil new exhibit at Emily Carr University

B.C. film sector cautiously optimistic that Hollywood strike could be drawing to a close

Cautious optimism is building in British Columbia’s film and television industry that a historic, months-long work stoppage could be drawing to a close.

The U.S.-based Writers Guild of America (WGA) reached a tentative agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers Sunday that could bring an end to a bitter 146-day strike.

Hollywood actors, represented by the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) remain on strike.

“It’s awesome,” Shawn Williamson, a Vancouver-based television producer with Brightlights Pictures, told Global News.

“At least there’s light now. Likely shooting in about eight weeks.”

2:01 Hollywood North awaits end to writers strike

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