| |
We are working, along with our partners, to achieve unprecedented Aboriginal participation in the 2010 Winter Games. We have signed a Protocol with Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC). It includes our commitment to work with VANOC and our other partners, primarily the federal and provincial governments, to ensure that opportunities to participate in 2010 are extended beyond the FHFN to other First Nations, Inuit and Métis Peoples across Canada.
The centerpiece, and focal point, of our efforts to act as hosts and to welcome the world to Vancouver in 2010, in particular to showcase the best of the Aboriginal Peoples of Canada, is the 2010 Aboriginal Trade Pavilion.
2010 ABORIGINAL TRADE PAVILION
When the world’s greatest winter athletes and other guests arrive in Vancouver in 2010, we expect to welcome them to the approximately 20,000 sq ft FHFN 2010 Aboriginal Trade Pavilion complex modeled after the Coast Salish Longhouse and the Interior Salish Pit House.
The Pavilion will be Canada’s Aboriginal celebration of cultural diversity and provide visitors with an opportunity to learn the rich history and culture of the FHFN and other Aboriginal Peoples of Canada. Our Pavilion will be an arena in which Aboriginal people will develop skills and gain meaningful work experience in such fields as technical communications, retail, media relations, event planning, culinary arts and doing business.
The 2010 Aboriginal Trade Pavilion is the focus for the FHFN 2010 Winter Games activities.
The Pavilion will also be our stage to showcase Aboriginal Peoples and our culture to the estimated three billion television and internet viewers that will tune in to the Games at one time or another.
The Pavilion will become the “Aboriginal gathering place” during the Games, and demonstrate the myriad ways in which the Four Host First Nations have reached out with our partners, particularly VANOC and the federal and provincial governments, to welcome the participation in the Games of other First Nations, Inuit and Métis Peoples. The Pavilion(s) will house the functions of an Aboriginal Trading Post, a Great Hall, a Feast House, a Theatre and a Business Centre. It is proposed that the design would be modeled on the Coast Salish Long House and the Interior Salish Pit House, and comprise roughly 20,000 square feet.
The Pavilion will be Canada’s Aboriginal celebration of cultural diversity and provide visitors with an opportunity to learn the rich history and culture of the FHFN and other Aboriginal Peoples of Canada. It will offer a “feast” for the senses, including:
- Aboriginal cuisine,
- Traditional and contemporary Aboriginal art,
- Aboriginal drama and musical performances,
- Learning opportunities on Aboriginal history, trade, languages and more.
Very important to our goal of developing Aboriginal capacity through the Games, our 2010 Pavilion will create an arena in which Aboriginal Peoples will develop skills and gain meaningful work experience in such fields as technical communications, retail, media relations, event planning, culinary arts and carrying on the centuries old traditions of First Nations trade and commerce in this area. Our mission is to ensure that, with our full participation as host First Nations, the 2010 Winter Games are a great success, Aboriginal Peoples are prominently featured and, long after the Games are gone, sustainable legacies live on to enrich and benefit Aboriginal Peoples and our communities.
PAVILION SITE LOCATION
 A MOU between the FHFN and the City of Vancouver, which will secure the QE Plaza site, has been concluded. The parties have jointly agreed that the optimal site for the Pavilion will comprise approximately 20,000 square feet on the southeast half of the Queen Elizabeth Theatre Plaza, fronting on Georgia and Cambie streets. This site is immediately adjacent to the proposed “Olympic Live Site” located just east, across Cambie, of our Pavilion site, and it is expected that our Pavilion would become part of the Live Site complex.
While the FHFN were prepared to erect the Pavilion on a temporary basis for the Games, to be deconstructed and reassembled elsewhere post-Games as a permanent legacy, the City of Vancouver has expressed interest in jointly determining whether the Pavilion might become a permanent, sustainable Aboriginal legacy as part of the City’s cultural precinct at the QE Plaza site post-Games.
|
|
