Stem cells from umbilical cords might be the answer for severely ill COVID patients: Canadian researchers

Tom Blackwell 

2/24/2021

© Provided by National Post Dr. Duncan Stewart of Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, who is conducting a trial using a type of stem cell obtained from umbilical cords to treat patients made severely ill by COVID-19.

More than a year into the COVID-19 pandemic, medical science is still struggling to cope with the worst manifestation of the disease.

When out-of-control immune systems attack patients’ lungs and sap their ability to breathe, health care has no sure-fire response. Even with some improvement in treatment, as many as 40 per cent of COVID patients in the intensive-care unit never make it out.

But researchers in Canada and elsewhere believe there’s potential lurking inside an unlikely source: a byproduct of child birth.

Discarded umbilical cords are a particularly rich font of mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs), a type of stem cell that scientists hope could reset that berserk immune system and tamp down damaging inflammation.

At least two clinical trials are in the works in Canada and dozens more in other countries to test the idea on the sickest of COVID patients.

Results of randomized, controlled tests of the cells’ efficacy are still to come, but early signs are promising. A small handful of “case series” — observational studies that lack a placebo group for comparison — have had good results, including one just published by an Iranian team.

The Ottawa Hospital Research Institute has completed a phase one safety trial of the cells on 11 patients, showing the treatment was well tolerated.

“The results are encouraging, they definitely support moving forward into a larger randomized trial,” said Dr. Duncan Stewart, the institute’s CEO. “This is a population that has extremely poor outcomes, so anything that can reduce the severity of the disease and improve survival and recovery is really, really important.”

At McGill University, a team led by Dr. Inés Colmegna plans to test another MSC product derived from umbilical cord blood, produced by a Swedish company.

“The idea here is that you’re using a cell that is capable … of reversing the damage caused by a huge activation of the immune system,” she said. “In a way, you are bringing some order and direction to the immune system.”

Some experts actually describe COVID-19 as like two different diseases. The first sees the virus itself triggering various symptoms, which clear up in most patients. The second occurs when the immune system goes hyperactive, triggering massive inflammation and assailing the cells of the lung, strangling their ability to shift oxygen to the bloodstream.

The result can be acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), the most dangerous symptom of COVID-19, when many patients end up on ventilators fighting for their lives.

Various potential treatments for the condition have been tried, none proving to be a home run.

With their ability to transform into other types of cells, MSCs were originally investigated as a way to regenerate damaged or diseased tissue. The results weren’t encouraging, but the cells did seem proficient at “modulating” the immune system, re-adjusting it so it fights off disease but doesn’t turn on the body itself, said Stewart.

Unlike single-molecule treatments, they also have a unique ability to multi-task, to target a number of factors causing damage, said Colmegna.

“You really are trying to tackle more than one thing at once.”

How the cells accomplish all that is not entirely clear, but they are associated with small blood vessels that play a key role in healing after injury, said Stewart.

Before the pandemic, the Ottawa team had completed a phase one trial using MSCs to treat ARDS caused by septic shock. A Chinese group reported in October on a study of 61 patients suffering from ARDS due to H7N9 flu. Significantly fewer of the 17 that received the stem cells — 17.6 per cent — died than those who did not get the treatment (55 per cent).

The cells can be found throughout the body but efforts to harvest them have largely focused on bone marrow and umbilical cords. The latter are the richest source and give up younger cells, Stewart said.

He believes his team’s MSC product has an advantage over others as it is derived fresh from living cultures, and is likely more potent than others that are frozen and then thawed.

But the frozen cells are “off-the-shelf” products that provide more flexibility in emergency cases when speed is of the essence, said Colmegna.

Crowds flock to Iceland volcano for a closer glimpse of lava

REYKJAVIK, Iceland — The eruption of a long-dormant volcano in southwestern Iceland has drawn large crowds of visitors eager to get close to the lava flows.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Many have trekked to the volcano on the Reykjanes Peninsula, near Iceland's capital Reykjavik, since it flared to life Friday night after tens of thousands of earthquakes were recorded in the area in the past three weeks. It was the area’s first volcanic eruption in nearly 800 years.

On Tuesday, Iceland’s civil protection officials were seen gesturing to dozens of people to move away from lava just meters behind them to ensure visitors do not get hurt. One of the officials said a visitor tried to cook bacon and eggs on the lava — but the pan melted in the heat.

Italian photographer Vincenzo Mazza, who lives in Iceland, was one of those who got a close look at the slow-flowing lava.

Video: Icelandic volcano eruption attracts sightseers (The Canadian Press)



“I’ve been waiting for many years to see an eruption in Iceland,” he said. “I saw some eruptions in Italy, like Etna and Stromboli, but this is absolutely different."

“I can’t say ‘this is more beautiful than that’ because they are very different, but this lava glowing just so close to us, it’s insane,” Mazza said.

The glow from the lava could be seen from the outskirts of Iceland’s capital, Reykjavík, about 32 kilometres (20 miles) away.

Icelandic officials said they did not anticipate evacuations because the volcano is in a remote area, about 2.5 kilometres (1.5 miles) from the nearest road.

US report: Bald eagle populations soar in lower 48 states

WASHINGTON — The number of American bald eagles has quadrupled since 2009, with more than 300,000 birds soaring over the lower 48 states, government scientists said in a report Wednesday.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said bald eagles, the national symbol that once teetered on the brink of extinction, have flourished in recent years, growing to more than 71,400 nesting pairs and an estimated 316,700 individual birds.

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, in her first public appearance since being sworn in last week, hailed the eagle's recovery and noted that the majestic, white-headed bird has always been considered sacred to Native American tribes and the United States generally.

“The strong return of this treasured bird reminds us of our nation’s shared resilience and the importance of being responsible stewards of our lands and waters that bind us together,'' said Haaland, the first Native American Cabinet secretary.

Bald eagles reached an all-time low of 417 known nesting pairs in 1963 in the lower 48 states. But after decades of protection, including banning the pesticide DDT and placement of the eagle on the endangered species list in more than 40 states, the bald eagle population has continued to grow. The bald eagle was removed from the list of threatened or endangered species in 2007.

“It is clear that the bald eagle population continues to thrive,'' Haaland said, calling the bird's recovery a “success story (that) is a testament to the enduring importance of the work of the Interior Department scientists and conservationists. This work could not have been done without teams of people collecting and analyzing decades’ worth of science ... accurately estimating the bald eagle population here in the United States.''

The celebration of the bald eagle “is also a moment to reflect on the importance of the Endangered Species Act, a vital tool in the efforts to protect America’s wildlife,'' Haaland said, calling the landmark 1973 law crucial to preventing the extinction of species such as the bald eagle or American bison.

Reiterating a pledge by President Joe Biden, Haaland said her department will review actions by the Trump administration “to undermine key provisions" of the endangered species law. She did not offer specifics, but environmental groups and Democratic lawmakers criticized the Trump administration for a range of actions, including reducing critical habitat for the northern spotted owl and lifting protections for gray wolves.

“We will be taking a closer look at all of those revisions and considering what steps to take to ensure that all of us — states, Indian tribes, private landowners and federal agencies — have the tools we need to conserve America’s natural heritage and strengthen our economy,'' Haaland said.

“We have an obligation to do so because future generations must also experience our beautiful outdoors, the way many of us have been blessed,'' she added.

Martha Williams, deputy director of the Fish and Wildlife Service, called recovery of the bald eagle “one of the most remarkable conservation success stories of all time" and said she hopes all Americans get the chance to see a bald eagle in flight.

“They're magnificent to see,” she said.

To estimate the bald eagle population in the lower 48 states, Fish and Wildlife Service biologists and observers conducted aerial surveys over a two-year period in 2018 and 2019. The agency also worked with the Cornell University Lab of Ornithology to acquire information on areas that were not practical to fly over as part of aerial surveys.

Matthew Daly, The Associated Press

People downwind of atomic blasts renew push for US payout


ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — In the desert northeast of Las Vegas, residents living along the Nevada-Arizona border would gather on their front porches for bomb parties or ride horses into the fields to watch as the U.S. government conducted atomic tests during a Cold War-era race to build up the nation's nuclear arsenal.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

About 100 of those tests were aboveground, and U.S. Rep. Greg Stanton of Arizona testified during a congressional subcommittee hearing Wednesday that residents at the time marveled at the massive orange mushroom clouds billowing in the distance.

“They had no idea. They were never told that they were being exposed to dangerous cancer-causing radiation,” Stanton said. “As a direct result of the radiation exposure from these tests, thousands of Arizonans have suffered from cancer, entire families have suffered from cancer and far too many have died.”

He and others testified as part of a renewed push for compensation from the U.S. government following uranium mining and nuclear testing carried out during the Cold War.

Lawmakers from several Western states, advocacy groups and residents have been urging Congress to expand a payout program for years, and advocates say the latest push takes on added weight because the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act is set to expire next year. Wednesday’s hearing was the first on the issue since 2018, advocates said.

In New Mexico, about 40,000 people lived within a 50-mile (80-kilometre) radius of a military range where the world’s first atomic bomb was detonated as part of World War II's top-secret Manhattan Project, said Tina Cordova, co-founder of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium.

The advocacy group has been trying for years to bring awareness to the lingering effects of nuclear fallout surrounding the Trinity Site. She told the committee that the bomb, being the first, was inefficient and sent a fireball of plutonium into the atmosphere.

“For days, radioactive ash fell from the sky and settled on everything — the soil, in the water, in the air, on the plants and on the skin of every living thing. It was a public health disaster of grand proportions,” Cordova testified.

The rural residents who lived off the land were never told about the test or warned about the potential dangers, she said.

Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez testified about the environmental and health effects of decades of uranium mining on tribal land. He said more than 30 million tons of ore were extracted from Navajo lands to support U.S. nuclear activities, with many Navajos working in the mines without knowledge of the dangers.

He also pointed to a massive spill in 1979 that spewed radioactive tailings and wastewater onto tribal lands in the Church Rock area in western New Mexico.

A multibillion-dollar defence spending package approved last year included an apology to New Mexico, Nevada, Utah and other states affected by radiation from nuclear testing over the decades, but no action was taken on legislation that sought to change and broaden the compensation program.

U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico, who sponsored the bill to expand the program when he was in the House, recalled how a Navajo woman previously asked lawmakers whether they were waiting for the people who were exposed to radiation to die so the problem would go away.

“It's just not right,” Luján said, pointing to those on the Navajo Nation as well as people downwind in New Mexico, Idaho, Colorado, Montana, Nevada, Utah and Guam who are not eligible for payouts. “These people deserve justice.”

The compensation program covers workers who became sick as a result of the radiation hazards of their jobs and some of those who lived downwind of the Nevada Test Site, where the federal government conducted several hundred nuclear explosive tests over four decades. Excluded are residents near the Trinity Site in New Mexico, others who were downwind in Nevada and Arizona, miners who worked in the industry after 1971, veterans who cleaned up radioactive waste in the Marshall Islands and others.

The program has paid out nearly $2.5 billion on more than 37,000 claims since 1990. If Congress doesn't doesn't renew the program, no more claims can be filed after July 2022.

Congressional analysts and others could not answer the committee's questions about the potential number of new claims that could be filed if eligibility were expanded.

U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson, a Democrat from Georgia, said payouts so far amounted to a pittance when compared to the half-billion dollars the country expects to spend on maintaining its nuclear arsenal over the next decade.

Susan Montoya Bryan, The Associated Press

UH OH

Three previously-unknown microbes discovered aboard ISS

Cheryl Santa Maria 

Three strains of bacteria previously unknown to science have been discovered aboard the International Space Station (ISS), according to a new paper appearing in the journal Frontiers in Microbiology.

The team, comprised of researchers from the U.S. and India in partnership with NASA, isolated four strains of bacteria belonging to the family Methylobacteriaceae from different locations on the ISS.

Methylobacterium species have numerous functions, the study authors say, including "nitrogen fixation, phosphate solubilization, abiotic stress tolerance, plant growth promotion and biocontrol activity against plant pathogens."

Three of the strains were previously unknown and have been given the designations IF7SW-B2T, IIF1SW-B5, and IIF4SW-B5. The team has proposed calling the new novel species Methylobacterium ajmalii, in honour of Indian biodiversity scientist Dr. Ajmal Khan.

Dr. Nitin Kumar Singh of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) says the strains may contain "biotechnologically useful genetic determinants" for growing crops in space, an issue that is becoming increasingly important as we look to send human explorers to Mars.

Learning to grow food in a harsh environment like space can also have implications for life on Earth, as it could help farmers offset the negative effects of climate change. Expanding our agricultural knowledge can also help reduce food security.

© Provided by The Weather Network

And, like many technologies developed by NASA, the ideas may have implications for life on Earth, by teaching us about growing crops in harsh environments and reducing food insecurity.

For the past six years, eight locations on the ISS have been monitored for bacterial growth, with hundreds of samples analyzed to date.

The team will now focus its attention on analyzing the new strains to see what insight they may be able to provide.

Archaeologists identify 3,200-year-old temple mural of spider god in Peru

Sam Jones 
THE GUARDIAN

3/25/2021

Archaeologists in northern Peru have identified a 3,200-year-old mural painted on the side of an ancient adobe temple that is thought to depict a zoomorphic, knife-wielding spider god associated with rain and fertility.

© Photograph: ANDINA/AFP/Getty Images Experts believe the shrine was built by the pre-Columbian Cupisnique culture, which developed along Peru’s northern coast more than 3,000 years ago.

The mural – applied in ochre, yellow, grey and white paint to the wall of the 15m by 5m mud brick structure in the Virú province of Peru’s La Libertad region – was discovered last year after much of the site was destroyed by local farmers trying to extend their avocado and sugarcane plantations.

Experts believe the shrine was built by the pre-Columbian Cupisnique culture, which developed along Peru’s northern coast more than 3,000 years ago.

The archaeologist Régulo Franco Jordán said the shrine’s strategic location near the river had led researchers to believe it had been a temple dedicated to water deities.

© Provided by The Guardian The mural – applied in ochre, yellow, grey and white paint to the wall of the 15m by 5m mud brick structure in the Virú province of Peru’s La Libertad region – was discovered last year. Photograph: ANDINA/AFP/Getty Images

“What we have here is a shrine that would have been a ceremonial centre thousands of years ago,” he told Peru’s La República newspaper.

“The spider on the shrine is associated with water and was an incredibly important animal in pre-Hispanic cultures, which lived according to a ceremonial calendar. It’s likely that there was a special, sacred water ceremony held between January and March when the rains came down from the higher areas.”

According to the archeologists, about 60% of the complex, which lies 500km north of Lima, was destroyed in November last year when farmers in the region used heavy machinery to try to extend their crop fields.

Related: Huge cat found etched into desert among Nazca Lines in Peru

Jordán has named the temple Tomabalito after the nearby archaeological site known as el Castillo de Tomabal.

“The site has been registered and the discovery will be covered up until the [Covid] pandemic is over and it can be properly investigated,” he told La República.

The spider god is not the only ancient animal artwork to have appeared in Peru over recent months. In October last year, the form of an enormous cat, dated to between 200 BC and 100 BC, emerged during work to improve access to one of the hills that overlooks the country’s famous Nazca line geoglyphs.

Twyla Tharp, nearing 80, isn't slowing down. Next question?

NEW YORK — The new PBS documentary on dancer-choreographer Twyla Tharp is called “Twyla Moves.” In retrospect, that sounds a bit weak.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

It really should be called “Twyla Moves And Won’t Stop As Long As She Has a Detectable Pulse,” a title that might perhaps begin to capture the fierceness with which Tharp, who turns 80 this year, approaches both work and life.

It’s a fierceness that led her at one point to take boxing lessons with Teddy Atlas, who trained Mike Tyson, to get in the best possible condition for a piece she was doing. “I eventually had to stop boxing because I got hit and broke my nose,” she recalled in an interview this week. “I said, ‘OK, your boxing days are over.’”

It’s also a fierceness that greets you the minute you begin a phone conversation with Tharp, whose words tumble out with striking speed and rarely a second of hesitation. She doesn’t need long to formulate fully developed thoughts -- nor does she seem to enjoy wasting time. In a recent Zoom group event, she was asked why she hadn’t done more movies. She proceeded to quickly list those she’d done -- “Hair,” “White Nights” and “Amadeus” among them -- with just a hint of impatience.

Given all that, it would seem obvious that something like a global pandemic wouldn't force Tharp off course, or keep her on the sofa binge-watching Netflix. On a recent afternoon, Tharp began a conversation by explaining why she’d had to postpone a few hours: Since 4 a.m. that morning she’d been choreographing a new work with ballet dancers in Düsseldorf, Germany. Choreography via Zoom, she noted, “is very strenuous — very limited from a sensory point of view.”

And perhaps especially for a choreographer like Tharp, who doesn’t simply sit and instruct dancers — she teaches by showing, even now. To be in that kind of shape approaching one’s ninth decade on earth is a challenge that would elude most of us. Part of Tharp’s physical regimen involves sticking to 1,200 calories a day.

“I don’t like carrying extra weight,” she says. “I like feeling what I call ‘on the bone,’ literally very close to the bone. For one thing the feet have suffered a certain amount of abuse, and I like to keep as much weight as possible out of them."

It’s shocking she hasn’t permanently damaged those feet. To say Tharp’s choreography is merely athletic is to understate the way in which it has stretched her artists and herself to the limits. Billy Joel, who collaborated with Tharp on the 2002 Broadway hit “Movin’ Out,” set to his music, speaks of being in rehearsal and watching dancers “throwing themselves around the stage — I was worried about people getting injured! I felt like, ‘Take it easy! Watch out for the end of the stage!’ They were risking life and limb every night.”

Musician David Byrne, with whom she worked on an earlier show, “The Catherine Wheel” in 1981, felt the same. ”These were top-notch dancers and she was pushing them to the limits of what they could do physically,” he says in the film.

Tharp explains it simply: "Part of the adventure for me has always been a physical challenge." She notes matter-of-factly that at one point in her weight training, she could lift 227 pounds, "and I am 108 pounds, so that's twice my body weight. I go for records and that’s what I do. I think anybody who works with me expects that same challenge.”

Needless to say, Tharp doesn’t seem to care a lot about physical comfort — or comfort of any kind. Ask, for example, whether she was comfortable being the subject of a documentary, and she says drily: “I’m not sure what you mean by comfortable.” Enjoyable? Nah. “It’s work, like anything else. I don’t attach to it commodities like comfort or enjoyment.”

Indeed, the theme itself is work. In one old clip, TV host Dick Cavett asks Tharp what she does to relax after a long period of work. “Work more,” she replies. You believe her.

Tharp didn’t want the film, directed by Steven Cantor and part of the American Masters series, to feel like a biography. She wanted a lot more present tense in there. “Often when you’re dealing with something that has as much history as I do or backlog, you can get lost in the past,” she says. “One of my conditions was that I’d be doing new work.”

So we watch her creating a new Zoom version of her work “The Princess and the Goblin,” with several prominent dancers handpicked for the film, including Misty Copeland of American Ballet Theatre, Maria Khoreva of the Mariinsky Ballet in Russia, Herman Cornejo of ABT, and Charlie Hodges, a longtime Tharp dancer. “Part of the mission here was that dance is always about getting the job done, that even under the most difficult of situations — no physical contact, good luck with that if your'e a dancer! — we can still deliver something, because we’re dancers. We’ll do it!"

But the jewel is her archive, which spans her career, beginning with her experiments in modern dance from the '60s. She's shown dancing with Mikhail Baryshnikov, or working with him on “White Nights” with Gregory Hines. There are snippets from gems like the hugely popular “In the Upper Room,” a ballet set to the propulsive music of Philip Glass. Tharp began videotaping her work in 1968. “I have many many many thousands of hours of tape thoroughly documenting every piece I’ve ever made," she says, “because I am an art historian.”

There's nowhere near enough time to include her vast repertoire. About half the show is on the Zoom project -- 41 minutes, she notes with a choreographer’s precision -- “and that leaves you with 20 from when you were born to grew up and you're not not quite dead yet, then another 20 for 150 works and four books...”

And she’s not near done. Asked in the film whether she's achieved her mission, she says: “Not quite.” Asked by this reporter when that might be, she offered: “When I die?”

“There’s nothing that could hold Twyla back from creating — it feeds her,” says Copeland in the film. “We’re all trying to keep up with her, is the moral of the story.”

Jocelyn Noveck, The Associated Press

New 'Lord of the Rings' edition to include Tolkien artwork

NEW YORK — An upcoming edition of J.R.R. Tolkien's “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy will include paintings, drawings and other illustrations by the British author for the first time since it was published in the mid-1950s.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books & Media announced Thursday that the new version will come out Oct. 19. Deb Brody, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt's vice-president and publisher, noted that Tolkien was already known for his illustrations which appeared in “The Hobbit" and that his artwork for “The Lord of the Rings” had been exhibited in 2018 in New York, Paris and in Oxford, England

‘Yet the author himself was characteristically modest, dismissive of the obvious and rare artistic talent he possessed despite having had no formal training," Brody said in a statement. “This modesty meant that relatively little else of his artwork was known of or seen during his lifetime, and generally only in scholarly books afterwards.”

“The Lord of the Rings” books, which include “The Fellowship of the Ring,” “The Two Towers” and “The Return of the King,” are among the bestselling fantasy novels in history. They were adapted into a blockbuster trilogy of films by director Peter Jackson.

The Associated Press

Winnipeg’s New Inuit Art Centre, Qaumajuq, Is Astounding And Ambitious

Siku Allooloo
CHATELAINE

3/25/2021

© Provided by Chatelaine A photo of Qaumajuq, the new Inuit art centre in Winnipeg.
(Photo: Lindsay Reid)

In my father’s community of Mittimatalik, Nunavut, spring ushers in the return of the sun after several months of darkness. It’s a fitting season for the Winnipeg Art Gallery (WAG) to debut its new Inuit art centre, Qaumajuq. Emerging from a long colonial legacy that still shadows Canada and the world, this astounding new building redefines the very function and possibilities of cultural institutions. Qaumajuq (pronounced kow-ma-yourk or sometimes heard how-ma-yourk) means “it is bright, it is lit” in Inuktitut, and it heralds an exciting new era for Indigenous art.

Since the mid-19th Century, Inuit art has been shipped thousands of kilometres away from our people and where our stories take place, to be primarily shown (and housed) in spaces that are largely inaccessible to us. This month, a big change in accessibility and relationship to community arrives with the opening of Qaumajuq, along with an array of transformative ideas several years in the making.

At 40,000 square-feet, Qaumajuq is also one of the biggest exhibition spaces for Indigenous art in North America. Architect Michael Maltzan’s design was “inspired by the landscapes, light, and peoples of the North, and reflects the forms and spirits of Inuit art.” Connected to the WAG by four glass bridges, the monumental four-storey centre houses nearly 14,000 pieces of Inuit art—the world’s largest collection.

© Provided by Chatelaine An interior photo of Qaumajuq
(Photo: Lindsay Reid)

The grandiose scale is matched in innovation. This was led by the WAG’s Indigenous Advisory Circle, which challenged the gallery to completely rethink its use of space and artistic values in 2017. Thanks to the Circle’s exceptional co-chairs, the visionary curators Heather Igloliorte and Julie Nagam, as well as the willingness of the WAG to pursue institutional change, Indigenous knowledge holders, artists, curators and linguists from across Manitoba and Inuit Nunangat were able to guide staff in the decolonization and restructuring of a prestigious 109-year-old art institution.

Collaboration like this is embarrassingly rare. Canadian institutions often pay lip service to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action, or the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, but are slow to implement structural change. For art galleries and museums, moving from exploitation to respect means shifting the focus from objects to artists, and the communities we come from. It is, as Indigenous peoples have always asserted, about centring relationships–and actions that invite good relations. This includes dedicating resources, space and opportunities to Indigenous artists, and making way for cultural innovation that generates abundance for all.

Video: World’s largest collection of contemporary Inuit art goes on display in Winnipeg (cbc.ca)

One of the Circle’s successful suggestions was permanent, free admission for Indigenous peoples. “We want to send the message that you’re important here,” says Igloliorte. Indigenous staff are also being hired at all levels of operation, from security to management. “It is exciting to witness these changes going forward even before the new building has opened.”

Last fall, the entire WAG was transformed by Indigenous naming processes led by the Circle, along with a group of elders and language keepers. Following Qaumajuq, the existing WAG building also received a new name, Biindigin Biwaasaeyaah, which means “Come on in, the dawn of light is here” in Anishnaabemowin. Gallery spaces inside both buildings were renamed in Anishnaabemowin, Nêhiyawêwin, Dakota, Sayisi Dene, Michif, and four dialects of Inuktitut—reflecting the presence of all Indigenous nations across Manitoba and Inuit Nunangat. All staff are trained in the proper pronunciation of each name, so they can guide and welcome visitors through this reimagined space, which, in effect, prioritizes land acknowledgement above wealthy donors.

© Provided by Chatelaine 

A photo of the glass exhibition vault in the entrance way of Qaumajuq.
(Photo: Lindsay Reid)

The centre of the entrance hall at Qaumajuq holds an exquisite three-storey glass vault showcasing the gallery’s entire collection of 8,000 Inuit carvings. “It’s exciting that the WAG is bringing these out of the windowless vault, and into the light!” says Igloliorte. This space is named Ilavut (“our relatives” in Inuktitut), honouring both the artworks and the artists as relatives, as well as all people whose cultural heritage is housed within Qaumajuq. Entry to Ilavut and the whole main level of the WAG is free to everyone.

This month’s opening exhibition, “INUA” is a landmark in Canadian history and an unprecedented celebration of Inuit art, led by a curatorial group representing all four regions of Inuit Nunangat. Joining Igloliorte, who is an art historian from Nunatsiavut, are Krista Ulujuk Zawadski, curator of Inuit Art for the government of Nunavut; artist and sculptor Kablusiakq (of the Inuvialuit Region); and Sobey Award-winning and multidisciplinary artist and filmmaker Asinnajaq (of Nunavik).

INUA showcases art of all media by Inuit artists from across Canada, as well as a selection of work by Indigenous artists from across the circumpolar world. I am fortunate enough to be one of the artists. To be showing my sealskin poem, Akia (2019), alongside other Inuit work in a momentous exhibition celebrating past, present and future of our art, in a space designed to uplift all peoples is a deeply wonderful reality I could not have imagined.

Qaumajuq, at long last, has arrived. Let us welcome the sun!


Virtual opening ceremony, March 25 and 26. Open to the public with limited capacity, March 27.

#STOPWOLFHUNTS

The perils of wandering wolves: M2001, a lone male from Banff, shot dead by Montana hunter

Tyler Dawson 

POSTMEDIA

3?24/2021

© Provided by National Post File photo of a grey wolf Kootenay National Park. Research indicates the mortality of wolves increases significantly once they leave the relative safety of national parks.

A grey wolf from Banff travelled around 500 kilometres, across the Alberta-British Columbia border, and into Montana — all in just five days — where it met its end at the hands of a Montana hunter, a stark reminder of the perils faced by animal populations once they leave the protective borders of national parks.

Wolf M2001, a lone male, made the journey down the spine of the Rockies, starting from Kananaskis Country, just east of Banff National Park, through Fernie, B.C., and then crossing into the United States — likely in search of a new pack or mate.

He was shot dead on March 8, Parks Canada officials confirmed, saying they tracked the wolf with a GPS collar as it made its journey.

“It is legal in Montana for landowners to remove wolves that potentially threaten livestock, domestic dogs or human safety,” said a Parks Canada statement.

Such trips are not unusual, especially for young wolves, that leave in search of new packs, hunting and living territory, most commonly when the wolves are between one-and-a-half and three-years old.

But research indicates the mortality of wolves increases significantly once they leave the relative safety of national parks, although even within park borders, they risk being hit by vehicles or trains or euthanized should they become too used to humans.

Once they cross park boundaries, however, they’re at risk of being killed by hunters and trappers, both in Canada and the United States.

Montana governor kills wolf that wandered 16 km outside protected habitat in Yellowstone

Hunters killed more than 200 grey wolves in Wisconsin, 82% more than the state's limit

A 2020 study, which tracked 72 wolves between 1987 and 2018, found that wolves that left Banff National Park were 6.7 times more likely to die. Those that left the park had a 44 per cent chance of survival, compared to 84 per cent for those who lived within the park.

“Indeed, the greatest risk factor in our study was whether wolves left the protection of the park in winter during the hunting and trapping season on adjacent provincial lands,” the study says.

Most the deaths outside the park were caused by hunting — 18 per cent — and trapping — 36 per cent. In some parts of Alberta and Saskatchewan, municipalities pay bounties on wolves, coyotes and other predators, according to a 2015 research paper.

For example, Big Lakes, Alta., a county located northwest of Edmonton, offers $250 per wolf pelt, according to the municipality website. Wildlife advocate suggest these municipal programs have paid out hundreds of thousands of tax dollars to hunters and trappers over the years. Other areas have hosted “kill contests,” where teams compete to see how many animals, often coyotes, can be killed in a period of time.

The perils for wandering wolves isn’t just a problem for the animals in Canadian parks. In February, Greg Gianforte, the Republican Governor of Montana, trapped and killed a six-year-old wolf. It had travelled more than 16 kilometres away from Yellowstone National Park, and so was fair game. Gianforte hadn’t actually done the requisite training to trap wolves, and received a written warning.

As it happens, the wolves in Yellowstone are actually wolves that were relocated from Banff and Jasper National Park in the 1990s.

The death of Wolf M2001 also comes shortly after Wisconsin hunters killed 20 per cent of the state’s wolf hunting quota in one 60-hour period at the end of February, resulting in the death of 216 wolves. This wildly exceeded the state’s quota of 119 dead wolves in a hunt that also happened during the breeding season of the grey wolf.

The cull came after the U.S. administration under former president Donald Trump removed the grey wolf from the endangered species list.

With additional reporting from the Washington Post

• Email: tdawson@postmedia.com | Twitter: tylerrdawson