ArtsCan Volunteer Profile for Randy Cameron I came to be an ArtsCan volunteer through a music festival called Blue Skies. Back in the early years of the century, my life partner Marty and I ran an Arts and Music Camp for a week on the Blue Skies site in rural Eastern Ontario. We did this for several years and the camp was a big success. We were suggested as a team that could offer a strong arts program to elementary-aged children for ArtsCan Circle. As seasoned Child Care Workers in Ottawa, we have drawn on years of activities with kids of many ages, and were able to pack instrument-making (cigar-box guitars mostly), weaving, beading, sewing, puppets, stained-glass, jewelry-making, mural art, acrylic painting (and lots of gimp) into our Rubbermaid tubs of supplies. With this portable Art Attack, we did a dozen or so trips into Northwestern Ontario and two into Labrador between 2006 and 2013. On one trip I fell in love with the ukulele and have played enough since that I can help teach it where they are available in the communities we visit. On the last few trips, I shared with groups of older kids some basic skills in acrylic painting that I learned from my teacher in art classes since 2008. They were enormously pleased to have success in one session of work. It has been an both an honour and a privilege to go on these trips and it has given both of us many new perspectives on Native and Northern issues in Canada. Thanks to Mike Stevens and everyone else for shipping our tubs into so many remote places and including us in this crucial and positive work with youth in the North. It has enriched my life greatly. Randy Cameron, B.ED. The photos are from Nataushish, and Wabaseemoong First Nations school in White Dog.
Posted on: Fri, 11 Jul 2014 16:00:00 +0000
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