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6 Wednesday November 18 2015 ARTS CULTURE GRAPHIC NOVELS By DALI CARMICHAEL When artist Alison McCreesh and her partner moved to Yellowknife their only plan was to hang out on the shores of Great Slave Lake for a single summer. Six-and-a-halfyearslaterthecou- ple still calls the NWT capital home. InherlatestprojectMcCreeshhas captured the story of her migration fromQuebectoYellowknifeandset- tlement in the city in a new graphic novelRamshacklewhichlaunchedon Nov.11attheDowntoEarthGallery. Its the story of moving North to Yellowknife and getting to know Yellowknife and growing to like it and discovering all of its quirks and things that make it special and en- tertaining she said. I had all that material and it seemed silly not to make use of that. An artist by trade McCreesh made it a habit to draw cartoons frequently and post them in a blog. She combed through the archives carefully to select the panels that would create Ramshackle. In my work I focus on the very sort of mundane day to day things butalsothesmallquirksthatyound inthosethings.Indwherethemore traditional meets the more contem- poraryisoftenwhereIndhumour she said. I like the idea of say kids ontheiriPadswiththeirtraditionally made sealskin kamiks or things like that.Thatspartofthecontemporary Northern identity in a sense. Panel by panel artist captures Yellowknife PhotoBillBraden To anyone who calls Yellowknife home some scenes from the book should be immediately recognizable. TothosefolksontheoutsideMcCreesh hopesitwillendearthemtothenorth- ern capital or at the very least pique theircuriosityaboutcontemporarylife in the Northwest Territories. I put a lot of attention into the detail in all the drawings and kept it pretty realistic. I hope people re- ally enjoy recognizing all the little detailsandtheplacesandthepeople the light she said.Though our sto- ries are unique in a sense - I mean everyone has their own story - its a variation on that universal story of movingNorthcomingforasummer and staying. I hope lots of people recognize their own story in that. AsofnowMcCreeshandherpart- nerhavestartedanewchapterintheir lives.Theyareraisingababyintheir shack - with no running water - on the edge of the city. Alreadyshehasstartedhercollec- tion of drawings from her growing familys latest adventure - perhaps thesubjectforafuturegraphicnovel. Alison McCreesh ips through her graphic novel Ramshackle. PanelcourtesyofAlisonMcCreesh I spoke to an ATCO senior exec a couple weeks back and he said their plans for a Slave River hydro project are very active. ATCO is busy right now constructing a 500 KV power line from Edmonton to McMurray. The tender for the multi billion dollar project was let by Alberta in 2014. The powering- alberta website says they will have the ability to move power from north- eastern Alberta to other areas of the province. Lets not wait until the bulldozers show up to think about this. It has always been ATCOs plan to gather the excess power from the oilsands industry generated with petroleum products and add that to a Slave River dams capacity. The project would include developing ve proposed dam sites on the Taltson River within 100 km of Fort Smith. The NWT government is on record supporting export of power from the NWT. With the diamond mines near end of life the NWT cabinet would endorse the project for the tax revenue. All the land around us would be industrialized. The ght to stop the Slave River dam would divide Fort Smith with a lot of hate for at least a decade. Many people would leave. Smith Landing First Nation SRFN would be tied up in litigation draining their money focusing their energy on the negative. When you look at how indigenous rights have been pushed aside to build Site C dam on the Peace they could eventually lose even though they own land around the rapids. Most of the construction contracts for the massive project would go to big southern companies. Once done all the wealth would ow south along with the power. A few people here Creative ideas for a better future Don Jaque for MLA Authorized by Sandra Dolan 867 445-1447 ofcial agent for Don JaqueIdeas.Action .Community Please vote for Don Jaque for Thebacha MLA Monday. Nov. 23 The plan to dam the Slave River... What you need to know. would get very rich but only a few. There is a reason ATCO sponsored that new Smith gas station. It was an investment. Dams are operated remotely so once the project was nished Fort Smith would end up with a dozen janitor and security jobs - nothing more. The community the river and the land around would be changed forever. Expanding the current Taltson Dam - what I advocate - would have no nega- tive impact. South Slave communities would have affordable power for 50 years or more with construction managed so that jobs contracts and wealth stays here along with revenue for the GNWT. If steered in that direction ATCO would be a happy partner in that project. It makes so much more sense. The Slave River Rapids are one of the most extraordinary places in Alberta international in scale like Banff and Jasper yet few Albertan know of it. We need to tell them - to market the amazing beauty. Why not propose a provin- cial park on the Alberta side of the Rapids to Premier Notley get her up here to appreciate what Alberta has I brought that idea to SLFN Chief Wandering Spirit last week and he thought it had merit. Negotiated similar to the plan for Lutsel Ke in the Thaidene-nene East Arm National Park a provincial park on the Slave Rapids would be an opportunity for SLFN to be active in park operations with jobs as guides and wardens for their young people. It would promote tourism and might be the needed catalyst for a shorter road south. Fort Smith is a beautiful peaceful secure community a place to raise a family to have a good life. Lets keep it that way