“We do not seek revenge.
We never did.’

THE DRUMS’ distant
thunder echoes and rolls
through the deep valleys
and narrow canyons of the
mist-shrouded, granite
peaks and cedar-cloaked
hills.

The sound rumbles like the low
growl in the empty belly of the
Ured and hungry old she-bear that
pauses only for the moment to lift
its head and briefly listen to the
far-off, unseen drummer, and
then eagerly returns to the shim-
meting, silvery catch held fast to
the rock by her dripping paw.

The dark, moody light dims
darker still with the approaching
night. An eerie pale cast in the
days-end sky of muted green and
yellow ochre separates the blue-
black shapes of moving cloud and
still land. The sky has a
foreboding feel.

The mountains and valleys are
washed over and brushed with a
glow more unreal than not. It is
neither day, nor night, but that
time in between when restless
spirits rise once more to check
their footprints on the path.

The still air is pregnant with a
strange, icy silence, save for the
distant drumming that stops,
waits, and ther begins anew, the
drum roll cascading through
craggy canyons to increase in
so.s.d and echo from the shell of
the hollow core, until it subsides
again, an endless line of wind-
blown waves beating the
foreground shore in the rise and
fall of moon-driven tide.

While the drummer rests, the
silence and ominous sky are so
unsettling as to numb the senses
until all are meshed as one and
frozen still into unfeeling, yet still
awake and aware. The feasting
bear grunts, but makes no sound,
and the water and flesh fall silent-
ly to the ground.

The drum beat now is steady,
no longer resting, no longer
thunder, and a chorus of chanting
begins to creep into awareness.
Their time has come again, and if
you listen closely you will hear
them, and if you wait and look
you will see their rising.

As drurn beat and chanting
blend, translucen} images begin to
emerge and appear at the
horizon's edge, first in fragmented
line, and then in broken form,
until all are whole and clear.
Then, fading, they disappear, only
to reappear again in fragment and
form before their leaving, coming
and going, and coming again in
the reflected images screened on
the moving surface of troubled
water.

The first clear form to remain is

Norm
Severud

OUT OF THE NORM

the replicated painter’s model that
nevertheless was once more real
and living than the imagined or
copied creation.

The motionless figure sits tall
and straight astride the standing
animal, his lance and shield angl-
ed forward towards the far edge
where thunder rolls, where drums
are beating. His jaw is fixed and
firm, his eyes strong and clear. He
has the look of a free man, free ir.
spirit.

But behind this form more
troubled apparitions huddle
together in a single mass. Men.
Women. Children. Young and
old. Their heads and bodies are
bent over, crippled and wracked
with pain from wounds of con-
flict, disease, and acute starvation.

Their sunken, clouced eyes bear
witness to their pain and sorrow,
their defeat and despair. Their
faces are gaunt, their bodies thin.

They sit astride no animals,
their last one killed too long be-
fore to feed children dying. Their
dwellings then and now are those
unwanted places of the lost, the
damned, the beirayed.

The seated spectre shudders and
shakes with shame and anger, but
not for those painful images
behind, for the past is past, and
cannot be altered by man or ap-
parition. But everywhere there is
pain and suffering still, yet so
much of this he sees of their own
making.

Are these products of my nobil-
ity? he asks without speaking. Is
this my descendant, this young
man now lying senseless in the
gutter, empty bottle in hand, the
amber liquid of fire having briefly
burned away and scorched out the
demons of his despair?

Is this my blood, this prouder
but bitter man in camouflage
dress and mask, with loaded gun
in hand raised defiantly in the
hostile challenge he knows is

hollow, which, if answered, could
only hasten his own destruction.

The first brings shame to those
who stood before, and who would
stand now, and the spectre dips
his lance to reach and stir the
prone man’s soul. The other,
however, brings a rush of anger,
and the spectre in one swift mo-
tion raises his shield and dis-
mounts the horse to confront he
who would carry the gun.

“This is also not the way,’ he
cries out as he looks hard into the
other’s eyes. ‘This was our way,
and we failed. This was our way
when we were greater and stronger
than you, and all the land ours,
and known to us. You are smail
and weak, while he is great and
strong, and the land now his, and
known to him.

“Ff you turn to the weapons of
war, you will die. Our people will
then be no more, and all that
came before will be for nothing.
This place will no longer be ours,
for there will be no one left to
remember. Think hard on this, for
you are our future, as we are your
past.’’

The spectre then leapt back
upon his horse. ‘‘The other is
wiser now, and a prisoner to his
own laws and morality. You will
succeed if you make his strength
your own. Seek out the justice of
his laws and our democracy that
we gave to him. You will not fail
if you put your footprints upon
this path. The other way leads to
our extinction.

**Do not seek vengeance,”’ his
voice was heard to say as his im-
age faded. ‘‘We do not seek
revenge. We never did. That is not
our way. It will only bring you
greater despair and death.’’ And,
with that, he was gone.

The old bear’s stomach growied
no more. The drums of thunder
had stopped, but she did not
notice this as she turned and slow-
ly moved away from the river’s
edge and into the trees. Overhead
the moon broke through the
cloud. There would be no rain this
night.

it has been estimated that when
the first white man’s foot touched
the shore of North America, the
population of the native people
here was in excess of 12 million.
If lefe undisturbed, that number
might have increased tenfold to-
day. But by the turn of this cen-
tury, their numbers had dwindled,
through war, massacre, starvation,
and disease, to a mere few hun-
dred thousand. Today they
number just over two million,
with 10 per cent of that living in
Canada.

Wednesday. October 3, 1990 ~ North Shore News - 9

Pathway rankles resident

A RECENT request to sus-
pend work on the public
pathway and stair at Bat-
chelor Bay Beach surprised
West Vancouver District
Council! and the local citi-
zens group that has been
involved in the project.

By Maureen Curtis
Contributine Writer

Batchelor Bay resident Allan
Francis asked council Sept. 24 to
suspend work on the public
pathway and stair because it dif-
fers from the original plans for
the structures,

He claimed that the structure
being built to support the public
pathway is so large that it ‘*domi-
nates and looms over the beach.”’

“It could support BC Rail,”
charged Francis.

He also complained about how
much the new stairway intruded
on to the beach,

But Mayor Don Lanskail was
surprised by Francis’s reaction to
the work at Batchelor Bay, which
is nearly complete.

“This is the product of two
years of discussion with a resi-
dents commitiee,’’ Lanskail said.
“The plans were shown to the
committee and they approved."’

Penny Damm, one of the local
residents most involved over the
years in the push to have some-
thing done about the disturbed
beach, has spoken out against
Francis and his supporters.

“tt is very disheartening that
these ‘friends of Batchelor Bay’
declined to extend even a fraction
of effort throughout the
negotiative processes that they are
now generating in disruption as
the project is nearing comple-
tion,’’ Damm submitted Sept. 26
to West Vancouver parks director
Kevin Pike.

The controversial problems
concerning the beach date back to a
bad storm 20 years ago that

NORTH VAN.

FA-S-T COLLISION REPAIRS

CALL THE PROFESSIONALS AT

JAYLORMOT VE i959 LTD.

FREE RENTAL COURTESY CARS
B.C.A.A. APPROVED — A.R.A. CERTIFIED
1.C.B.C. VENDOR FOR ALL MAKES

AYLORMOTIV QUALITY WORKMANSHIP
TRUS HY SERV.
174 PEMBERTON AVE. oon surrarion

OR APPOINTMENTS

WEST VANCOUVER
DISTRICT COUNCIL

Prompted now «wbsent waterfront
Property owners to install a large
amount of rip-rapping to protect
their lots against erosion.

A more recent conflict between
current waterfront residents and
area residents who use Batchelor
Bay beach was finally approaching
resolution with council's decision
to spend about $35,000 to tidy up
the beach and restore high tide
access with the construction of a
public pathway and stairway.

According to Damm, she and
many others fought hard to have
the complete removal of the ‘‘il-
legally dumped’’ rocks from the
beach, but agreed to a com-
promise.

But Francis insisted that’ the
structure being built differed from
the plans laid out by a consultant.

“We did not do a detailed
design on this project. It is being
done on a design-build basis,"”
Pike explained.

He said that the raised pathway
(built in response to public com-
Plaints about access to the beach).
must be sturdy enough to with-
stand exposure to the weather.

‘*We have made it clear that it
is a compromise...lt is a difficult
solution and may not solve
everyone’s concerns,”’ said Pike.

Damm _ has since written to
municipal staff to emphasize that
Francis’s door-to-door canvass of
the neighborhood for support
does not have her endorsation or
the endorsation of the Batchelor
Bay community.

CANADIAN
CLOSET

BBA Free home estimates
986-4263

1385 Crown St., NVan.

985-7455

The Lange research department set to work to find a solution that could combine the two
dominant philosophies (traditional entry and rear entry), making optimum use of the
advantages of both one and the other. The Mid entry LANGE shell allows easy entry and
an optimum “rest” position while maintaining many of the typical features of the shell with

traditional entry.

The Mid is provided with a PUSH BUTTON device which allows the shaft to be meved
backwards with all the advantages of rear entry.
Also, the construction of the shell with overlapping edges and the traditional type tiner alt
in one piece allow highly sensitive skiing, excellent holding and perfect holding of the foot.
For this reason the MID is the ideal solution for consumers who want maximum comfort
and high performance in just one pair of boots!

Gome in soon for a custom booi tit.

% OFF SUGGESTED RETAIL

NORTH VANCOUVER
119 West 16th Street
985-9161
KERRISDALE

5395 West Boulevard
266-1061