“I am not driven by society—I am driven by the righteousness of my love for my family and myself, and if you want a piece of this body, you better love it too. You’re going to call me fucking ma’am!”
Sexuality, Pleasure, and Relationship Coach Jennifer Zurba has studied human sexuality over the past 15 years while furthering a mandate of sex positivity, inclusion, ethical non-monogamy, and sexual self-esteem.
On March 8, Zurba and the VIU Student Organization for Social Change (SOSC) held a Sexuality Matters workshop on campus, which filled the room with both students and ...
Five years.
Five years where for 30 weeks I would walk 17-and-a-half minutes, uphill both ways, from my little tiny home to the VIU campus in a wild dream to become a writer—whatever that was supposed to mean that week, whether a poet, a journalist, or a storyteller.
It wasn’t a perfect time. Most courses went well, but there were often struggles and even failures. I never anticipated that I was capable of failing something—that I would actually need to work hard to learn and continue to work hard to prove it. I became notorious within my program for tardy assignments. I would ...
We made it. The last issue of volume 47. The Navigator has seen its share of struggle and success this past year. As Managing Editor, I have had such a privilege working with some great writers, awesome designers, and devoted contributors.
Then April comes, and for some reason we stop publishing. Students go back home and vacate the normally full campus for the summer and our paper lulls to a light hum. Therefore, I need a job. Even journalists need “real” jobs to get by, and for one who has made the top of her masthead in fourth year, it sure isn’t as easy as I thought.
What’s ...
Congratulations, you made it through another semester—almost. It’s the final push before freedom. Whatever your situation, whether it’s your last semester at VIU, or the end of your first, at this point in the year I think we all deserve a pat on the back. Celebrate with something sweet and healthy for all your efforts—you deserve it. Taken straight from The Power of Pulses, this brownie recipe is sure to take your taste buds to a whole new level as the campus settles down for the exam period.
Ingredients
For brownies
2 cups cooked black beans
3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate, ...
Above: Photo via Suzanne Leithead on Panoramio
By contributor Chantelle Spicer
Over the long weekend I got to relish in one of my favourite things: being faced with pure, wild nature, this time in the form of a wind-whipped ocean. It made me smile, it made me cry a little bit (from both the wind and the beauty), and, as always, it made me think. I thought about how this exact place on Big Beach in Ucluelet was where I felt truly home for the first time, and where the roots of my relationship with nature was truly born. It is a special place to me, and it made me think of how ...
By contributor Spenser Smith
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By contributor Zoe Lauckner
While social media has facilitated our generation’s communication and connectedness unlike any other, it has also created a platform for people to spread maliciousness, prejudice, stigmatization, racism, sexism, and a plethora of other forms of hate speech.
Mob mentalities are present both in the physical and online world. Cyber bullying has had a huge impact on many of our most vulnerable populations: youth, Indigenous peoples, women, individuals with disabilities, and people with mental illness. We have all heard of Amanda Todd, the BC teen who ...
You may or may not have been as excited as I was to hear the United Nations declared 2016 the International Year of Pulses (lentils, beans, chickpeas, etc.). Yes, they make a great meat substitute, but before you flip the page in anger at another vegetarian trying to reel you in to the not-so-dark side, let me tell you that pulses could be your wallet’s best friend.
At less than $2 for a standard can of beans (which will give you multiple servings), they make a super cheap staple food that can be incorporated into endless dishes. Whether you are a vegetarian or not, pulses make great ...
College and university students don’t have it easy, what with loans, homework, and most of us living on our own for the first time. Budgeting, aside from the small section glossed over halfway through high school, isn’t a natural thing to do for most of us, let alone making and planning a grocery list. Forget scouring pages upon pages of flyers; reebee, one of the first mobile flyer apps, is an eco-friendly way to locate all your grocery needs and more.
Founders Tobiasz Dankiewicz and Michal Martyniak were in the same boat when they studied at the University of Waterloo in the early ...
By contributor Ayanda Gatsha
Being an adult is a weird thing—shaving, behaving properly in front of strangers, and making a tangible meal for yourself instead of eating cereal for dinner. Though being of age doesn’t necessarily mean being mature, for the sake of this article, an adult is someone who can both be trialed for breaking the law while considered legally allowed to live on their own and vote.
The World Bank Group’s statistics report in 2012 shows that Canadian life expectancy is 81.24 years—meaning that’s at least 63 years of being an adult if you just turned 18.
Think ...
The VIU Mariners’ women’s volleyball team became the 2016 CCAA National Champions after beating top-ranked Élans de Garneau in the finals. A tough match, they beat the opposing team in four sets. Megan Rosenlund was chosen as Player of the Game with nine kills and four digs, and Tylar Turnbull took home the title of Most Valuable Player. Congratulations Mariners! Photos via Flickr.
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A first year BA student originally from Ottawa, Ontario, Ornella Murumba joined the VIU Dance Team in September 2015 to meet new people.
“I jumped at the chance to audition for the VIU Dance Team, as previously I was on a similar team in Ontario,” says Murumba.
While the VIU Dance Team is a staple in Mariner basketball games, they also help organize and attend local events, often with VIU’s favourite mascot, Stuey the Sturgeon, in attendance.
“We recently held a beer and burger fundraiser at the Queen’s in downtown Nanaimo,” says Murumba. “We also took part in the Ladysmith ...
By contributor Reid Eccles
On Friday, March 18, the British Columbia Hockey League’s (BCHL) 2016 Fred Page Cup playoffs entered the second round.
The Nanaimo Clippers lost their inaugural game to the Port Alberni Bulldogs on March 4, but they quickly broke the trend by dousing the Bulldogs in four straight. In a 7-3 victory on March 11, one week after the Bulldogs’ only win of the post-season, the Clippers eliminated the Bulldogs four games to one.
The Clippers have now moved onto the second round of the playoffs to play the Powell River Kings, who eliminated the Cowichan ...
In Our Own Voice is an anthology series that publishes fiction written by Aboriginal writers from BC. The 2015 edition of the book featured writers from grades eight through 12, and Rebel Mountain Press and the Vancouver Island Regional Library have now announced a writing contest for 2016.
The contest is open to Aboriginal writers—as well as non-Aboriginal writers, for a different edition of the book—this includes status, non-status, Inuit, and Métis, who are 15 years old and over. The submitted stories must contain Indigenous content with “themes of cultural connections [or] ...
Above: Nina Forever
What a strange, and surprisingly delightful (if not totally disturbing) movie. I went into this with no real idea what to expect, and was really happy that I took a chance. It’s not clear where things are going to go, and initially I was worried that Holly might be a completely unrelateable level of “dark and weird,” but her character quickly grew on me.
Telling a bizarre and disturbing story of obsession and love, Nina Forever is about a young girl who finds herself infatuated with Rob, a man who had lost his partner, Nina, in a car accident. The two ...
Above: Ava's Possessions
As startling as this might be, but Ava’s Possessions is a unique take on exorcism movies. Considering that we’ve seen Exorcist clone after Exorcist clone, it would be easy to understand why people might be exhausted by the sub-genre as a whole. Let’s face it, we’ve seen remakes, found-footage versions, and lazy capitalization, all of which follow the same formula, and rehash the same tired shit that The Exorcist used so effectively.
Ava’s Possessions starts after the main character’s possession and the fallout that results, rather than bringing you in ...
Above: Royal Winnipeg Ballet performing Going Home Star. Photo by Samanta Katz
By contributor Chantelle Spicer
One possibility of art is to take a topic and reframe it into a visual language that offers different perspectives to the viewer. It is a way to engage the mind and emotions, creating a space to discuss difficult subjects in a new and enlightening way. To see art used in this way is to fully realize how powerful it is as a way to precipitate change.
This seems to be a driving factor in the creation and production of Going Home Star, the newest story being performed by ...
Above: Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra
As I sat in my seat, staring at the stage, waiting for the lights to dim and the orchestra to come on stage, I noticed something odd about the stage. Where were all the chairs and music stands? Where was the conductor’s podium? All that occupied centre stage was a harpsichord, an armchair, a coffee table, and two plastic chairs. A large screen hung above the set-up. I had to double check the program to make sure I was about to watch the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra. Upon looking in the program, though, I noticed another odd thing: they listed a ...
Anyone who has seen a theatrical or musical performance, performance art, or anything else that happens live on a stage, knows the magic that can come from that experience. Sitting down and watching one of the most vulnerable forms a person be in, something that cannot be recreated in any other medium. VIU has been the home to student and community productions alike, it is the home of the Vancouver Island Short Film Festival, and has been a staple of the city of Nanaimo rivaled only, perhaps, by the Port Theatre.
In 40 years, with the innumerable amount of productions, and people ...
Originally published March 2016
I hover a burnt piece of aluminum foil over a lit candle, vapourizing the white powder sitting on top of it into a sticky, brown oil. I put the foil over the flame again, position my mouth over it, and inhale the streaming smoke. I look down at my ribcage and watch my heart vibrate like a jackhammer. My entire family has gathered outside my bedroom and are whispering their intent to bust down my door. I hear the stomping boots of a SWAT team marching towards my bedroom window, and the buzz of helicopters swarming my rooftop. Blue and red lights flash ...
On October 13, 2015, three months into his campaign to become the next president of “the most powerful country in the free world,” Donald Trump tweeted a meme. The tweet included an original illustration of Pepe the Frog (an anthropomorphic amphibian introduced in cult comic series, Boy’s Club) known as a “rare Pepe.” The image was a rendition of Pepe bearing Trump’s hair and suit and standing behind the President’s podium. Above was the caption “You Can’t Stump the Trump,” and a hyperlink to a YouTube compilation of Trump shutting down (and ostensibly winning) political arguments with ...
I listed my iPhone on Craigslist. It was my first time using the site.
There was nothing egregious about my listing—all the necessary information was there in a succinct fashion. Condition details, pictures, my phone number (I opted for the “DO NOT CONTACT WITH SOLICITATIONS AND/OR IF YOU ARE A MURDERER” selection)—it was a pretty standard listing.
A day later, I get a text message. The area code looks unfamiliar, so I Google it: New Jersey. I plug the number into Facebook and only get one hit—“Jorge” (profile picture of a greying man with a shirtless chest and a soulless smile) ...
Above: A screenshot of the VIU scholarship/award/bursary application profile
Applying for scholarships, awards, and bursaries has never been easier thanks to VIU’s new Scholarship, Award, and Bursary Profile. The profile is attached to your online student record, and saves you the time and effort of searching for scholarships, awards, and bursaries yourself. All you have to do is fill out or update the application every academic year, and the university will take your information and submit it to any scholarships, awards, or bursaries you are eligible for in their system.
Most of ...
By contributor Chantelle Spicer. Photo via Flickr.
From the food we eat to the flowers we enjoy, from the forests we walk in to the beaches we walk along, a magical process is occurring. Yes, all of nature is amazing and beautiful, but some parts of it are quite unsung—none more so than soil. Soil contributes to every part of our existence; it is supportive of our every step, provides nutrients for our fruits and veggies, and offers a habitat to millions of unique species. Very little life could exist on this planet without soil, so how can it be so overlooked?
The soils under our ...
