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Lindork’s Lists #67 – Celebrate Pride Month, Indigenous History Month, Philippine Heritage Month, and more!
Newsletter for June 2 – 8, 2021
Please note: Alberta has restrictions in place to address COVID-19. I do encourage you to try and support local businesses during this time, if you’re able, but do so in a safe way. Wear masks, sanitize regularly, avoid crowds, keep at a distance, shop alone, take-out / eat outside, choose digital options if avail and stay home if you are sick.
As well, some deadlines may have passed for time-sensitive food/event recommendations. If you are a newsletter subscriber, you would get first dibs before deadlines pass.
Plan how you’ll mark National Indigenous History Month
June is National Indigenous History Month. Educate yourself and have conversations with others about Canada’s very dark present. Words matter. Use them. Canada’s residential school system was genocide. Support Indigenous makers, artists, Elders, organizations. Donate to the Indian Residential School Survivors Society, or local organizations that support Indigenous communities, like Bent Arrow Traditional Healing Society. Reflect on what it means to be Canadian and what atrocities occurred to get us here. I reference it below, but check out On Canada Project’s actions settlers can take to support reconciliation and see this chart for who is responsible for reconciliation (spoiler: if you’re not Indigenous but you’re living in Canada, you have a responsibility for reconciliation).
Celebrate Pride Month in Edmonton
How are you celebrating Pride? Find colourful Pride crosswalks all around town. Donate to Edmonton’s Camp Fyrefly, which supports 2SLGBTQ+ youth aged 14-24. Participate in one of a number of virtual events being put on by the Pride Centre of Edmonton. If you see a Pride-themed food deal with proceeds going to support LGBTQ initiatives, purchase them! And more… call out hate and discrimination, let everyone know they are welcome no matter who they love or who are they are.
Watch “The Upside” for National Access Ability Week
Edmonton’s Voice of Albertans with Disabilities is putting on a virtual showing of “The Upside” on Saturday June 5 for National Access Ability Week in Canada (showcasing the realities of those living with disabilities). Mike and I actually just watched this movie and it was really well done. There’s other films being shared throughout the week too. FREE to register.
Celebrate all things arts at Edmonton’s NextFest (online)
NextFest, Alberta’s arts festival, kicks off for 11 days of online fun June 3-13, 2021. From dance to DJ performances, spoke word and poetry, theatre, workshop readings, podcasts and visual arts, it’s a jam-packed schedule! While this year’s festivities are FREE, you can choose to support by “adopting an artist” or donating a ticket or pass.
Brush up on your dinosaur trivia skills with the TELUS World of Science
Prepare for a totally roarsome good trivia time at the TELUS World of Science’s FREE virtual Dinosaur Trivia night on June 3. This quest, over 65 million years in the making, uses Zoom and the Kahoot game platform. Though these questions will have you digging deep into your dinosaur knowledge to answer, participants of all ages are encouraged to join the fun!
Get tickets to Kids Up Front Chef Series virtual Dinner with Daniel Costa
Tickets for the June 19 Kids Up Front Chef Series Virtual Cooing Class featuring Chef Daniel Costa (of Uccellino, Corso 32, Bar Bricco), close June 4! Support the Kids Up Front charity by partaking in this sure-to-be delicious, private, virtual cooking classes by one of Edmonton’s most talented chefs. Remember, sales end June 4 (Friday). Grab a ticket today!
Got an Edmonton area event, virtual event, or something coming up you think my readers would be interested in knowing about? Let me know!
Food To Try This Week
Support local restaurants with take-out/pick-up orders! Review current Alberta COVID-19 restrictions here.
Pick up crispy curry tonkatsu from Nara Chicken & Tonkatsu (8712 150 St.)
This week I had a crispy tonkatsu curry picnic with my mom. We picked up from Nara Chicken & Tonkatsu and it was just a perfect meal. You can try a combo to sample a few different tonkatsu types, or maybe you just want some crispy fried chicken. Flavourful, crispy, and delicious! They also sell “croffles” croissant waffles which are pretty tasty (they’re basically waffles lol).
Celebrate Philippine Heritage Month by eating Filipino food
One of my favourite ways to mark an occasion is to dive into related food! June is many things, including Philippine Heritage Month.. Celebrate by eating Filipino food! You can do ice cream of course from Yelo’d Ice Cream & Bake Shoppe, grab dinner from Filistix, pick up baked goods from Galen on 118, eat ice bowls from Twenty Eight Urban Kitchen, or soup and other authentic dishes from Palabok House and the list goes on and on!
Celebrate National Indigenous Heritage Month by eating Indigenous food
In addition to Philippine Heritage Month, it’s also National Indigenous Heritage Month. Edmonton has a growing Indigenous food scene. Find Native Delight’s mobile concession, swing by Tee Pee Treats for bannock, or order catering from Pei Pei Chei Ow.
Give the fiery meats at Barbacoa in Spruce Grove a try (470 South Ave.)
Barbacoa is a meat cooking method where meat is slow cooked over an open fire / flame and Barbacoa in Spruce Grove is all about this smokey, meaty, open flame concept. As you might expect, this new restaurant specializes in meats! And they’ve got a great patio just waiting for you try!
Order a Mini Chiffon Cake Box from Chiffonology (home baker)
There’s a chiffon specialty home baker in town called Chiffonology who has released a “Mini Cake Series” for June. Check out the Schedule and pre-order (some dates are already sold out). These cakes look beautiful and I’d love if you did the tasty research to let me know if the treats are as delicious as they are beautiful!
Ate something amazing recently? Want to show some love to a struggling restaurant? Have a take-out suggestion? Let me know to include in this newsletter.
Small Business Spotlight
In this new section of Lindork’s Lists, I shout out to support small businesses that aren’t necessarily food/restaurant or event-based.
In this week’s Small Business Spotlight, I’m shouting out to:
The Indigenous Box, an Edmonton-based business that curates items made by Indigenous entrepreneurs, makers, artists and artisans. Indigenous Box is the SUBSCRIPTION, GIFT, and CUSTOM BOX SERVICE that helps you learn about and fall in love with Indigenous businesses. The “Summer Celebration Box” is now live and ships in July so sign up now to get in on the rotation. You can buy a single box (though, these are usually sold out), or sign up to the seasonal subscription.
I’ll be featuring Indigenous Box owner Mallory Yawnghwe in an upcoming Lindork’s Lists: Q&A with profile. Thank you Megan W. for recommending the Indigenous Box!
If you’re a small business owner who could use a shout-out, or know a small business who could use some awareness, let me know and I’ll try to feature them in this new section. You can email me suggestions / reply to this email.
Now Public: Q&A with Edmonton Baker and Great Canadian Baking Show Contestant Larry Harris
Every other Sunday, I profile a new “interesting person” in a Q&A series just for paid newsletter subscribers. Then a month later, I release that Q&A publicly on my blog. My third Q&A of the series is now live on my blog if you’d like to read it.
To get the full Q&A, plus a Q&A every other Sunday, access to exclusive paid subscriber-only giveaways, and to support the work I do, upgrade!
No pressure of course! These weekly emails for free subscribers (you!) will continue to be sent out.
From the Blog Vault
Around this time last year I was exploring Medicine Hat in southern Alberta! There’s a ton of great things to do in one of Canada’s sunniest cities and I actually extra love visiting because our dear friends live in the ‘Hat (as it’s called by locals!)
Check out my blog: Only in Medicine Hat, Alberta: 8 Unique Experiences to Try.
A Personal Land Acknowledgement
I shared this message with newsletter subscribers this week that I wanted to include in this public version of the newsletter as well.
At the kick-off / opening remarks to the virtual Edmonton International Cat Festival over the weekend, I forgot to make a land acknowledgement.
When I remembered Saturday night—and I remembered because of the horrifying news that came out of B.C., that the remains of 215 Indigenous children had been found under Canada’s largest residential school—I knew a land acknowledge needed to happen during Sunday’s remarks. It is quite literally the bare minimum we can do. You can click to watch my personal land acknowledgement below.
View this post on Instagram
We need to speak out and take action against systemic racism—genocide—and inequities occurring in our communities even when it’s not right in our face.
Residential schools, which took Indigenous children away from their families and tried to quote “kill the Indian in the child”—operated in this country from 1863 to 1996. 1996–is NOT ancient history.
This is uncomfortable for many Canadians, many settlers. Our country as a whole has a reputation for being kind and in many cases better than others. We can love being here, and we can love being Canadian but I do believe that to be Canadian means we need to acknowledge and then work to make right the atrocities that occurred to get us here today.
We could start quite simply by changing names of schools, transit stations and other buildings named after people who championed Canada’s residential school system. We can call on our leaders to search the sites of ALL residential schools.
I will be seeking out more ways to support truth and reconciliation, continuing to educate myself and use this platform to inform and call on our communities to act. We need to. And we need to do it not only when it’s in the news.
For additional resources, check out the On Canada Project, who have compiled actions all settlers can take to support reconciliation in this country. They also came up with this simple flow chart to determine who is responsible for reconciliation:
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