Public invited to howl like wolves at Distillery District event
JANICE MAWHINNEY
LIFE WRITER
Pamela Schuller plans to turn the Distillery District into a wolf den next Saturday for the day, and hopes that everyone will have a howling good time.
Schuller, a Toronto artist and mask maker, has spent the past several weeks teaching people to make wolf masks. Students in York University’s master’s program in environmental studies have declared Oct. 28 to 30 Wolf Week, and are hosting films, panel discussions and mask-making sessions.
The Wolf Howl Event, the culmination of all this activity, invites members of the public to Trinity St. to make simple wolf masks, go on a mask hunt around the Distillery District, and howl in packs from 2 to 6 p.m. Nov. 1 to native drumming by the Tall Pines group. Paul Brown of the Haliburton Wolf Centre will lead the howling.
Mask-making workshops in three schools, the Native Canadian Centre and the Bain Ave. Community Centre have produced 70 handmade masks, and the York workshops will add more. The masks will be displayed at several Toronto locations after the Wolf Howl Event, and those donated by their creators will be auctioned Nov. 29 to raise money for wolf conservation through the Earthroots Wolves Ontario! Project.
Earthroots, a non-profit advocacy organization for wilderness, wildlife and watersheds, calls Ontario the worst jurisdiction in North America for wolf protection. It’s year-round open season here on wolves, and there’s no limit on the number of wolves any one licensed person can kill. Raccoons get more protection than wolves, according to Earthroots literature.
“Fear of wolves often comes from fairy tales we heard growing up,” says Schuller.
“Children raised on Red Riding Hood and the Three Little Pigs learn that wolves are bad.
The fact is that there is no documented case of a healthy wild wolf killing a human in North America.
“And 6,500 wolves were trapped for their pelts in Ontario between 1988 and 2001, for $66 per pelt.”
Wolves are important figures in the creation myths of several aboriginal groups, she adds. Schuller listens to a tape of wolf howls to stay inspired. She enjoys thinking of the mass howl on Nov. 1.
“You can howl for yourself, for the wolves, for the times,” she says. “In the (mask-making) workshops when people relax, one starts howling, then others join in, and it’s such fun. Everyone ends up laughing.”
The Wolf Howl Project is funded by the Ontario Arts Council.
Information about the Wolf Howl Project is available at http://thewolfhowlproject.nyx stium.ca/home.html, about wolves at http://www.wolvesontario.org, and about Earthroots at http://www.earthroots.org.