The University of the Fraser Valley will honour three outstanding Canadians at its convocation ceremonies on June 13-14 at the Abbotsford Entertainment and Sports Centre.
Rock musician and activist Bif Naked will receive her honorary Doctor of Letters degree on Thursday, June 13 at the 2:30 p.m. ceremony. Aborigional artist George Littlechild will be honoured at the 9:30 a.m. ceremony on Friday, June 14. And science educator Penny Park will receive hers at the 2:30 p.m. ceremony on June 14.
Admission is free at UFV Convocation ceremonies and the public is welcome to attend.
Bif Naked
Originally named Beth Torbert, Naked is a Juno-nominated, multi-platinum-record selling Canadian singer-songwriter, actress, television host and motivational speaker. She has toured Canada, the United States, and Europe as a headlining act and speaker
She notes that she can finally show a university degree (albeit an honorary one) to her parents and feel some validation for the non-traditional path she chose in life.
“I was enrolled in performing arts studies in Manitoba before my music career took off. My parents have always wished that I’d continued my studies. Being recognized in this way will help explain better to them what my life’s work has been about.”
Mostly, it’s been about self-expression, whether through the in-your-face music over the course of five studio albums released from 1995 to 2009, or her poetry and paintings, or her new career as a motivational speaker.
George Littlechild
Prolific and colourful. Vibrant artworks infused with Aboriginal influence but with his own contemporary twist. When you see George Littlechild’s work you won’t soon forget it.
The Cree artist, originally from Alberta but now living in B.C., has built both a strong reputation and a huge catalog of work over the 25 years he’s been pursuing his muse since graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Nova Scotia School of Art and Design.
Littlechild has been compelled to create since he was a literally a "little child."
“My foster mother saw that I had a talent at a very young age. She was encouraging, loving… She saw the gift in me,” recalls Littlechild on his website biography. “Scribblers were filled; art lessons began at an early age.”
Art isn’t something he decided to do. It was something he had to do.
“My role as an artist was chosen for me before I was even born. It is my passion, my joy, as my art has been there throughout my life’s journey!”
Littlechild didn’t grow up with any awareness of his culture or heritage, yet when he started to create art, something inside him compelled him to use the bright vibrant colours of the Cree people from whom he was descended.
“I have an innate blood memory of my culture, it seems. I was born using those colours. As soon as I could grab crayons, those were the colours I gravitated to.”
Penny Park
Saying Penny Park’s work is sometimes out of this world might seem clichéd.
But it’s true — and Canada’s better because of it.
As a child, Park wanted to be either a journalist or veterinarian. After studying linguistics at the University of New Brunswick (and taking a turn at the university’s radio station), the world of cats and dogs kept calling, so she headed to the University of Guelph, graduating with a BSc (honours) in biology.
But instead caring for animals, Park’s passions were put to good use as producer and senior producer with Quirks and Quarks, the award-winning weekly science program on CBC Radio.
Following that, she worked for the Discovery Channel, helping develop the show Daily Planet, the world’s first nightly TV magazine show about science and technology.
Sitting through board meetings with other properties owned by Discovery’s parent company Bell Media (ranging from the Globe and Mail to TSN), Park recognized the importance of providing accurate information across the wide spectrum of categories touched by science.
So in 2010 she changed careers again, becoming executive director of the newly minted Science Media Centre of Canada, a non-profit charitable organization with a variety of services geared to ensure Canadians receive better information and reporting.