The first webinar of Creatively United’s 2022 Climate and Artists webinar series explores one of this planet’s most life sustaining and precious assets: Water.

Hear from Sam Baardman and Bob Haverluck, two multi-talented Winnipeg, Manitoba-based professional artists and community activators who share their music, photography, stories and illustrations; Sharon Bleese, a coastline advocate and community connector from the east coast of the United Kingdom; Coree Tull, the project lead of an exciting new public fresh water initiative and action-oriented partnership with the provincial government of British Columbia; plus an introduction to a stunning new book with writing and photography by Victoria, BC artivist, Kelly Casey Lovett, and a children’s book by World River’s Day Order of Canada recipient, Mark Angelo, whose work with BCIT is also presented in a short video.

Share this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZd-cXEv2iQ

About Our Presenters

Sam Baardman is a lens-based artist, singer-songwriter living in Winnipeg, Manitoba. A major emphasis of Sam’s photography has been the River on the Run Project, an artist collective focused on creating multi-media work based on their shared experience of living within the unique watershed of Lake Winnipeg and the Red River.

A veteran of the Canadian folk music scene, Sam was a familiar figure in folk venues and festivals across Canada throughout the mid 1990s and early 2000s. In that time he released two successful independent albums, toured across the country, and built a dedicated, enthusiastic audience. He is currently recording a new album for release in early 2022.

Sharon Bleese, a specialist in crisis communications and management, works with coastal and estuarine communities across Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex in England as the facilitation lead in coastal zone management.

In 2014, Sharon joined East Suffolk Council, rapidly expanding her knowledge of coastal change as part of the coastal management team. In 2016, she became Coastal Manager (South) for the newly formed Coastal Partnership East, the coastal management partnership for North Norfolk District Council, Great Yarmouth Borough Council and East Suffolk Council.

She is also lead officer for the Beach and Water Safety Group of the Local Government Coastal Special Interest Group. Sharon is passionate about working collaboratively and co-creatively with communities, partners and organizations to build a long-term sustainable future for the coast.

Manitoba artist/author/educator, Bob Haverluck, will share an illustrated reading from his forthcoming book, The Court Case of the Creatures.

The story unfolds in a world of mega hydro dams such as Site C, Muskrat Falls and in this story, the Nelson River projects.

There is a great storm, a tempest that casts Raven, Coyote, a boat load of resource developers, a retired judge, and a canoe of First Nations children and elders upon an island.

Bear and Otter make a citizen’s arrest of the developers. The judge agrees to hear their case. The Children are the jury along with The River and others. The Creator insists that voices of animals and earth shall forever be heard. So a tempest and a trial. But of course, there are complications in the seriously funny, tragic comical business that unfolds.

Creatively United first introduced Bob Haverluck to our webinar audiences in October 2020, for the presentation The Arts of Laughing, the Arts of Weeping: Equipment for Earth’s Lovers.

Coree Tull is a lead advisor for the CodeBlue BC campaign, a community of 24,000 British Columbians from all walks of life and every corner of our province.

CodeBlue BC has a plan to secure and sustain BC’s fresh water sources forever by:

1. Getting tough on water wasters and polluters.
2. Making big industrial users pay to clean up the damage they’ve done and restore our watersheds.
3. Giving local people the power and resources to restore and manage their local water sources.

Coree is also the Director of Government Relations and Engagement for the BC Freshwater Legacy Initiative. Coree has been leading and specializing in issue-based and electoral campaigns to grow public awareness for over a decade. She believes passionately about engaging community members to be collaborative stakeholders in the decisions that impact their social, economic and environmental health and wellness.

Learn how individual and community engagement can, and does, make a difference.

Links & Resources

Enigma – Kelly Lovett Book
Code Blue BC
Freshwater Alliance Podcast
B.C. Securing Watersheds for a Stronger Future
Polis Project on Ecological Governance
Polis Paper: Making a Collective Splash
Lake Winnipeg Foundation

Watershed Security Public Engagement Call

The BC government is calling for feedback on its Watershed Security Strategy and Fund Discussion Paper. In forested areas, we need an ecologically-based approach to forest management on crown and private lands. In urban areas, we need an ecological approach to stormwater management and the protection of green space. In farmed areas, we need an ecological approach to soil management, carbon storage and manure pollution. In the spirit of the legislation on the Declaration of Rights of Indigenous Peoples there will be extensive consultation with Indigenous peoples across the province. https://engage.gov.bc.ca/watershedsecurity/

The Polis Water Project offers some guidance: https://poliswaterproject.org/files/2022/01/MakingACollectiveSplash_FINAL_Jan26.pdf

Additional Q&A

Q. How does CODE BLUE understand the exponential human population growth influence and impact the use water? And how does CODE BLUE address the excessive number of people have on the limited natural resources?

A. Coree Tull: The Blue Communities project is a great initiative by the council of canadians that encourages municipalities and Indigenous communities to pass resolutions supporting the idea of a water commons framework, recognizing that water is a shared resource for all.

CodeBlue BC is more directly focused on driving the provincial government to secure and restore our critical water sources, whereas my understanding is that the Blue Communities project is focused on municipalities.

Q. How does the Blue Communities Project (Council of Canadians) fit in?

A. Coree Tull: BC has a Law against bulk water exports. But water bottling companies are using a loophole: by wrapping our water in plastic bottles, they can sell it wherever they want, including for export. This is unacceptable.

We need a BC-wide moratorium on groundwater extraction for water bottling and export.

Send your local decision maker a letter here www.codebluebc.ca/banish_the_bottlers

Q. How can we help get Nestles bottling out of Hope?

A. Coree Tull: Our water in BC is being wasted, degraded and overused and it has never been more critical that we work together to address these challenges with more effective rules and enforcement, while giving local people the resources and authority to better manage their local watersheds and CodeBlue BC has a plan to do this.

1. Get tough on water wasters and polluters.
Good resource development should never degrade our watersheds, or waste, overuse or pollute our fresh water. Tougher rules, better enforcement, and stronger penalties will make resource companies clean up their act, and create real consequences when they fail to do so.

2. Make big industrial users pay to clean up the damage they’ve done and restore our watersheds.
Our water is priceless, and it must never be sold or commodified. BC’s system of water licences and fees lets big industry pay pennies to use our water, while British Columbians are stuck paying to secure our watersheds and clean up the impacts of water extraction and watershed degradation on our fish, wildlife, lands and people. This needs to change: it’s time to stop subsidising big industry and make them pay the true cost of using BC’s water.

3. Give local people the power and resources to restore and manage their local water sources.
BC’s fresh water sources should be owned and managed by the people who know them best and need them most. It’s time to provide local people with the funding, training and authority they need to look after their local watersheds. This can create a surge of good jobs in every corner of BC, and empower towns and First Nations communities across BC to monitor, manage and restore their local water sources.