Special Film Preview
Creatively United for the Planet, in partnership with Climate and the Arts, presents the special Earth Day preview of our newest film, Changing Course: A River’s Journey of Reconnection.
This 60-minute documentary features stunning footage by Nelson-based filmmaker Bohdan Doval and captures the importance of water, salmon and culture as it relates to British Columbia’s largest transboundary freshwater source, the Columbia River.
The historic importance of this river to cultures and communities is shared in numerous interviews by First Nation leaders throughout the Columbia Basin in Canada, supplemented with rare archival footage, plus interviews with other Columbia Basin residents who share a deep connection to this river and how history changed the course of this river in dramatic ways and why it matters now.
Water is at the cutting edge of climate change. Over the coming decades the Columbia River will experience dramatic changes in flows, water temperatures and droughts both in Canada and the US. To adapt to these changes we have to reconnect the river with nature and start revitalizing ecosystem health. Fortunately, there is an unique opportunity to start this connection through the renegotiation of the Columbia River Treaty between Canada and the United States.
The preview will open with a special choreographed dance piece by Tatianna Hassen and Myriam Verzat set to a live musical performance by the much-acclaimed Lafayette String Quartet.
This special evening is presented as part of the RE-CONNECT 2023 FESTIVAL currently sponsored by Creatively United and Climate and the Arts.
Livestream Access by Donation
The livestream recording will be available for up to 24 hours after the event
Protecting Nature in Cities with Indigenous Wisdom, Creativity and Science
Register here: https://www.earthliteracies.org/
Paul Chiyokten Wagner is the founder of Protectors of the Salish Sea, an indigenous led organization dedicated to protecting and restoring our Salish Sea through direct actions. Chiyokten is also a cultural educator, bringing forward the words given by his Coast Salish ancestors which have allowed the First Peoples here to co-create paradise for many thousands of years. Chiyokten and Protectors have stood on the front lines of many places of indigenous led resistance such as Standing Rock, Line 3, Sabal Trail Pipeline, Lelu Island, Mauna Kea, Thacker Pass and Fairy Creek, Olympia State Capitol Climate Change Occupations, Chase Bank divestment campaigns and Salish Sea Prayer Walks. Chiyokten is an award winning Coast Salish Native flutist and storyteller and has performed with a few greats such as Kitaro of Japan and Seattle Symphony Orchestra.
Kazusa Nakajo is a green building accredited professional/eco-designer/architect, system thinker, and caretaker of mother nature. With a background in natural building, soil remediation, and bio-engineering in Japan, she integrates proactive design into restoration. She has a deep love for nature and is passionate about sharing the importance of the soil food web and simple field techniques to enliven the soil and plants.
Danijela Puric-Mladenovic is an assistant professor at the Daniels Faculty, University of Toronto. She holds a B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Forestry (Univ. of Belgrade, Serbia) and a PhD. from the University of Toronto.
Her work and research provide real-world solutions and tools that support strategic conservation, restoration, and integrated spatial planning of urban forest, green and natural areas in urban and peri-urban landscapes.
Danijela also leads research on strategic, multi-purpose forest monitoring, Vegetation Sampling Protocol, and a community-based urban forest stewardship and monitoring program (Neighbourwoods©, co-developer with Dr. W.A. Kenney). She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in Urban Forest Conservation, Forest Conservation, Green Infrastructure, Landscape Ecology, Vegetation Monitoring, and GIS.
Herb Hammond is a forest ecologist and retired Registered Professional Forester with 40 years of experience in research, industry, teaching and consulting. He is best known for his concept and application of nature-directed stewardship, which he formerly referred to as ecosystem-based conservation planning.
Working primarily with Indigenous Nations and other rural communities, Hammond has developed more than 25 ecosystem-based conservation plans across Canada and in other parts of the world. Hammond holds a Bachelor of Science in forest science from Oregon State University and a Masters of Forestry in forest ecology and silviculture from the University of Washington.
He is the author of Seeing the Forest Among the Trees: The Case for Wholistic Forest Use and Maintaining Whole Systems on Earth’s Crown: Ecosystem-based Conservation Planning for the Boreal Forest and is currently completing a book with two other people to be published by UBC Press on applying nature-directed stewardship/ecosystem-based conservation planning to restore urban areas. The book’s working title is: Inviting Nature Home: Putting Nature First in Cities.
Herb is also working on a book about Nature and our place in her complex fabric. This book draws on the Indigenous knowledge and ways of being shared with him by many Indigenous people through the years. With assistance from Indigenous collaborators, Herb hopes to describe a new reality for settler cultures – a reality that is necessary for our survival, and how to get there in the face of the climate emergency.
Maleea Acker lives in unceded WSÁNEĆ territories. She holds a PhD in Geography and lectures at the University of Victoria and Thompson Rivers University. She is the author of three poetry collections, including Hesitating Once to Feel Glory (Nightwood Editions, 2022), and a non-fiction book, Gardens Aflame: Garry Oak Meadows of BC’s South Coast (New Star, 2013), which charts the Indigenous stewardship and current restoration of an endangered Vancouver Island ecosystem.