IN THE STORM

"In The Storm" was installed at Island Mountain Arts in Wells, BC during the ArtsWells Festival and throughout the month of August. The subject manner took on more meaning for me as I was called to attend fishing camp with my aunties in Yale, BC at the same time of installing this show. My partner and I stopped off in Yale on the way up to Wells, installed the show and drove back the Yale for 3 days of fishing camp with the family. It was my first time seeing salmon in that volume in about 5 years.

This presentation represents some of the expressions around my understanding of the storm we stand in as beings within an ancient ritual performed by natural beings of land, water and stars. As humans, we are visitors to a cycle and interconnection of life forces around us that have sustained life since time immemorial. 

 

We now stand in an industrial storm that threatens this balance. These are works created with a focus around wild salmon + salmonid habitat and preservation as well a look at eulachon and sturgeon in an eco-cosmological context. 

 

The focus of this presentation looks to put the natural cycles and habitats of wild salmon/salmonids, sturgeon and eulachons into your hearts + minds. In my short life on this Earth thus far, I’ve seen shifts in the harvesting of these foods and shifts in their environmental statuses that have waxed + waned in various ways. I hope that with some awareness and focused efforts, we as a human species can remain reverent of the beings that inhabit our water ways and have a large stake in our interconnection as beings living together in time/space…even if we can’t see each other all the time.

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Much thanks to Julie Fowler, Island Mountain Arts, ArtsWells Festival and the Canada Council for supporting this work.