39 thoughts on “Annotated Bibliography Blog”

1. Hello Quartet! Oh, but you are an awesome research team and “Beholden: A Poem as Long as the River” proves it. Following it intensely, with crossed eyes, I noticed Incumappleux Sinixt near the head of Upper Arrow Lake, which reminded me of an enigma that has baffled me for decades. My uncle, Ken Scholes (1905-1983) was born at a gold-rush town named Comaplix (some people called it “Complex”), which doesn’t exist, and when I googled your Incumappleux Sinixt, the first hit solved the mystery with the cited article in the Nelson Star. I decided to point it out to you because it is such a revealing example of Anglicanizing confusion––some would say “cultural misappropriation.” Quoting typical colonizing from the past, the Star explains:

   “Comaplix comes from [a] Sinixt word. Comaplix is one of the few First Nations names still on the local map — but it hasn’t always been recognized as one.
   The northeast arm of Upper Arrow Lake was once home to a Sinixt village called nk’mapeleks, meaning “head of lake,” although its precise location is uncertain.
   Explorer James Turnbull, who travelled through the area in 1865, referred to the valley as Ill-com-oplaux while engineer Walter Moberly called it Incumappleux. Gilbert Malcolm Sproat, writing in his 1884 Report of Kootenay Country, referred to the Nin-com-ap-a-lux arm.
   By 1897, the anglicized version Incomappleux (also spelled Incomapleux and Incommapleux) was applied to the body of water that flowed into the lake, although it was also commonly known as the Fish River.
   Compalix is another Anglicization of the same word — although its spelling led some sources to mistakenly believe it was of French origin.
   The Revelstoke Herald of June 8, 1901 dismissed this notion: “The little town of Comaplix derives its somewhat bizarre appellation from the Indian name of Fish River …”
   The first reference to the Comaplix townsite, although not by name, was in Revelstoke’s Kootenay Mail of August 8, 1896: “J.A. Magee of the Kootenay Lumber Co. has a crew of men engaged in clearing a new townsite at the mouth of Fish Creek.”
   Thomas H. Parr surveyed the townsite on the north side of the northeast arm on June 21, 1897. The avenues were Osoyoos, Slocan, Kootenay, Okanagan, and Chemainus, and the streets were Water, Front, Main, Cedar, and Pine. Lardeau and Somenos streets were subsequently added.
   An application for a post office was filed on February 4, 1897 (the earliest use of Comaplix), but for some reason it didn’t open. The Revelstoke Herald of February 27, 1897 said: “The sawmill on the Arm is soon to get a post office to be known as Comapie [sic].” (It took the Herald until April 3 to get the name right.)
   Following a second application, the post office opened on December 15, 1899 and closed July 15, 1915.
   Comaplix flourished as a sawmilling town until a suspicious fire levelled the mill, town, and SS Revelstoke in 1915. No one lived there by the time the area was flooded by construction of the Hugh Keenleyside dam. The now-abandoned spot is accessible mainly by boat and is home to one of the most remote and evocative cemeteries in West Kootenay.
   The name survives in Comaplix Creek and Comaplix Mountain.”

   Anyway, the dam flooded the townsite except for its cemetery, so that’s the end of it; but it is nice to know from where the name of Uncle Ken’s birthplace derives. Thank you! /4hands

   Works Cited

   Nesteroff, Greg. “Comaplix Comes From Sinixt Word.” Nelson Star: Community, Dec. 1, 2013. BLACK PRESS MEDIA. 2013;2021. Accessed April 9, 2021 at:
   https://www.nelsonstar.com/community/comaplix-comes-from-sinixt-word/

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   • Hi Joe,

     This is so interesting. What a thing to uncover! I’m glad you enjoyed Beholden. I find it completely fascinating.

     Your investigation into the name of this community reminded me of a similar realization I had a number years ago. I grew up in the West Kootenays and I had heard many times the names of the Indigenous people of that area including the Sinixt and the Ktunaxa. Every time I heard the word Ktunaxa it was pronounced like Tu-na-ha. A Ktunaxa language pronunciation guide (link below) explains that the K sound is a glottalized hard K with “forceful air movement.” This is a sound that doesn’t exist in this way in English and is often dropped by English speakers when pronouncing this word.

     I had heard this name spoken many times before I saw it written and suddenly realized that it was likely connected to the word Kootenay – especially when you imagine an English speaking person trying to pronounce Ktunaxa, where the K and the T might be spoken as more distinct sounds, inadvertently adding a vowel sounds between them.

     Greg Nesteroff, who wrote the article you found from the Nelson Star, is a writer and reporter in the Kootenays. He was the editor of the Nelson Star for many years and he also is very interested in the history of the Kootenays. He shares his historical wonderings and findings on his blog, entitled the Kutne Reader: https://gregnesteroff.wixsite.com/kutnereader.

     He tackled this Ktunaxa/Kootenay question in this article from Castlegar News: https://www.castlegarnews.com/community/place-names-no-kootenay-doesnt-mean-water-people/.
     Nesteroff explains that early recordings of the origins of the name Kootenay were said to mean People of the Water, “a combination of ‘co’ (water) and ‘tinneh’ (people).” However, further exploration from historians over decades yielded many other answers and Nesteroff says the People of the Water etymology has been long debunked. Nesteroff writes that this People of the Water explanation satisfied European settlers for so long that they just didn’t question it and you can still find this explanation out in the world.

     So mispronunciation/anglicization/cultural misappropriation are some of many ways that Indigenous culture has been altered and erased. Exploring this helps me understand the idea of unlearning, and makes me want to re-learn about so many things I was taught.

     Works Cited

     “Ktunaxa Pronunciation – Quick Guide.” Aqamnik School,
     https://static1.squarespace.com/static/58755044d1758ed038869e58/t/5e989ae5e140194f226afb84/1587059429656/Ktunaxa-+Pronunciation+Quick+Guide.pdf.Accessed April 11, 2021.

     Nesteroff, Greg. Kutne Reader. Wixsite, https://gregnesteroff.wixsite.com/kutnereader. Accessed April 11, 2021.

     Nesteroff, Greg. “PLACE NAMES: No, Kootenay doesn’t mean ‘water people’.” Castlegar News, March 15, 2020, https://www.castlegarnews.com/community/place-names-no-kootenay-doesnt-mean-water-people/. Accessed April 11, 2021.

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2. Hi Quartet!
   Your team has posted some seriously interesting articles! I found the Judy Twedt TED Talk to be extremely engaging. The first thing I thought of when reading the words “connecting to climate change through music” was the song “Colours of the Wind” from the movie Pocahontas. Although not as technologically advanced and data-driven as the work of Judy Twedt, it has a similar underlying message. Trying to bring to light the seriousness of climate change through facts and song, while Pocahontas tries to bring to light the negative effects that John Smith and his fellow Colonizers were having on the land. I have never seen someone convey data and translate their research results through a medium like she has, very interesting!

   Here is a very relaxed, yet interesting analysis of Colours of the Wind and its hidden meaning!
   https://www.theodysseyonline.com/the-message-behind-colors-of-the-wind

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   • Hi Aidan,

     It’s an interesting connection to Pocahontas. I had posted in my hyperlinked GGRW post (Collins) about how Pocahontas has been unfairly portrayed in the media, especially considering the sexualization and whitewashing of her character, and her character’s message. (Ellis) While my main thoughts on this movie tend to revolve around this, you make a good point about how they tried to portray the interactions between the colonists and indigenous people as largely the role of colonizers not understanding how the stories and spiritualities of the two groups differ.
     For instance, I particularly love the lines in the song: “You think you own whatever land you land on // The Earth is just a dead thing you can claim // But I know every rock and tree and creature // Has a life, has a spirit, has a name.” This part of the song definitely showcases the difference in respect that these two groups had towards the environment, especially highlighting John Smith and the Colonizers’ desires for wealth, and fear of the land they are trying to survive in.
     And similarly, the final lines of the song: “You can own the earth and still // All you’ll own is Earth until // You can paint with all the colours of the wind,” shows how this idea of “ownership” that is attached to the colonial concept of wealth doesn’t help you understand the beauty and importance of the world that is hidden from us, unless we know what to look for.

     And it feels like we are living in a time when we need to learn how to look for it.

     I agree that Judy Twedt’s way of expressing these thoughts and ideas in art that we consume everyday in the form of music and clothes, is a deeply compelling way of demonstrating the harmful affects that humans are having on the environment. While there are parts of her art that is largely interpretive, such as the discordance and unnatural features of the piano piece, and the colours that she uses for her outfit, even these aspects of her art are rigorously constructed out of strict, unbiased data. And the fact that these compelling pieces of art are constructed out of this cold data, is chilling. I don’t often like Information or Data Art on its own, because I feel like it takes away from some of the interpretation that the audience is supposed to be doing, anyway, but I feel like issues such as Climate change that has such a large volume of data accessible to it, having this information displayed in interesting and gripping ways is a great way to get people on board with exploring these tough topics.

     Thank you for your thoughts!

     Works Cited

     Ellis, Lindsay. “Pocahontas Was a Mistake, and Here’s Why!.” YouTube, uploaded by Lindsay Ellis, 16 July 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ARX0-AylFI. Accessed 11 Apr. 2021.

     Collins, Zac. “Blog 3.7 :: Hyperlinking King.” EngLitWithZac, UBC Blogs, 29 Mar. 2021, https://blogs.ubc.ca/englitwithzac/2021/03/29/blog-3-7-hyperlinking-king/#comments. Accessed 11 Apr. 2021.

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3. Hello again, Quartet!
   Whiteley, Chiang and Einsiedel (31) are probably correct about “expectation narratives” in Cli-Fi novels where they say, “the crisis of climate change requires a complex social imagination requiring the problematizing of human experience on four levels, including the communal, political, spatial, and temporal.” However, a reductionist student like myself will want to simplify that thought by injecting some Kuhnian philosophy. Thomas Kuhn (52-76) said that science progresses not by accumulating knowledge as per the classical assumption but, instead, science progresses due to accumulating anomalies that precipitate a crisis (my words, not Kuhn’s, but he took 173 pages to say (almost) the same thing) in the minds of scientists. But Kuhn was talking about people like himself, people who had their own labs in Ivy League universities (Kuhn himself was a Fellow at Harvard). However, the intractable part of the climate change crisis is due to a very different sort of people––people like me; millions of us, that is, with one vote each. If we were all scientists like David Suzuki, this whole thing would’ve been settled decades ago because, in such a mind, cognitive dissonance is a serious business that must be resolved. Most voters, though, can carry a load of contradictions without worrying about it too much and they can go on like that for years, maybe even all the way to their graves. It is here that CF can bear fruit, by making anomalies such as hurricanes, wildfires, melting permafrost, invasive species, arctic air escaping the polar vortex, and drought-refugees pouring into Europe and Arizona harder to ignore. My idea is that different parts of the IQ bell curve take different amounts of anomaly to meet the crisis. People in Kuhn’s world, with their high IQ, “got it” long ago, but most of us, by definition, are located at the centre of the IQ bell curve and we need a lot more anomaly to see what’s happening. We’re not all geniuses; best example of that sad fact is last month’s vote at the Conservative Party of Canada where Erin O’Toole was unable to convince the rank-and-file to adopt the policy statement saying that climate change was real (Tasker): they actually voted it down by 54 to 46—so climate change is not yet real in the CPC. More anomaly will be needed for those folks, so let’s hope Earth can outlast them.

   Works Cited

   Kuhn, Thomas S. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL, 1996.

   Tasker, John Paul. “Conservative delegates reject adding ‘climate change is real’ to the policy book” CBC News,  March 20, 2021. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. 2021. Accessed April 10, 2021 at: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/conservative-delegates-reject-climate-change-is-real-1.5957739

   Whiteley, Andrea, Angie Chiang and Edna Einsiedel. “Climate Change Imaginaries? Examining Expectation Narratives in Cli-Fi Novels”. Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society, vol. 36, no. 1, 2016, pp. 28-37. Sage, doi: 10.1177/0270467615622845. 

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   • Hello Joe,
     I appreciate your link to Kuhn! I completely agree: things as they are will generally continue until something large comes along to push that shift into a new understanding and response. Within a previous course on Energy Literacy, I was introduced to different possible transitions to a new future, and how global society will maneuver around the various impasses in regards to climate change. Of the 6 we looked at (Szeman), “transition through catastrophe” (Szeman 38) – altering behaviours after a large scale anomaly – is at this point unfortunately one of the more likely ones. Considering this, I wonder what anomaly would be required to truly make a difference in our futures? How can CF expand its genre even more to engage all different groups? Or is there a non-fiction way of exploring our futures? Cariou and St-Amand advocate, like Whiteley et al., that using literature is a potential way of engaging peoples, and perhaps if a certain work is able to reflect an anomaly – make a connection with those who still do not see – without the world having to go through the aftermath, it will be able to bring about that shift.
     I was first introduced to Kuhn in my History of Psychology class; we read “The Route to Normal Science” within The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, and revisiting the text again today, I found it quite lovely to be described within the book blurb of Kuhn’s Structure of Scientific Revolutions at Fifty: Reflections on a Science Classic as a watershed event which upended “the previous understanding of science” with his concept of the “paradigm shift”. It is a highly relevant connection to this emerging genre of literature. According to Kuhn’s ideas, texts are the containers for theories and information to be shared between a educational field. As you mention however, most information will only be accessible (cognitively or figuratively) to those who have the background knowledge for understanding. So how do authors make cli-fi not only accessible, but engaging enough to get those who fight the idea of climate change to feel the effect? Will this even be possible without, as you mention, an anomaly?

     Thank you for your insight!

     Works Cited
     Cariou, Warren, and Isabelle St-Amand. “Introduction: Environmental Ethics through Changing Landscapes: Indigenous Activism and Literary Arts.” The Canadian Review of Comparative Literature, vol. 44, no. 1, 2017, pp. 7-24.

     Kuhn, Thomas S. “The Route to Normal Science”. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, The University of Chicago Press, 1962, pp. 10-22.

     Richards, Robert J. and Lorraine Daston (Eds.). Kuhn’s Structure of Scientific Revolutions at Fifty: Reflections on a Science Classic, Chicago Scholarship Online, 2016.

     Szeman, Imre. “Energy Impasse and Political Actors”. After Oil, Petrocultures Research Group, 2016, pp. 29-40.

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4. Hi Quartet!
   “Place-Based Education.” This is something I can seriously relate to. I have fond memories of those days in school where you were allowed to leave the confines of the classroom and explore the outdoors. I feel strange making reference to Kanye West, but in an interview I read recently with GQ, he had an insightful view on the common classroom of today. He asked how students are limited in their abilities to “think outside of the box” due to the fact that the classroom they are in is quite literally a box! Allowing students to get outside and learn hands-on in their own community can help expand their horizons to a global vision. However, I understand that being outdoors is not the primary principle of place-based education. As explained in an article I came across titled “Guide on Place-Based Educatio, “the lessons and goals of the classroom are attached to a real place, time, and culture. Rather than leave the subjects abstract, place-based learning helps students gain a more concrete understanding of a topic” (Loveless, 2021.) Place-Based education is something that is for sure overlooked today, but I’m thankful people like Sobel and Wong are bringing it to light!

   Works Cited

   Loveless, Becton. Place-Based Education: The Complete Guide, 2021, http://www.educationcorner.com/place-based-education-guide.html.

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   • Hi Aiden,
     I think you’ve described a super important part of place-based education and that is moving away from abstraction and toward a learning that is more accessible to all!

     The same way Twedt’s data art takes complex data and translates it into music, place-based education works to connect all students with their learning in a real, relevant, current and active way.

     Thanks for your comment!

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5. Hello Quartet!
   Looking at Inwood’s article you have provided on eco-art education is a fascinating pedagogical approach I have never really thought about before reading this annotation. Inwood makes a good point about engagement where using science to explain the importance of environmental sustainability may be challenging to captivate the student’s attention to engage with the material. However, incorporating artistic practices into lessons would be more captivating as Inwood states, “many artistic processes force artists (and viewers) to engage all of their senses in experiencing a place fully” (para 9). It is engaging, though, by using visual art to engage students with topics around environmental sustainability. It will also allow them to appreciate natural environments more because of the subjective element where students can use their interpretations to understand eco-art rather than only learning objective facts about the environment. This concept of eco-art education also draws a connection with Rita’s article on place-based education because both pedagogical approaches encourage students learning to take place outside of the classroom in the environment that surrounds them. Inwood’s approach would fit right into place-based learning because eco-art-based lessons typically require students to engage in the environments around them by drawing, sculpting, and exhibiting in locals outside of their classroom (Inwood, para 9). As a result, it allows students to take their learning to different parts of the local community rather than confining them to a single classroom where they are lectured throughout the lesson.

   Works Cited

   Inwood, Hilary. “Creating a Map for Eco-Art Education.” Hilary Inwood, Creating a Map for Eco-Art Education, Green Teacher Magazine, 2003, http://www.hilaryinwood.ca/Writing/creating_a_map_for_eco_art_education.html.

   Inwood, Hilary. “Exploring Eco-Art Education in Elementary Classrooms.” Independent Education, 2015, http://www.ieducation.co.za/exploring-eco-art-education-in-elementary-classrooms/.

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   • My apologies for the confusion in my comment, I just realized I referred to the place based education as Rita’s article when I really meant David Sobel.

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   • Hello Kyle!

     I’m glad you, too, found Inwood’s approach fascinating! Reading through all of the articles linked here really drives home how important it is to express a story in a way that resonates with a wide variety of people. Many times this involves “re-telling” the story; we saw that in Green Grass, Running Water, when I says begins anew in each section. Or perhaps it involves using data art through atypical mediums, as Judy Twedt does; or focusing on place based education, as Sobel extolls; or diving into the hard facts and data about who funds climate action, like the World Bank. Each approach brings something new to the story, and each will result in a slightly different takeaway, but the net result is that the story spreads and grows.

     Like Aidan, I feel somewhat silly comparing this to a non-traditional source, but it reminds me a lot of voice lessons. Most of my teachers across the past decade have taught voice through story and metaphors, ranging from “think of a megaphone inverted” to “put more purple in that sound” to “imitate a baboon here and a horse here.” Yet others have taken a more scientific approach, advising me to “engage your lower abdominal muscles” or “raise your soft palate.” Despite the incredibly varied approach, the goal is always the same: to attain a better sound, and each element moves me closer to that goal.

     I think that’s the idea that has most struck me reading through this annotated bibliography: story is an incredibly powerful tool, made all the more so for its flexibility and versatility. Just how much can we achieve if we utilise story’s power to re-frame the same narrative?

     Works Cited

     “Climate Finance for a Sustainable Future” YouTube, uploaded by World Bank, 7 Jul. 2020, www.youtube.com/watch?v=crAKMz81Gr0. Accessed 7 Apr. 2021

     Inwood, Hilary. “Exploring eco-art education in elementary classrooms.” Independent Education, 17 June 2015, https://www.ieducation.co.za/exploring-eco-art-education-in-elementary-classrooms/. Accessed 7 Apr. 2021.

     King, Thomas. Green Grass, Running Water. Harper Perennial, 1993. Kindle Edition.

     Sobel, David. Place Based Education: Connecting Classroom And Community. Kohala Centre, 2013, kohalacenter.org/teachertraining/pdf/pbexcerpt.pdf. Accessed April 7, 2021.

     Twedt, Judy. “Connecting to climate change through music.” YouTube, uploaded by TED, 23 Jan. 2019, www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYXxAE5grRQ. Accessed 8 Apr. 2021.

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6. Whiteley et al.’s analysis of Cli-Fi novels is intriguing because it brings a unique argument to the side of the legitimacy of climate change where the novels make a pathos argument rather than traditional ethos and logos arguments where credibility and factual evidence are at the core. It is still a practical approach because, based on personal experiences, stories typically target the reader’s emotions with the hopes of actively engaging them. Furthermore, a New York times author named George Marshall argues in the context of understanding climate change, “the rational side of our brain can readily accept that this is a problem. But it needs the alchemy of stories to turn that cold data into the emotional gold it needs to mobilize” (para 2). This quote connects to Whiteley et al.’s argument how Cli-Fi novels can help readers re-evaluate their relationship with the land because the novels will produce alternative ideologies to the reader, giving them a different perspective on climate change. Cli-Fi novels also bring an entertainment aspect because most research that readers consume on climate change are generally scientific reports, news articles, and social media, but novels take a different approach by engaging the reader (both young and old) story and plotline. Although it is a viable option for sharing knowledge about climate change, it struck a question I want to ask all of you, do you think that cli-fi novels will be as compelling for advocating environmental sustainability as more popular forms of literary works like music and performing arts like TV shows and movies? Let me know your thoughts!

   Works Cited

   Marshall, George. “The Power of Climate Change Fiction.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 2014, http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2014/07/29/will-fiction-influence-how-we-react-to-climate-change/climate-fiction-will-reinforce-existing-views.

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   • Hello Kyle,

     Thank you for your comment! You’ve wonderfully presented the main ideas of the cli-fi genre, and I would completely agree with you on how this is a valid method of encouraging action due to the play on emotions. I found a lot of similarity in this article to the eco-arts approachs for this reason.
     For your question, I think it will depend on the interest of the individual (for me, I connect more with novels as I enjoy reading more than viewing; however my partner is the opposite), the accessability to novel or music or film, and lastly the exposure to the novel genre (i.e. through K-12 education).

     Thank you once again for your thoughts!

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7. Hi Quartet,
   It’s been a pleasure reading about your research, goals and interests. You clearly have a very lively conversation going on here already, but I think you can expect a deluge of comments still to come!

   I find the links you’re exploring between art, education and environmental activism and sustainability so very compelling. (Thank you, by the way, for the conversation you’ve initiated on our website—many connections to be made between land and language, environmental and social justice, and I know you’re interested in sound and performance too.) Your discussion of “data art” particularly caught my eye. This concept was new to me, but I guess that the intention behind it is the same as that behind quite a lot of art (especially “environmental” art)—to mediate or make humanly real experiences or realities that exceed our perceptual and cognitive equipment. It may be that we’re just not designed to really understand geological timescales or the planetary scope of global climate change, but artistic media (including uses of language) give us ways of thinking about these and other things pragmatically, creatively, and constructively.

   This fits quite nicely with the idea of “social imaginaries” that you’ve brought up. Something that strikes me is that the description of social imaginaries you’ve cited bears an uncanny resemblance to what has often been termed “ideology” (which Louis Althusser classically defines as the imagined relations with one’s real conditions of existence). But whereas “ideology” has markedly negative, restrictive connotations (and to paraphrase Terry Eagleton, it’s always what the other person thinks), “social imaginary” seems to emphasize what can be thought and imagined, and by what means.

   There’s a gem of a little book by Terence Cave called Thinking with Literature that develops an understanding of literature (and, perhaps, other arts) as affording/allowing ways of thinking that would be otherwise unavailable—ways of thinking that are particularly in tune with our embodied lives and that can’t be reduced to scientific, philosophical or political discourse (they all have their characteristic modes). Ideological “constraints” go hand in hand with imaginative “affordances.” I think you’ve done a beautiful job of bringing out how various media and activities might afford reflective and creative forms of thought and action. I might even suggest that this is something “criticism” (academic, literary, etc.) should be concerning itself with more for it to really address our circumstances and their challenges.

   Thanks!

   -Connor
   (On Stolen Land)

   Works Cited

   Althusser, Louis. “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses.” Lenin and Philosophy and Other Essays, Monthly Review Press, 1971, pp. 85-123.

   Cave, Terence. Thinking with Literature: Toward a Cognitive Criticism. Oxford University Press, 2015.

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   • Hi Connor!
     I am happy to hear (read) that you have been enjoying the resources as much as we have!

     You have perfectly summed up what I was aiming for in the mention of data art: using art for documentation and display of research. Other art exhibits that do something similar are Vanishing Ice (www.vanishingice.org/), and Warren Cariou’s Petrography, which has been linked to within Cariou and St-Amand above.

     I really enjoyed reading (skimming) through “Thinking With Literature”. My background is in Psychology and Art, and cognition is one of my favourite disciplines within the field. I particularly liked the statement that “[s]tory-telling, poetry, song, dance are not solitary activities, although modern cultures have provided the means for them to be carried out individually and in private” (3). However, despite the individuality of interacting with texts in private, there is still the sense of connecting with others. As Noodie mentions within the TedTalk your group linked to, language involves the transfer of ideas and knowledge into the future (5:46-6:37).

     With the theories that are presented in “Thinking With Literature”, they are very similar to the changing understanding of what constitutes ‘literacy’. There is strong push in K-12 education for bringing in multi literary opportunities for projects, such as using a drawn product to convey understanding rather than a written product. These different modes of expression – like the multiple possibilities with literature – allow individuals to express themselves in ways they feel fit best with them. By taking this open-ended approach to literature, authors and creators – artists – can explore, as you mention, “creative forms of thought and action”.

     Thank you for sharing your thoughts!

     Works Cited

     Noodin, Margaret. “Minowakiing: The Good Land | Margaret Noodin | TEDxUWMilwaukee.” Youtube, uploaded by TEDx Talks, 13 December 2017, https://youtu.be/ddyFh1Rdho4.

     “Vanishing Ice: Artists on the Front Line of Global Climate Change”. Vanishing Ice, http://vanishingice.org/. Accessed 12 April 2021.

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8. Hi Quartet!
   You seem to have a very lively discussion going on on your blog, and I can see why – this topic of research is absolutely fascinating! I hope I can add something new to this conversation.

   In relation to Judy Twedt’s brilliant and powerful TED talk, I think there are a plethora of connections to be made. There seems to be something about music that has a tremendous amount of power in allowing humans to emotionally connect with things that might seem otherwise alien or distant. In our bibliography, we had an entry regarding an album created by an Indigenous artist, Jeremy Dutcher, that blends recordings of songs from the Wolostoq First Nation with his own music (https://open.spotify.com/album/568Hw1PX6K12BdqyFSBj1E?si=iF5HGyE4Q6i3DCzk6FaNOA); this serves as another example of the powerful ways that music is able to transcend linguistic, numerical, spatial, and temporal boundaries.

   More to the point of your own research, though, I am completely taken with this idea of data art. It was something I was mostly unfamiliar with; however, hearing Twedt speak about translating things that are not typically considered ‘musical’ into music instantly made me think of Bartholomaus Traubeck’s project, “The Voice of Trees” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYLaPVi_I2U). This project involves reading the rings of a tree as if they were grooves on a record, and playing it via a digital record player to see what music trees have been making all along. Whilst this is not strictly ‘data’ (though I suppose the case could be made that tree rings are collectors of data in the ways that they record things like rainfall), it still involves translating something we might typically have difficulty connecting with into music, which as Twedt points out, we all emotionally respond to.

   Projects like Traubeck’s and Twedt’s are important in activist work because we are not inclined to sacrifice for something that we do not feel an emotional connection to. Since trees (and other parts of the natural world) do not resemble us, and do not appear to have agency, we may have difficulty feeling empathy for them: this is a phenomenon that has been called ‘plant blindness’ (https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190425-plant-blindness-what-we-lose-with-nature-deficit-disorder). I would point out here that plant blindness occurs notably less often in Indigenous communities; it is mainly a Euro-Colonial sentiment. Nevertheless, it is a real problem when it comes to activist efforts. Projects like the ones discussed here, though, can play a central role in teaching us to connect with nature (and its destruction) in ways that strike emotional chords with us – by turning it into art. By creating these connections, we will (hopefully) feel more inclined to intervene in the climate emergency.

   Thanks so much for the insightful entry, and expect to hear from me again soon!

   Victoria (from On Stolen Land)

   Works Cited
   Dutcher, Jeremey. Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa. Jeremy Dutcher, 2018. Spotify. https://open.spotify.com/album/568Hw1PX6K12BdqyFSBj1E?si=iF5HGyE4Q6i3DCzk6FaNOA

   herogoodnews. “The Voice of the Trees by Bartholomaus Traubeck.” YouTube, YouTube, 29 Feb. 2012, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYLaPVi_I2U.

   Ro, Christine. “Why ‘Plant Blindness’ Matters – and What You Can Do about It – BBC Future.” BBC News, BBC, 28 Apr. 2019, http://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190425-plant-blindness-what-we-lose-with-nature-deficit-disorder.

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   • Victoria,

     I thank you so much for sharing this Voices of the Trees with us. I am totally amazed by this and what a perfect and brilliant addition to our search for artistic responses to the natural world. (I’m really jazzed about this!)
     It made me think a bit of an incredible novel I read last year called The Overstory by Richard Powers. A totally fantastic tale of trees over generations and continents. I have not looked at trees or a mountainside the same way since. Highly recommended.

     You put it perfectly in your comment, that these projects can teach us “to connect with nature (and its destruction) in ways that strike emotional chords with us – by turning it into art.”

     Another creative and moving example can be found in the project called Requiem for a Glacier. http://paulwalde.com/projects/requiem-for-a-glacier/ Paul Walde is an artist, composer and curator who lives in Victoria. This ambitious artistic project was created in response to the fight to keep Qat’muk, also known as Jumbo Valley, from being developed. This 600 square kilometer area of interior BC is the largest piece of non-roaded land in Southern BC and is grizzly bear habitat. For many years surrounding communities have been fighting to keep this area protected and prevent the development of a massive year-round ski resort.

     Requiem for a Glacier includes an oratorio for orchestra and choir composed by Walde, which was then performed for the glacier. Yes, you read that correctly. An entire orchestra with all of their instruments and sounds equipment hiked up to Farnham Glacier (part of the site of the proposed ski resort) and performed this mourning song to the mountain. This live performance was then turned into a film by Walde, including some beautiful images and videos of the land. Read an interesting review of this project here: https://canadianart.ca/reviews/paul-walde-requiem-for-a-glacier/

     Another piece of art bringing us into connecting with nature!

     Thanks for your comment.

     Works Cited

     Hardy, T.E. “Requiem for a Glacier Mourns Climate Change Losses.” Canadian Art, January 22, 2014. https://canadianart.ca/reviews/paul-walde-requiem-for-a-glacier/. Accessed April 12, 2021.

     Walde, Paul. Requiem for a Glacier http://paulwalde.com/projects/requiem-for-a-glacier/. Accessed April 12, 2021.

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   • Hi Victoria!

     Thank you for your thoughtful response!

     I am fascinated by Traubeck’s project, and I really want to know how that modified record player works! You say that it isn’t data, but I feel that I agree more with ‘argument can be made’ side that you mention. The rings on different trees can give us a lot of information, depending on the health and variety of tree that you are looking at. (Engelman) Similar to how Miebach created her weather-based sculptures, each of which contains its own style and shape based solely on the data that she received, the record player could provide a lot of variety in sounds between different slices of log. In a way it might give us a better understanding of depth of difference between log slices that have grown under different conditions. It feels like even though it doesn’t seem very practicable, both projects seem to achieve a similar goal, which is to give us an important, emotional connection to what would otherwise be boring, standardized data. Where Twedt focuses on climate change, and Miebach focuses on weather patterns, Traubeck’s project can give us a lot of insight into the health and growth of forested areas, and help people feel connected to the impacts of the Watershed, and help combat plant blindness.

     Thank you so much for this example, I feel like it fits in perfectly with what we are doing!

     Engelman, Charlie. “CLIMATE CHANGE – How is it changing near me? – Using Tree Rings!,” Youtube, uploaded by World by Charlie, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGhXJLsAFcw. Accessed 12 Apr. 2021.

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9. Hi again Quartet,

   I wanted to jump back into this ongoing discussion, this time to speak about your first entry, being Cariou and St-Amand’s paper “Introduction: Environmental Ethics through Changing Landscapes: Indigenous Activism and Literary Arts.” I think that this intersection of activism and literature is really interesting to consider, especially in the ways that we can use literature as activism. When I think of this, I think of the book The Overstory by Richard Powers, a book that chronicles the activist journeys of six characters as they learn to connect with and care for nature. The book has some excellent insights into what activism can look like, and is very invested in getting it’s readers to care more about the environment, particularly trees and the forest. It also encourages us to ‘take up the activist torch,’ so to speak, by showing us the emotional consequences of climate change and deforestation – similar to what your entry says about “how imagination and story can be used to conceptualize potential futures, which can then lead to a widespread effort to discover how to achieve – or avoid – those potential futures.” However, I would caveat that The Overstory has a lot of issues as well, including a lack of diversity and an almost complete disregard for Indigenous activist efforts (and some potential appropriation of Indigenous culture).

   I think there is also a connection to be made to our own project on sound identity. We cite a famous legal case, Delgamuukw v. BC, in order to talk about the use of oral history in court as evidence, but ultimately the case is a land claims case; the Wet’suwet’en and Gitxsan wanted to regain control of a certain land parcel, which would have allowed them to govern what activities took place on this land. In his ruling, which was against the plaintiffs (the Delgamuukw), Chief Justice McEachern states the following:

   There is a relentless correlation between economics and environmental sensitivity and one must have all the factors of the equation before any opinion can be expressed on that difficult question.  It was not an easy decision, I am sure, when the Moricetown Band was advised to clear cut its timber lands in order to provide economic employment for its members.
    
        These understandable aspirations to control the development of the territory do not fall within the rubric of the plaintiffs’ continuing use of the territory as might have been the case if they had succeeded on the issues of ownership and jurisdiction.  At the same time, the Indians must realize the importance of creating public wealth from the territory as they, like so many members of the non-Indian community, are heavily dependent upon public funding for every day sustenance. (McEachern n.p.)

   This economic profit at the expense of environments is exactly why we need the activism that literature can provide for us. If we continue to have the attitude perpetuated by C.J. McEachern, that of placing anthropocentric economic interests ahead of environmental concerns, we risk not knowing where to draw the line. Indeed, it does not seem like a stretch to say that the reason governments may be so reluctant to return land to Indigenous communities is because it would mean giving up a large portion of profitable land. They are aware that Indigenous values and relationships with land would generally not allow the government and other private businesses to continue environmentally exploitative behaviour. However, in the long run, this mindset will prove harmful. Thus, there is a connection here to be made between Indigenous interests and land claims, activism, and economic exploitation. And, in order to return the land and cede control to its rightful Indigenous owners, we have to first learn to accept their oral histories as evidence of prior occupation. Hence, our intervention on sound identity has a lot of the same at stake as this environmental intervention.

   On a final note, I am curious as to what you might have to say about the medium of literature specifically: what is it about literature that makes it especially conducive to ideas of activism, that makes us want to act? Why not, say, a visual medium – or do you think that all art mediums are equally effective in this aim? 

Thanks so much for this wonderful entry!
   Victoria (from On Stolen Land)

   Works Cited
   Delgamuukw v. British Columbia, 1991 CanLII 2372 (BC SC), , retrieved on 2021-04-10

   Powers, Richard. The Overstory. W. W. Norton & Company, 2018.

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   • Hi Victoria,

     Thank you so much for your insightful comments! Your characterization of the relationship between economics and environmental sensibility as “relentless” is spot on – and I think that’s where literature (and indeed, any art medium) has a chance to work its magic. Art forces you to stop and reflect, and this affords an opportunity to pause this relentless relationship and search for a better way forward. I must admit that I don’t believe literature alone possesses this quality; indeed, even Cariou and St-Amand spend a great deal of time focussing on other arts. I think the important factor is the ability to engage the reader/listener/viewer enough to inspire them to further reflection, and the best chance of accomplishing this in the widest cross-section of people is to use as broad a spectrum of mediums as possible! 🙂

     Cheers,

     Magda

     Works Cited

     Cariou, Warren, and Isabelle St-Amand. “Introduction: Environmental Ethics through Changing Landscapes: Indigenous Activism and Literary Arts.” The Canadian Review of Comparative Literature, vol. 44, no. 1, 2017, https://journals.library.ualberta.ca/crcl/index.php/crcl/article/view/29377.

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     • In response to this question of why literature, I agree with Magda’s comment! I don’t think it is just literature and I think our bibliography posts work to demonstrate this with examples of music, visual art, educational pedagogy and performance art.

       And the variety is also key, as you’ve pointed out here and in a previous post, Magda. Variety allows the story to reach a wider swath of people!

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10. Hi again (one more time), Quartet,

    It just so happened that before looking at your research I came across this gorgeous multimedia article about efforts to preserve Irish words related to the sea (https://www.hakaimagazine.com/article-short/to-speak-of-the-sea-in-irish/). Ireland was something of a test case for English imperialist colonialism (with tragic results) and there are, as the article itself points out, parallels with other Indigenous languages with regards to the worldviews encapsulated in the language and the histories of linguistic marginalization. Irish also provides an interesting case of language revitalization; after decades and centuries of decline, there’s now a thriving interest in learning the language and reconnecting with it.

    I feel that cases like this may speak well to your focus on education and relationship with / stewardship of the land. In the course of my team’s research, I’ve been reading about the Anishinaabe language and how it embodies—makes audible—cultural understandings and relationships. It’s a language, I’ve learned, of great variety, creativity and improvisation, and (to give just one example) its lack of gender indications in third person pronouns likely indicates a relative equality of men and women (Noodin 12).

    What I especially wanted to mention was that there are hints about how the language is an “an echo of the place [Anishinaabe homelands]” (7). The pedagogy of language and environmental literacy may thus be linked:

    “When [Ignatia] Broker urges young people to “listen to the trees” she is not only asking that they hear the pattern of syllables and dance of vowels between the consonants, she is also asking them to listen for meaning not always on the surface. In the words chosen for the tree names, or words used for the actions associated with certain trees, there are networks of meaning in the sounds that should not be ignored. If we listen, the trees tell us who they are: zesegawandag, zhingwaak, mitigomizh, ninatig, azaadi, wiigwaas, giizhik (white spruce, white pine, oak, maple, aspen, birch, cedar).” (8)

    I found this a suggestive example of how language education/revitalization and place-based education might go hand in hand. But I leave this to your much greater knowledge about education!

    Best,

    -Connor
    (On Stolen Land)

    Works Cited

    Geib, Claudia. “To Speak of the Sea in Irish.” Haika Magazine, 17 March 2021, https://www.hakaimagazine.com/article-short/to-speak-of-the-sea-in-irish/. Accessed 10 April 2021.

    Noodin, Margaret. “Anishinaabemowin: The Anishinaabe Language.” Bawaajimo: A Dialect of Dreams in Anishinaabe Language and Literature, Michigan State University Press, 2014, pp. 1-17. Project MUSE, muse.jhu.edu/book/28255. Accessed 7 April 2021.

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    • Hi Connor,
      I’ve been greatly enjoying the dialogue forming between Quartet and On Stolen Ground.

      Noodin’s incorporation of Broker’s ‘listening to the trees’ reminded me of the concept of deep listening (almost the opposite to ‘Hungry Listening’ your group reviewed). This is a process that Warren Cariou writes about in “Sweetgrass Stories: Listening for Animate Land”, and which Brett Bloom refers to in his call to action “Petro-Subjectivity: De-Industrializing Our Sense of Self”. Cariou’s practice is rooted in Cree Elder William Dumas’s storytelling process – of listening to the stories of the land -, while Bloom’s practice is centered around the idea of Pauline Oliveros’s ‘Deep Listening’ (monoskop.org/images/2/2c/Oliveros_Pauline_Deep_Listening_A_Composers_Sound_Practice_2005.pdf).
      Both of these processes ask us to engage with what the land and sea is trying to tell us.

      I completely agree with your assessment that the preservation of language connects with land stewardship, and both have a key role in our climate future. One of the potential transitions we can make towards a more sustainable future is “transition through localization” (). Transition through localization is the notion that through community projects, the power of who decides what happens within the environment and ecosystems shifts away from large corporations and towards local communities. This advocates for self-governance, an issue First Peoples across Canada have been pushing for for decades. In this, there is also a connection to Victoria’s posting on Delgamuukw v. BC.

      You are also correct in your connecting these cases to place-based education! Some of the resources that I have pulled from in the past are Indigenous Climate Hub (indigenousclimatehub.ca/2020/09/indigenous-land-based-learning-a-way-to-take-action-on-climate-change/), Assembly of First Nationa (www.afn.ca/honoring-earth/), and Helping Our Mother Earth (www.helpingourmotherearth.com/).

      Thank you (once again) for the thoughts and comment!

      Works Cited

      Bloom, Brett. Petro-subjectivity: De-Industrializing Our Sense of Self. Breakdown Break Down Press, 2015. Academia: http://www.academia.edu/18494906/Petro_Subjectivity_De_Industrializing_Our_Sense_of_Self. Accessed 12 April 2021

      Cariou, Warren. “Sweetgrass Stories: Listening for Animate Land”. Cambridge Journal of Postcolonial Literary Inquiry, vol. 5, no. 3, 2018, pp. 338–352. Cambridge University Press: doi:10.1017/pli.2018.10. Accessed 12 April 2021

      “Honouring Earth”. Assembly of First Nations, http://www.afn.ca/honoring-earth/. Accessed 12 April 2021.

      “Lessons From the Earth and Beyond”. Helping Our Mother Earth, http://www.helpingourmotherearth.com/. Accessed 12 April 2021.

      Noodin, Margaret. “Anishinaabemowin: The Anishinaabe Language.” Bawaajimo: A Dialect of Dreams in Anishinaabe Language and Literature, Michigan State University Press, 2014, pp. 1-17. Project MUSE, muse.jhu.edu/book/28255. Accessed 7 April 2021.

      Oliveros, Pauline. Deep Listening: A Composer’s Sound Practice, 2005, monoskop.org/images/2/2c/Oliveros_Pauline_Deep_Listening_A_Composers_Sound_Practice_2005.pdf. Accessed 12 April 2021.

      Robinson, Dylan. Hungry Listening: A Resonant Theory for Indigenous Sound Studies. University of Minnesota Press, 2020.

      Viswanathan, Leela. “Indigenous Land-Based Learning: A Way to Take Action on Climate Change”. Indigenous Climate Hub, 15 September 2020, indigenousclimatehub.ca/2020/09/indigenous-land-based-learning-a-way-to-take-action-on-climate-change/. Accessed 12 April 2021.

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11. Hi Quartet,

    Thank you for the really interesting video on how we are currently being presented with the opportunity to recover and invest in climate-friendly strategies to recover from COVID-19. I never really thought about the fact that we have been presented with the opportunity to develop more sustainable development approaches. I think within the conversation of a more ecological future, there needs to be a callout on greenwashing. As you had mentioned government and internationally developed projects have the ability to ring false, so it’s important to keep these entities accountable.
    Sustainability efforts are optimist, but work remains. Global responses require coherence and consistency.

    Work cited:
    Baliño, Sofía. “What Role Can Sustainability Standards Play In The Post COVID-19 Recovery?”. Trade 4 Dev News, 2021, https://trade4devnews.enhancedif.org/en/op-ed/what-role-can-sustainability-standards-play-post-covid-19-recovery.

    “It’s Not Easy Being Green. Businesses Must Back Up Their Words. – Canada.Ca”. Canada.Ca, 2017, https://www.canada.ca/en/competition-bureau/news/2017/01/not-easy-being-green-businesses-must-back-up-their-words.html.

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    • Thank you for your comment, Amanda!

      Yes, you’re right, greenwashing is definitely a concern, especially among powerful entities such as governments and corporations. Companies like Amazon like to pat themselves on the back for their environmental approaches, while simultaneously being one of the largest contributors to greenhouse gasses. Similarly, the Liberal Party of Canada likes to talk about its own green initiatives, without addressing the fact that they bought an oil pipeline in order to save it from bankruptcy.

      Barone, Madeline. “Amazon Prime is convenient, but it’s terrible for the environment.” The Rising, 19 July 2019, https://therising.co/2019/07/19/amazon-prime-is-convenient-but-its-terrible-for-the-environment/. Accessed 12 Apr. 2021.

      Harris, Kathleen. “Liberals to buy Trans Mountain pipeline for $4.5B to ensure expansion is built.” CBC News, 29 May 2018, https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/liberals-trans-mountain-pipeline-kinder-morgan-1.4681911. Accessed 12 Apr. 2021.

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12. What awesome comments everyone is sharing!

    One of the many things I love about Cariou and St-Amand’s introduction is the question: “[i]n a context where “[t]he cultural heritage, land, ecosystems and human health of First Nation communities […] are being sacrificed for oil money in what has been termed a ‘slow industrial genocide’” (“Indigenous Earth”), what role can activism, film, and literature play?” (Cariou and St-Amand 9). Similar to Wong’s question of “[w]hat might a watershed moment in Canadian literature look like?” (Wong 117), drawing upon any one of our resources offers an excellent answer. I am looking forward however in seeing the various comments and new resources to add to this growing answer (such as Victoria’s mentions with The Overstory)!

    Within the same volume as Cariou and St-Amand’s introduction, William Huggins reviews a selection of literature – both fiction and non-fiction – with a focus on water systems, ecology, First Nations leadership in knowledge, and sustainable futures. He advocates that “the renewed awareness that we are all in this together must be voiced by writers of all ethnicities, because the threats to our global community, the human as well as the nonhuman, are not isolated by skin tone, at least not to any person of conscience.” (Huggins 65). I felt that this further speaks to Rita Wong’s intervention, and has links to broadening the understanding of who and what constitues Canadian literature.

    Lastly, I have been a fan of Cariou’s work for a few years now, and love his use of the photographic medium. A eco-arts activity that I do with my photography classes is solargraphy (http://www.solargraphy.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4&Itemid=5). Essentially anyone can make a solargraph; photo paper is not required. As I don’t always have a dark room, I use Nature Paper. This form of photography is an excellent way of tracking the sun’s movement and has some incredible results! With all of the educators we have participating within these comments, I offer up a question to you all: what other activities and projects do you explore with your students?

    Works Cited

    Cariou, Warren, and Isabelle St-Amand. “Introduction: Environmental Ethics through Changing Landscapes: Indigenous Activism and Literary Arts.” The Canadian Review of Comparative Literature, vol. 44, no. 1, 2017,pp. 7-24. CRCL: journals.library.ualberta.ca/crcl/index.php/crcl/article/view/29377. Accessed 11 April 2021.

    Huggins, William. “Pipelines, Mines, and Dams: Indigenous Literary Water Ecologies and the Fight for a Sustainable Future”. Canadian Review of Comparative Literature, vol. 44, no. 1, 2017, pp. 54-67. CRCL: journals.library.ualberta.ca/crcl/index.php/crcl/article/view/29377. Accessed 11 April 2021.

    Trygg, Tarja. “A World Map of Solargraphs”. Solargraphy Gallery, 2006, http://www.solargraphy.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1&Itemid=2. Accessed 12 April 2021.
    Wong, Rita. “‘Watersheds”. Canadian Literature, vol. 204, 2010, pp. 115-117.

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13. Hello Quartet. Great bibliography you’ve put together! So many connections to be made between the works that you have all researched, as well as between your site’s analyses and those of mine (On Stolen Land).

    On Stolen Land focuses on sound identities – complexities of orality/aurality, music, and voice as processes of decolonialization and identity formation. In contrast, many of the works you researched focus on literary decolonization, or at least on words rather than sound. It would be pertinent to compare and contrast sound and text – orality and literacy.

    The analysis of “Beholden” is particularly illuminating. Through the project, in how the words quite literally follow the path of the river and of nature – thus melting together language and landscape, word and water – Wong and Wah are complicating and deepening traditional understandings of Indigenous knowledge and orality. Finn et al. examine “traditional ecological knowledge” as “a subset of indigenous knowledge, preserved through oral tradition and through cultural expressions such as arts, craft, and ceremonies” (1). Yes, Finn et al. are correct in distinguishing TEK (as only one system of Indigenous knowledge) as often being oral in nature; Wong’s work, however, is not just oral, but visual as well. It is also aural – Wong uses not just the orality of human voice but also the aurality of sound itself, the “buhdum, buhdum” hum of the Columbia River, its “cadence as a wet prelude” (2018). The poem(s) transform the human voice into reflections of nature and natural sound – the buhdum, the humming, the murmurs.

    Wong and Wah are thus replicating nature’s music through the written word. Social sciences scholar George J. Sefa Dei writes of Indigenous knowledges as “Orally transmitted” and “experientially-based,” relating “the physical to the metaphysical realms of life” with a connectivity between the spiritual, the political, the cultural, and the ecological (5). As they follow the river as though they are the water itself, the words of “Beholden” trace a bond between the social and the natural, the cultural and the ecological/ecocritical.

    To connect your research to ours (On Stolen Land’s), we grounded our investigations in Susan Gingell’s “Negotiating Sound Identities in Canadian Literature,” an examination of oratorial and sound-based forms of decolonial resistance. In the article, Gingell writes of what she calls “print textualized orality,” or “writing that brings to the paper or digital page a non-prestige lect or a colloquial or otherwise clearly oral version of a language” (127). Wong is not just presenting a “clearly oral” version of English, but one that is also “clearly aural” – to once again make a distinction (or comparison) between the sounds of the human voice and the sounds of nature itself. “Beholden” is a fantastic example of this sort of “print textualized orality.”

    To return us to a work we examined at this course’s beginning – we can draw connections to our research here with J. Edward Chamberlin’s “If This Is Your Land, Where Are Your Stories?” He writes of how stories “bring us closer to the world we live in by taking us into a world of words” (1). “Beholden’s” world of words draws connection between sound and text, nature and language. It is a testament to how Indigenous knowledge systems find strength, solace, and resilience in the earth and the water, in the course of the river as traced by words. Chamberlin later writes of “learning to recognize the difference between a thing and the representation of a thing” (132). So, perhaps, a question (one that may or may not have a definitive answer): how may we learn to recognize the difference(s) between the thing itself (the river, the water, the land) and the representation of the thing (the words, the orality, the voice)?

    Works Cited

    Chamberlin, J. Edward. If This Is Your Land, Where Are Your Stories? Vintage Canada, 2004.

    Finn, Symma, et al. “The Value of Traditional Ecological Knowledge for the Environmental Health Sciences and Biomedical Research.” Environmental Health Perspctives, vol. 125, no. 8, 2017, pp. 1-9, doi: https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP858.

    Sefa Dei, George J. “Rethinking the Role of Indigenous Knowledges in the Academy.” New Approaches to Lifelong Learning, 2002, Microsoft Word – 58GeorgeDei.doc (utoronto.ca).

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    • Hi Leo,

      Thank you for raising such a wonderful link between our two teams’ spheres of research! I love the description of Beholden as “clearly oral” and “clearly aural” (slight tangent: isn’t the fact that aural/oral can be conceived as a homonym in itself a fantastic example of the strange intersections between the spoken and the written?). I also loved your phrase “replicating nature’s music through the written word” – I think this encapsulates another way in which our areas of research converge.

      Nature, the environment, music, and the arts in general are closely interrelated; I’m reminded of Paul Walde’s “Requiem for a Glacier,” which Laura introduced me to in our initial research. The multi-media approach allows for different aspects of each element to be highlighted; the music may expose what a photo cannot, and vice versa. This perhaps might present an opportunity to move towards answering your question; by examining it from multiple angles, might it become easier to distinguish the thing from its representation?

      Works Cited

      Walde, Paul. “Requiem for a Glacier.” paulwalde.com, http://paulwalde.com/projects/requiem-for-a-glacier/.

      Wong, Rita, and Fred Wah. Beholden: A Poem as Long as The River. Talon Books, 2018

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      • I forgot to put this in my original comment, but I found a fascinating article that touches upon the importance of rivers in society. Though it does not touch upon Indigenous knowledge or orality or literacy, I thought it interesting to consider the particular significance of rivers as places of connection and life. It is open access. Citation below:

        Anderson, Elizabeth P, et al. “Understanding rivers and their social relations: A critical step to advance environmental water management.” WIRES Water, 2019, https://doi.org/10.1002/wat2.1381.

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      • Thanks for the response! Love your small catch of how similar the words “oral” and aural” literally sound – yes, a great example of the intersection between voice and text.

        I’d meant to post my comment with the article on rivers as a reply to my own top-level comment, but I accidentally replied to your comment!

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        • Haha – no worries, and thank you so much for sharing it! It’s a beautiful reminder of how linked we all are by water. I particularly like the authors’ emphasis on the “diversity of ways of knowing, relating,and utilizing rivers” (16). Hopefully we can work to find our own rivers of connection between these diverse areas of research! 🙂

          Works Cited

          Anderson, Elizabeth P, et al. “Understanding rivers and their social relations: A critical step to advance environmental water management.” WIRES Water, 2019, https://doi.org/10.1002/wat2.1381.

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14. Hi again Quarter. I am finding myself particularly drawn to a quote in your entry on the video “Climate Finance for a Sustainable Future.” You write of how the rhetoric surrounding the Canadian government’s relationship to Indigenous communities in the context of sustainability and climate justice “seems to imply that inaction has been on the side of Indigenous communities, rather than…on the government, itself.” I find it a fascinating remark, to consider how Indigenous ecology and ecological knowledge systems have faced, and continue to face, erasure, marginalization, and – as you point out – perhaps even blame.

    In my and my teammates’ research for “On Stolen Land,” we examined the notion of “learning to listen” (as put by my teammate Victoria), in the context of an investigation of the famous Delgamuukw v. BC case. For the purposes of this discussion, Delgamuukw v. BC is important in that it groundbreakingly allowed for the admittance of Indigenous oral history as court evidence. The issue remains, however, that forms of Indigenous oral knowledge and history are still so often positioned as “lesser” than dominant forms of Western, settler-colonial knowledge systems.

    In a comment replying to our bibliography’s post about the Delgamuukw v. BC case, I quoted an article by Leanne Simpson. It is one that is hidden behind a paywall but accessible through UBC credentials. I am using it as a source for my final paper for this 372 course, but I thought it was pertinent here. A quote from it below:

    After centuries of benefiting from the promotion of European colonialism and the denial of Indigenous Knowledge as a legitimate knowledge system, the Western academy is now becoming interested in certain aspects of Indigenous Knowledge, particularly those aspects that directly relate to the Western conceptualizations of ecology and environment. (373)

    Simpson is writing of how Western institutions and the “Western academy” only superficially accept Indigenous knowledge systems as legitimate. Only those elements of traditional Indigenous knowledge and Indigenous ecological knowledge that reflect or support Western knowledge systems are “allowed” a seat at the table, so to speak. Those elements that directly clash with Western hegemony face extreme scrutiny and marginalization. What you write of in your bibliography entry – that blaming of Indigenous communities for climate inaction – is only one element of the Western colonial state’s insidious “control” of Indigenous knowledge systems. It is all in service of forcing Indigenous knowledge into a corner, where representation and sociopolitical visibility are determined by exterior, settler-colonial forces. Indigenous knowledge systems are, ultimately, very different from Western knowledge systems (though perhaps this notion is, itself, potentially problematic in threatening to dichotomize between “Indigenous” and “non-Indigenous”). As Indigenous scholar Margo Greenwood and researcher Nicole Lindsay write, “Indigenous ways of knowing and being are, by nature, relational and land-based” (85). Land-based systems of Indigenous health knowledge(s) are inherently anti- and de- colonial, threatening the hegemonic legitimacy commonly provided to Western health systems. Thus, those Western systems continuously seek to suppress alternative knowledge forms. Note – that Greenwood and Lindsay article is open access. I cannot hyperlink in a comment, but I have put a citation and URL to it in a works cited below. I recommend reading more of it, as it is a fantastic commentary on Indigenous knowledge and the harms of colonialism. And Greenwood is an academic of Cree ancestry with much experience working with Indigenous children and communities. She provides a fantastic perspective.

    I have found what I believe to be an article pertinent to this discussion, written by climate change researchers Ella Belfer, James D. Ford, and Michelle Maillet, that researches representations of Indigenous peoples in climate change reporting. In it, Belfer et al. write of the media’s large role in shaping common narratives of Indigenous peoples and their relationship to climate change: “Indigenous suffering is used to ‘sell’ the importance of overarching mitigation efforts to the general public, supporting initiatives that do not materially address vulnerabilities of Indigenous communities to climate change” (66). It is thus interesting to analyze, as you do, governmental responses to climate crises and ecological engagements with Indigenous communities. As you pertinently note, the Canadian government does not have the best of histories when it comes to navigating Indigenous issues and genuinely addressing the true, “material” needs of Indigenous peoples. As Delgamuukw v. British Columbia demonstrates, governmental responses can, at first, appear progressive and helpful – but, after closer scrutiny, come apart and reveal themselves as nothing more than cogs in a system that continues to mistreat and misrepresent Indigenous groups.

    So, the question remains as to how to fix these issues. I think we can move towards resolution with such processes as “eco-art education.” You analyze “eco-art education” as an integration of both scientific and artistic approaches to the land and sustainability. I loved that post, particularly due to its hopefulness. As academics we find ourselves so often stuck in cycles of cynicism, doomed to wield a critical eye that seems to continuously locate the dreadfully negative. We are almost trained to be. That is, of course, not a bad thing, and it so often helps us to illuminate societal issues and understand systems of oppression. But a post like yours on the possibilities of eco-art is also important, as it demonstrates how we can put these “intervention strategies” into action. Art, literature, education, and youth engagement, all combined, make for such a powerful tool for decolonization.

    Great work!

    Works Cited

    Belfer, Ella, et al. “Representation of Indigenous peoples in climate change reporting.” Climatic Change, vol. 145, no. 1, 2017, pp. 57-70, doi:10.1007/s10584-017-2076-z.

    Greenwood, Margo, and Nicole Marie Lindsay. “A commentary on land, health, and Indigenous knowledge(s). Global Health Promotion, vol. 26, 2019, pp. 82-86. SAGE, https://doi.org/10.1177/1757975919831262.

    Simpson, Leanne R. “Anticolonial Strategies for the Recovery and Maintenance of Indigenous Knowledge.” American Indian Quarterly, vol. 28, no. 3/4, pp. 373-384. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/4138923.

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    • Hi Leo! Thank you for your very in-depth response!

      I really liked the post you mentioned about Delgamuukw v. BC on your teams blog! It feels too often like there are aspects of progress that appear to be progress on the surface, but are unable to manifest much change due to internalized biases and lack of understanding of the general culture, or those who hold power within it. An example here could be along the issues of diversity and anti-racism, where companies may voice support for ‘diverse’ demographics, while providing little change to actually benefit them. (Banjo and King)

      Your comment made me think about how these biases that we experience in the legal proceedings you mentioned, and the corporate ones that I did also appear in the very art from the post that you are commenting on.

      In the art world there is often a cynical, puritan view of art that imagines it to be a masterful, perfect, creative process that stands on its own outside of the influence of culture or time. Under this view of art, Twedt’s musical imaginings of climate change data may seem like a child’s doodle compared to the works of Famous Jazz Musicians and Composers. However, what art actually is, is much more complicated than what this view would entail, and is rarely connected to the opinions of the artist. The values that we attribute have much more to do with our expectations of art — expectations that are formed from experience, exposure, and social norms.

      In ‘But is it art?,’ Cynthia Freeland discusses the philosophies of art that lead us to the question of whether or not a thing is art. In the chapter ‘Cultural Crossings,’ Freeland discusses the views of Anthropologist Richard Anderson to establish a way that we can look at art to best make sense of it. (77) Anderson understood art as “culturally significant meaning, skillfully encoded in an affecting, sensuous medium.”

      From this definition it feels important to see how the cultural framework with which we view art is critical to our ability to grasp meaning from it. It is much harder for us to identify when we dislike a piece of art because the meaning that we are meant to grasp from it comes from a culture that we are unfamiliar with. Much easier, however, is when we identify a flaw in the design that could signify the lack of experience or expertise of the artist; or when it feels unrefined to our pallet that betrays its aesthetic quality.

      I feel like this is significant, because we are not just talking about art in the sense of Picasso and Monet, and John Williams and John Coltrane. The art that is affected by this is everywhere: its the logos of major businesses, and the design of an Ikea kitchen table, and the ways that we display important data points in critical climate research, and the ways in which we allow history to be disseminated and reflected upon in major court cases. Artwork is essential to the way that we understand the world, and without understanding the ways that culture and meaning are embedded in it, and essential to it, there is little good that can be gained from it.

      Works Cited

      Banjo, Shelly; King, Ian. “From Apple to Facebook, Tech’s New Diversity Pledges Follow Years of Failure.” Bloomberg, 23 June, 2020, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-06-23/apple-amazon-facebook-google-microsoft-data-on-black-hiring. Accessed 14 Apr. 2021.

      Freeland, Cynthia. But is it Art?. Oxford University Press, 2002, Print.

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15. *Hi sorry I realized I typed out this response and it never pressed the submit button.

    Thank you Quartet for sharing the Inwood article on “Exploring eco-art education in elementary classrooms.” I know she is one of the leading voices in eco-art education and I always love reading her ideas. I found this article to be quite interesting and raised a lot of great points regarding the power of education and narrative shaping. I really enjoyed the line at the beginning where it says “These artists, and the next generation following in their footsteps, have touched countless viewers through their understanding of environmental concerns as well their innovative solutions for them, thereby reaching people in ways that scientists have been unable to do.” So often, environmental issues are approached through a scientific lens, and yet there are many aspects of climate change that touch Art and the liberal arts (i.e. philosophy and ethics for instance). I also found the array of projects listed in figure 1 quite fascinating and eye-opening. It showed the real potential and also the feasibility of eco-art education. Moreover, the limitations which were discuss in the article such as weather unpredictability and time constraints, showed how very minimal the cons were in comparison to the pros.
    What this article brought to my attention was that eco-art was a way to cultivate mindfulness and eco-awareness to elementary students in a whole new way. I found this approach to be both feasible but also incredibly fun. It promoted so many great attributes such as collaboration and ingenuity. I found this website that discusses how they use eco-art as a tool in therapy. Indeed, there is very healing aspect that nature and art bring. Together, they are such powerful mediums of expression and recovery. I really liked what that page also highlighted how Art and Nature were both universal.

    Thanks for sharing!

    Work cited
    Eco Art Therapy. “EcoArts Therapy – Accredited Courses, Certification, and Degrees.” Ecoart-Therapy.org, 2021, ecoart-therapy.org/. Accessed 11 Apr. 2021.
    Inwood, Hilary. “Exploring eco-art education in elementary classrooms.” Independent Education, 17 June 2015, https://www.ieducation.co.za/exploring-eco-art-education-in-elementary-classrooms/. Accessed 11 Apr. 2021.

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    • Hi Amanda,

      I’m really glad you enjoyed the article too! As you noted, eco-art is bursting with potential for accessible, feasible projects that can engage students of all ages in both science and the arts. Do you think you might have the chance to incorporate some of these ideas in your future work/studies?

      Cheers,

      Magda

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16. Hello Quartet!

    I very much enjoyed reading through your annotated bibliography and was inspired! Two particular entries I would like to discuss would be your Warren Cariou paper “Introduction: Environmental Ethics though Changing Landscaped: Indigenous Activism and Literary Arts and William Colgan’s project “Vanishing Canada: Group of Seven Landscapes Under Climate Change”.
    I would like to discuss this because I believe that the important work in acknowledging indigenous ways of knowledge are valuable to environmental affairs and when companies are required to do environmental risk assessments as Cariou states in his paper. However, he doesn’t express his concern through just a paper but he also acknowledges the work that people are doing through speculative fiction to make the point “this is what is/ can happen…”. I think that this is a great method to getting people to care about the environment as most people are scared of the unknown. Additionally I would like to add another one of Carious works called “An Athabasca Story” you all might find it interesting.

    On the other side of this discussion is Colgan’s project which was supposed to highlight the changing landscaped in Canada through a triptychs. I like Colgan’s idea because he wis using art to connect to peoples emotions and try to tap into their sympathy.

    For me I believe that these ways of connecting art to issues like climate change is a great way to get people to listen and to care. Seeing that art and music are only some of the way in which we connect to other humans and to be realtable.

    Works Cited.
    Cariou, Warren, and Isabelle St-Amand. “Introduction: Environmental Ethics through Changing Landscapes: Indigenous Activism and Literary Arts.” The Canadian Review of Comparative Literature, vol. 44, no. 1, 2017, https://journals.library.ualberta.ca/crcl/index.php/crcl/article/view/29377. Accessed 7 Apr. 2021.

    Cariou, Warren. “An Athabasca Story”. https://cpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/blogs.uoregon.edu/dist/6/10008/files/2015/01/An-Athabasca-Story-Cariou-1g7owhy.pdf

    Colgan, William. “Vanishing Canada: Group of Seven Landscapes Under Climate Change”. Glacier Bytes, williamcolgan.net, 31 July 2015, http://www.williamcolgan.net/blog/?p=338. Accessed 6 Apr. 2021.

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    • Hi Lenaya,
      Thank you so much for sharing ‘An Athabasca Story’! It is a wonderful example of using literature for environmental and climate issues, and I will be adding this to my collection of resources for my future classes! It also does a wonderful job of drawing attention to the changing Canadian landscape.
      I also liked that you drew attention to how these resources are showing how we can all connect and care with each other and the environment. I think this is such an important part of all that we have learned through our research, and really speaks to one of the more positive ways we can move forward into a sustainable future (of both the environment, and the diverse cultures/languages of this land).

      Thank you for your thoughts!

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17. Hi again for the final time Quartet!

    As I said above I really enjoyed reading through your bibliography and even more so when I found the annotation for David Sobel’s “Place-based education: Connecting Classroom And Community” and Judy Twedt’s work in “Connecting to climate change through music”.

    For one I very much resonate with Sobel’s work. The reason for this is because for the last 10 years I have been a participant and now staff at Fireside Adventures and Vancouver Outdoor School (VOS). Fireside Adventures and VOS specialize in PBE that Sobel describes. We focus on building meaningful relationships with the area around us. By building these relationship students become more aware citizens of the environment around us. Therefore, allowing them to make more informed decisions later on. I personally love PBE not only as an Indigenous person but also as an educator because it allows for people to connect to the land and build relationships with the area you are in.

    Furthermore, Twedt’s work on creating a musical piece based off of the warming and ice sheets and connecting it to the earth’s natural rhythm spoke to the importance of PBE. As humans, we have a huge impact on the earth and it should be our job to take care of it as it is our home. I like to live by a motto: If I take care of the earth the earth will take care of me. It seems a bit ambiguous but when you are on a 21-day trip with no showers, electricity or cell service. You learn how to work with the earth rather than against it. Twedt’s piano piece shows what happens when we don’t work with the earth and think we are more important than everything else.

    Works Cited
    Sobel, David. Place-Based Education: Connecting Classroom And Community. Kohala Centre, 2013, kohalacenter.org/teachertraining/pdf/pbexcerpt.pdf. Accessed April 7, 2021.

    Twedt, Judy. “Connecting to climate change through music.” YouTube, uploaded by TED, 23 Jan. 2019, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYXxAE5grRQ. Accessed 8 Apr. 2021

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    • Lenaya,

      Thank you for your comment! I’m so glad that so many are connecting with Place-Based Education!
      PBE was one of the highlights of my time going through the teacher education program. I remember discussing the connections between PBE and a decolonized classroom with peers and faculty. The Ken Robinson video below was a frequently visited topic, especially as he connects the nature of the school system as it was created to support industrialization in Britain, and must now be adjusted to fit with our culture’s ideals of providing our kids with a happy and meaningful life, and the best chance to engage in and benefit our communities.
      Unfortunately, the schools that I have worked at since finishing the program have not been prioritizing PBE. And this year with COVID, it’s been harder to establish those connections within the community, if they weren’t there already, so there is definitely some work ahead to get the ball rolling, in my area. Working at VOS must be a really rewarding experience, in comparison!
      I was also particularly drawn to her description of a pulsing rhythm of earth, and I feel like that is something that everyone — adults and kids, alike — can really connect with. We like rhythms, and we like engaging with them, and when that rhythm gets disrupted, we really notice it. I think that Twedt is doing a great job at drawing attention to that disrupted rhythm, and I think you’re right that PBE is a great way of showing how the change in that rhythm can harm us.

      Works Cited

      Robinson, Ken. “Changing Education Paradigms.” YouTube, uploaded by RSA, 14 Oct. 2010., https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U. Accessed 17 Apr. 2021.

      Sobel, David. Place-Based Education: Connecting Classroom And Community. Kohala Centre, 2013, kohalacenter.org/teachertraining/pdf/pbexcerpt.pdf. Accessed April 7, 2021.

      Twedt, Judy. “Connecting to climate change through music.” YouTube, uploaded by TED, 23 Jan. 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYXxAE5grRQ. Accessed 8 Apr. 2021

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