June at Woodhaven finds Bellevue Creek in full freshet, roaring across the rocks in a cappuccino coloured froth. It is barely recognizable as the same cold and quiet waters in which we soaked our feet in an afternoon in May at the FEELed Lab, sitting on the rocks still, tentatively shedding warm winter layers. As we learn from the Syilx Nation Siwɬkʷ Water Declaration, “siwɬkʷ comes in many forms and all are needed for the health of tmxwulaxw and for the timixw.”
June also means that temperatures are creeping up, and while warm days are welcome, they are accompanied by underlying concern: too hot, too dry means wildfire. A yellow sky appears some days, a strange index of something happening far away but that feels very close, too. These are the ecologies of affects we are all learning too live with. Water and fire are powerful in all of the ways. The Syilx Nation Water Declaration also reminds us that “siwɬkʷ must be treated with reverence and respect.”
Learning to live with these water and fire ecologies – humbling ourselves, moving, writing, imagining otherwise, conversing, pondering, noticing, laughing, falling in love, and revering with them – was an aim of Water + Fire, the second year-end symposium we have convened at the FEELed Lab, this year on the 9th of June.
The day began with a welcome from Elders Pamela and Grouse Barnes, after which we all spent some time acquainting ourselves with the Syilx Nation Water Declaration, walking, sketching, and tuning into the Land that was the context for our gathering.
In collaboration with the Indigenous Art Intensive, our morning workshop was convened by Vanessa Dion Fletcher (collaborative story-making), and after lunch we enjoyed short workshops from Denise Kenny (embodying water and fire) and Collette Montoya (storytelling and water memories). Csetkwe Fortier joined us in conversation about understandings of gender and sexuality in syilx culture, and our day ended with a poetry workshop led by Isabella Wang, and a powerful participatory performance by Anita Girvan.
The days leading up to the event were scorching, so the trees around the firepit (whose flames remained dormant this year, in response to the recently imposed Fire Ban) cast a weclome shade. Around lunchtime, a light rain began to fall. Again, as the syilx water declaration reminds us: “siwɬkʷ will always find a way around obstructions: under, over and through. It teaches us that anything is possible.”
Huge thanks to the organizational team Rina Garcia Chua, Dani Pierson and Zeinab Omar (and me, Astrida) for pulling this together!
This event was supported by the Canada Research Chairs program, the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies (FCCS) at UBCO, the Indigenous Art Intensive (FCCS), and the Public Humanities Hub at UBCO.
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The FEELed lab 