This blog post was written by the new FEELed Lab Administrator, Julia Jung.
It has been about three months since I moved from Germany across the Atlantic to Kelowna, started my PhD at UBCO and became the new FEELed Lab Administrator.
In Germany, I grew up next to the river Main and in the last few years, I was living on the coasts of the North Sea and the Atlantic, and next to a forest in Berlin. Going swimming in those bodies of water or walking in the forest is always how I’ve felt most connected to myself and the Land I am on/with.
As I am getting to know this Land, and specifically kɬúsx̌nítkʷ (the Okanagan Lake) and the forest and creek in Woodhaven, I am deeply grateful for the stewardship of the syilx people who have been here since time immemorial. As a way to begin engaging with the teachings of the syilx people and to build meaningful relationships during my time here, I have begun taking nsyilxcən classes at the Kelowna Museum, and am grateful to be participating in the Earth Sense program organized by IndigenEYEZ. Earth Sense explores the concept of “climate justice” from an Indigenous perspective and asks what enacting this on syilx Land can look like. While primarily intended to gather and empower syilx people, Earth Sense also includes a small group of settlers learning to support Indigenous-led climate action.
I have also been spending more time at the physical site of the FEELed Lab, at the Woodhaven EcoCulture Centre. During FEELed Lab meetings, we always take a “Listening” break, being outside and listening to the Land and the creek. At our last meeting, I kept being drawn to this tree, because it reminded me of a tree in Berlin. A lot of my new tasks are similar to work I have done before as a member of the Cobra Collective. I’ve tried to balance that familiarity with particular attention to what is different and making sure I stay attuned to where I actually am. While appreciating that this tree can remind me of the one I knew from Berlin, I am also forging a relationship with this tree on its own terms.
During the same Lab meeting listening break, I came across this sparkly note in the woodshed saying “nest”. I don’t know who put it there and why, but I really like it. A nest is something that holds precious things, carefully.
How do you hold something that has been given to you with care? As FEELed Lab Administrator, I am now being asked to hold some precious things. On a practical level, this has meant wondering about which tone to take when formulating the FEELed Guide or our Instagram posts. What can I say so my words are congruent with the voice that has spoken before me, but also include undertones of myself?
Moving from listening to offering, here are some concrete things I feel grateful to have been able to offer and am really excited to take forward. We are currently working on defining our Lab values and I facilitated our first exploratory mini-workshop on this using a method called “rich pictures”.
I am also really excited to convene a pre-Camp art project for our upcoming FEELers Summer Camp using the Exquisite Corpse method (more info on that coming soon, but I promise it’ll be good and fun😉).
Until then, you’ll hear my voice on Instagram and in our FEELed Guide, hopefully weaving a bit of myself into the Lab, while holding with care what the FEELed Lab has been before I joined.
The FEELed lab 