Weaving Traditions & Ecological Future Symposium

Please join us for the next event in our Shedding Light Talk Series:Weaving Traditions for our Ecological Future at Falaise Park! These public presentations have been showcasing expert’s knowledge on a wide variety of topics related to environmental stewardship and ecological art since 2019.  

This event will bring together Indigenous artists, leaders and researchers to share their work and perspectives in a public setting, providing an opportunity for reflection, appreciation and implementation of the teachings for the community.

We are very excited to have the following guests:

Jolene Andrew: Interweaving Laws: Natural and Across Cultures 

Sussan Yáñez : Applying Indigenous Research Methodology for Ethnobotanical Research

Tracy Mclean : A Journey in Traditional Weaving 

For more details and to register – check out this link!

Jolene Andrew

Jolene Andrew, raised in Witset in her Gitxsan – Wit’suwet’in Heritage, lives in unceded Coast Salish territories. Honouring grassroots approaches to building community, she looks at how Indigenous cultures intersect with new system design to be implemented and driven by community involvement. Working in cultural development to organizational strategic planning, her goals are to facilitate decolonial approaches to Indigenous community engagement, building harmonious practices towards socio-ecological balance.

Presentation: “Interweaving Laws: Natural and Across Cultures”:

Jolene will share the experience and examples of the Indigenous pedagogical awareness that emerged from the bringing together of Squamish teachings with artist Cease Wyss and Witsuwet’in knowledge that came out during Artists in Residency with Earth Hand Gleaners.

Sussan Yáñez

 Kallfümalen is a Mapuche, Andean, Spaniard, German and English mother that currently studies a Bachelor of Arts, on leave, that lives in the unceded Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) and səl̓ilwətaɁɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) territories. Born on the Wallmapu in 1994, in a colonizing Chilean country and is the first in her family to recognize Indigenous ancestry in a few generations. The lost lineages and teachings she found in ceremonies with Indigenous elders from St’at’imc and Wixárika nations, has helped her heal wounds of intergenerational trauma and define her own voice as a student, a multidisciplinary artist, a cultural facilitator and a community organizer. She is the founder of Visionaries Gathering, and initiated a minimal risk journalism project in 2019 called “How can we embody a healthy curiosity around indigenous psychoactive plant medicine ceremonies?” for which she had consultations with the Wixárika Regional Council and the members of their Assemblies on their ancestral territories according to participatory research and land-based teachings. She currently works as the Community Connections and Celebrations Coordinator for Collingwood Neighbourhood House.

Presentation: Healing with Hikuri: Applying Indigenous Research Methodology for Ethnobotanical Research

This talk will be an introduction to scientific research using decolonial research methods inspired by Dr. Margaret Kovach. How can scientific research be grounded in reciprocal approaches, that are grounded in land-based and participatory practices and that are not extractive? How can visitors on Indigenous lands participate in these endeavors respectfully? While there is no one-answer-fit-all solution, Sussan’s lived experience in working with a Wixárika medicine carrier and community, supported by the Wixárika Regional Council and their General Assembly’s members. She will share her learning about the appropriate place and nation-based protocols, that are kept through family lineages to hold ceremonies with Hikuri (Lophophora williamsii). She goes through her process of laying the groundwork to demonstrate that the modern psychedelic movements trying to medicalize Sacred Plant Medicines remain colonial through “‘so and so plant/fungi’ guided therapies”, not from a gatekeeping perspective, but as a defense of Indigenous Peoples rights in accordance to UNDRIP to their traditional knowledge, lands and relations, and that there are ways to hold respectful and culturally relevant relations and practices instead.

Tracy Mclean

Bio: łałaay̓aknuk (very giving and talented hands),Tracy Mclean, is Nuuchahnulth from DITIDAHT and Hesquiaht First Nation, on the West Coast of Vancouver Island. She comes from a long line of traditional weavers. Her great grandmother, Ida Jones was who her mother watched and learned from, along the side of granny Edith Joseph. Her mother,Julia Joseph, has been weaving for over 50 years. Weaving since she was 15 years old, she has practiced and learned many aspects of weaving including harvesting and preparing cedar. She continues to pass on her knowledge to her daughters who love to weave!

Presentation: A Journey in Traditional Weaving:

Tracy will speak to her journey with traditional weaving, sharing her experience learning through her family. She will share important processes and aspects of the practice, share some stories about the work she has done, and will give brief demonstrations of simple techniques to try on your own.