LIVE EVENTS
PUBLIC TALK
September 18, 6pm-7:30pm
Making Art in a Changing Climate
Dr. Amanda White and Laura Kozak
Sunshine Coast Arts Centre
This lecture and discussion considers how artists and curators are thinking with a rapidly changing climate. How can art provide a space for more than contemplation and awareness, towards the possibility of transformation? What creative forms and material responses invite us to consider art as a site for urgent action?
Dr. Amanda White is an artist and researcher using art to engage with ecological systems, climate change, and human-nature relationships from a critical white settler lens. A key focus of her work is creative practice and critical plant studies, examining plants as living technologies that regulate climate, sustain ecosystems, and hold cultural significance. She is Canada Research Chair in Sustainability, Ecological Justice, and Climate action in Creative Practices (Tier II) and Assistant Professor of Critical Studies at Emily Carr University. amandawhite.com
Laura Kozak is a community-based designer, researcher and Assistant Professor in Emily Carr’s Faculty of Culture and Community. She works to practice relational, place-based ethics, asking how designers contribute to relationships with communities, land, water and ecological beings through decolonizing and anti-oppression practices. Her research focuses on climate justice and the local food system. In 2023, she co-led a Climate Justice Field School for senior sustainability planners and policy-makers at the City of Vancouver in collaboration with a renowned group of cultural and social justice practitioners. She is currently part of an interdisciplinary team working on a project called Mapping swiya, which draws on shíshálh ways of knowing to re-envision stories of time and place. Laura was co-lead of the Circular Food Innovation Lab, in partnership with numerous food businesses, food rescue organizations, health authorities, food justice advocates, Squamish Nation and City of Vancouver Solid Waste Services. laurakozak.ca
FILM SCREENING
September 19, 2pm-4pm
təm kʷaθ nan (Namesake)
Raven’s Cry Theatre (free tickets in advance and at the door)
When the Tla’amin Nation asks its neighbouring city to reconsider its name, a community confronts history, identity, and the meaning of reconciliation in everyday life.
təm kʷaθ nan (Namesake) follows an ongoing conversation between Tla’amin Nation and the city commonly known as Powell River about a name that honours Israel Wood Powell, whose policies harmed Tla’amin people and culture. As the Nation asks the city to consider a new name, the community responds with reflection, resistance, allyship, and difficult conversations about history, identity, and belonging. Elders share naming traditions rooted in responsibility to place, while the film situates this moment within over 12,000 years of continuous presence. The outcome remains uncertain, but through the rhythm of the seasons, the film shows how change happens over time—through listening, disagreement, and the willingness to move forward together.
> Trailer
> Website
Post-screening discussion with Claudia Medina and Peg Campbell.
Peg Campbell (Producer/Writer/Story Editor) is an award-winning filmmaker whose work has screened and broadcast internationally on CBC, PBS, Knowledge Network and more. A Professor Emeritus at Emily Carr University and programmer with the qathet International Film Festival, she has spent decades mentoring filmmakers and supporting community storytelling. On Namesake, she shaped the story with care and clarity.
Claudia Medina (Executive Producer/Camera & Sound) is a filmmaker and editor working through her production company EnMedia. She has directed and edited for APTN and creates both documentary and experimental media. Based in the qathet region, her work explores connection, land, and identity. On Namesake, she was involved from the outset, bringing thoughtful storytelling and deep respect for the local and historical nuances of the project.
September 19, 6pm-8pm
Exhibition Opening + Festival Reception
Bracken Hanuse Corlett, Jessica Silvey + Robert Joe, Laiwan and others
Sunshine Coast Arts Centre
PUBLIC PROGRAM
September 20, 2pm-4pm
How Water Remembers
Art Activation + Discussion
Sunshine Coast Arts Centre, Drop-in
Join us for an activation and discussion of Laiwan’s How Water Remembers, a multi-part artistic project that aims to build awareness and cultural value in developing sustainable ecologies for humans and biodiversity. By increasing ecological biodiversity, scientists believe we can slow down global warming and also increase protections against future pandemics. How Water Remembers encourages a vision of a more livable city with sensitive landscape architecture that enhances biodiversity, while respecting our interconnected livelihood with the many diverse critters whose habitats may be currently endangered.
We will play The Divination Game that invites us to embody the qualities of the inhabitants of mudflats. The first 5 participants will receive an artist edition.
PUBLIC PROGRAM
September 23, 5pm-6:30pm
Art Talks: Art & Climate Change
Online, registration required
We are bringing back Art Talks, a series of discussions that centre on issues and ideas connected to contemporary art in the 21st century. Offered online, they are an opportunity to learn, share and discuss wide ranging topics that intersect with making art at this moment in time. Threading theory, practice and art, these discussions will provide a chance to delve into ideas, unpack understandings, and challenge assumptions. In this first session, we will look at artists and practices that consider a changing climate with a particular focus on our warming oceans.
PUBLIC PROGRAM
September 24, 5pm-6:30pm
Art Talks: Making with the Salish Sea
Online, registration required
We are bringing back Art Talks, a series of discussions that centre on issues and ideas connected to contemporary art in the 21st century. Offered online, they are an opportunity to learn, share and discuss wide ranging topics that intersect with making art at this moment in time. Threading theory, practice and art, these discussions will provide a chance to delve into ideas, unpack understandings, and challenge assumptions. In the second session we will consider artists, projects and practices around the Salish Sea, and how they help connect audiences to specific sites of climate transformation.
WALKING TOUR
September 25, 2pm-3:30pm
Salish Sea and Me with Talaysay Tours
Registration required
We invite you to join us for a walk along the shoreline of ch’atlich to celebrate the many life-giving attributes and rich resources that the ocean has provided Coast Salish peoples since time immemorial. Each Salish Sea and Me experience will be a conversation with the shoreline; a meeting between land, water, and the people who have walked here for generations. Guided by Candace Campo, you’ll explore the rich ecosystems of the Salish Sea, learning how Indigenous communities have lived in balance with these tides for millennia. Coast Salish peoples have shared a profound and enduring connection with the Salish Sea for thousands of years, a relationship that has shaped a beautiful culture, identity and way of life. By highlighting and embracing these Indigenous values, knowledge and practices we welcome a more resilient path towards environmental stewardship, climate resilience and reconciliation.
Start Time: 2:00 pm
End Time: 3:15 pm
Duration: 75 minutes
Accessibility: Wheelchair friendly
Guide: xets’emits’a. Candace Campo
Meeting Location: Friendship Park, Wharf Avenue, Sechelt BC
Ending Location: Friendship Park
Includes: Talaysay Hush Tea
PLAY READING
September 26, 4pm-6pm
Keepers of the Salish Sea
Raven’s Cry Theatre, free tickets in advance or at the door
Join us for a one-night only event in collaboration with Holy Crow Arts Society. Squamish Nation playwright Justin Neal explores the tradition of canoeing in Keepers of the Salish Sea. The play is about finding that path we all seek, a search for meaning in life, to discover answers to existential questions. A probing, searching, hilarious tale infusing Coast Salish traditions — inspired by a phenomenal cultural practice thousands of years old, nearly erased by colonization — with the pressing environmental and social issues of our day. The stage reading is directed by Quelemia Sparrow.
From the late 90s to the 2010s Justin Neal juggled day jobs with amateur theatre at night. In 2013, he took a leap of faith to focus on dramatic writing full-time, relocating to his family’s Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw lands to pursue a joint MFA degree in Creative Writing and Theatre at UBC. His screenplays have placed him in dozens of competitions, programs, and residencies across North America; his feature screenplay The Skins Game will commence filming in 2026. As playwright and founder of Holy Crow Arts, he has premiered new plays, So Damn Proud (2021), and Keepers of the Salish Sea (2024). Neal is an alumnus of the Canadian Film Centre’s Film Program Writers’ Lab and a 2024-25 Shadbolt Fellow in the Humanities at SFU.
WALKING TOUR
September 27, 2pm-3:30pm
Salish Sea and Me with Talaysay Tours
Registration required
We invite you to join us for a walk along the shoreline of ch’atlich to celebrate the many life-giving attributes and rich resources that the ocean has provided Coast Salish peoples since time immemorial. Each Salish Sea and Me experience will be a conversation with the shoreline; a meeting between land, water, and the people who have walked here for generations. Guided by Candace Campo, you’ll explore the rich ecosystems of the Salish Sea, learning how Indigenous communities have lived in balance with these tides for millennia. Coast Salish peoples have shared a profound and enduring connection with the Salish Sea for thousands of years, a relationship that has shaped a beautiful culture, identity and way of life. By highlighting and embracing these Indigenous values, knowledge and practices we welcome a more resilient path towards environmental stewardship, climate resilience and reconciliation.
Start Time: 2:00 pm
End Time: 3:15 pm
Duration: 75 minutes
Accessibility: Wheelchair friendly
Guide: xets’emits’a. Candace Campo
Meeting Location: Friendship Park, Wharf Avenue, Sechelt BC
Ending Location: Friendship Park
Includes: Talaysay Hush Tea
PUBLIC EVENT
September 27, 6pm-8pm
Stories of Rising Waters
Michael Gurney, Bella Casey, Tara Blasco and Wanda Nowicki
Sunshine Coast Arts Centre
Join us for a gathering of storytellers, sharing their yarning with water. From poetry and storytelling, to spoken work and play reading, each weaves joy, hope, anger, distress and possibility, inviting us to be with the complex emotions of climate grief and loss.
Michael Gurney is dedicated to creativity, historical inquiry and community enrichment. For him, a speaker ignites the minds of his audience. Knowledge of the past illuminates present events. Curiosity and opportunity graze like flint and iron, sparking innovation. Michael embraces projects that unite people in a superlative purpose whose subtle ends are improvement, intelligence and inspiration. He is also the Arts and Culture correspondent for the Coast Reporter newspaper. He is a lifelong believer in volunteerism and mentorship, as well as the transformative power of the arts. He is an enthusiastic contributor to local initiatives involving visual arts, dance, music and theatre. Michael promotes powerful communication through Toastmasters International, the public speaking organization in which he currently serves British Columbia and the Yukon as a district leader.
Bella Casey is a writer and cedar weaver from the Sunshine Coast. She is inspired by her culture, her mixed heritage and the land.
Tara Blasco is an theatre arts teacher, a multi-hyphenate performer, burgeoning spoken word artist and new writer. At last years’ festival she performed in two climate change themed plays by acclaimed playwrights Elaine Avila and Jordan Hall. This past spring Tara was one of 10 local artists participating in the Sechelt Arts Council ‘Field School’ in conjunction with Emily Carr University and the Sunshine Coast Regional District in an interdisciplinary project exploring themes of climate change grief and more specifically, the crisis of our warming oceans and subsequent rising sea levels. Out of this collective inquiry (Rising Waters) Tara processed her learning and personal longing through an expression of poetic imagery best suited to forms of oral story telling and sharing.
Wanda Nowicki is originally from Vancouver Ms. Nowicki and started her music career in Los Angeles bar bands, jazz bands, and having the great pleasure of sitting in with Richard Berry and Big Jay McNeely. Retuning to Vancouver in 2004 she has played on a variety of stages including Vancouver International Jazz Festival, Pender Harbour Jazz Festival, Gibsons Jazz Fest, and Chemainus Jazz fest . Her trio is featured regularly at the Sylvia Hotel lounge .
