Remembrance for Lost & Endangered Species
Join fellow artists, activists, nature-lovers and mourners in this 3 week festival to grieve, celebrate, and explore loss and grief in qathet.
This year there will be a focus on endangered species and qathet ART has partnered with qathet Old Growth to inspire collective action to prevent the further extinction of animals, habitat, and Indigenous cultures and practices in our region.
Details
The festival will be a part of an international Remembrance Day for Lost Species. Since 2011, activists, artists and mourners have come together in late November to find creative ways to share their grief for extinct species – and reinvigorate their love for the natural world.
Join us from November 5 -27 to process the loss of local animals, habitats, Indigenous peoples and cultures, and ways of life; celebrate the resilience and spirit of those who are still here; learn the opportunities to contribute to local and regional conservation efforts; and commit to action.
This multi-component festival includes workshops on death and dying for caregivers, aerial performances, group art exhibition, community ofrenda, storytelling, collective shrine-making, film screening, panel conversations, maker workshops and more.
Calendar of Events
Nov 5
Saturday Ofrenda Memorial Altar
with Claudia Medina
Opening Welcome 4:30pm – Community gathering, food sharing, music until evening.
At Rotary Pavilion at Willingdon Beach at Ah joo miexw
A community Ofrenda or altar to commemorate and celebrate our loved ones who are no longer with us.
You are invited to bring a memento for the altar: a photograph, special object, flowers, etc. We will have hot xocolatl, tamales and pan de muerto (dead bread) to share and enjoy.
About:
This community ofrenda is influenced by the Days of the Dead/Xantolo tradition of Mexico. There, households commonly set up an altar space to welcome their loved ones returning from “el otro lado/Mictlan”, the other side/realm of the dead. During these days our dearly departed are met with their favourite foods, drinks, and special objects so that they can feel connected to the land of the living.
Traditionally, the altar has flowers, especially marigolds, or cempoalxochitl, with a potent scent that attracts the spirits. We place a cup of water to quench the thirst of the spirits who have travelled so far, and candles to light their way. Incense, especially copal, is burned to cleanse the air of negative energy and make the spirits feel at home. Papel picado, the decorative coloured paper represents the element of air, which the spirits use to travel into the land of the living. Food, especially fruits and chocolate represent earth, the place where we grow our sustenance. In this way, the ofrenda holds the elements fire, air, water and earth, the fundamentals to life (and death) on this planet. Photos of our loved ones are placed on the altar, so that we can remember and honour their lives. These are days of joy, sadness, love and honouring, reminding us that we are all a part of the cycle of death and birth that makes each moment so precious.
The ofrendas are personal expressions of love created in a home, as well as a collective honouring of family and ancestors when they are created in public spaces. Our grief is personal, and yet our experience of grief and our own mortality is universal. We come together to share our personal grief and love for our loved ones who have left this world, knowing that we are connected through these cycles of life and death.
Tlazohcamati – Thank you, Claudia Medina
Nov 4 & 5
The Beatin’ Stick – Thoughts on Restorative Justice
hosted by Tad Hargrave
At Powell River United Church
November 4, Friday – 7-10pm &
November 5, Saturday – 9:30am – 2:30pm
Friday night: The Storytelling
Friday night & Saturday: Deeper explorations of the stories and restorative justice.
Pay What You Can with a $25 deposit to secure your space for both days. 100% of proceeds from the weekend will go to support the important work being done by the good Kakisimo Iskwew to rebuild her home that she lost in a fire this Spring.
ABOUT
How do we deal with harm and hurt in our communities? This seems to be a question on many of our minds these days. Or you’ve seen it in the broader culture around you and certainly on Facebook – the divisiveness, the polarization, the meanness and the piling on. And this is amongst ‘the good guys’. It’s easy to lose hope that we’ll ever get anywhere.
This gathering offers little hope, few solutions, no easy-fixes and a likelihood of a deepening into the cultural poverties of our times. You won’t learn how to hold a healing circle or the ‘four steps to holding someone accountable’ but you might learn a great deal about why those things happen so seldom despite many of us yearning for them so badly.
In this evening, you’ll be hearing an old Scottish Traveler’s tale ‘The Beatin’ Stick‘ which will act, if all goes well, as a hospitable host to welcome us in and sit us down by the hearth and help us see something of what might be done about the madness and manias that, so often, tear our communities apart.
About Tad Hargrave:
For over a decade, Tad has found himself drawn to conversations about how we might tend to the harm that’s done in communities in ways that leave the community stronger and more whole at the end – not more shattered.
Between Sept 2004 – Feb 2006, Tad dedicated himself to learning his ancestral language, Scottish Gaelic, in both Nova Scotia and Scotland. He can speak Gaelic with conversational fluency. He also runs a blog called Healing from Whiteness as well as a Facebook group of the same name. He is a co-founder of the Nova Scotia Gael’s Jam and co-starred in Canada’s second Gaelic language film The Fiddler’s Reel.
Tad currently lives in Duncan, BC, though he hails from Edmonton, AB (traditionally known, in the local indigenous language of the Cree, as Amiskwaciy (Beaver Hill) and later Amiskwaciwaskihegan (Beaver Hill House) and his ancestors come primarily from Scotland with some from the Ukraine as well. He is drawn to conversations around politics, history, ancestry, healing and how those all intersect.
Nov 8 – Dec 22
Remembrance for Endangered and Lost Species Exhibition
at qathet Art Centre
Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday 12 to 5pm
A qathet region wide group exhibition featuring artwork made from recycled, found and natural material around the theme of lost and endangered species
Nov 9 & 10
Advance Care Workshop
with Powell River Hospice Society
at qathet Art Centre
Wednesday, Nov 9 – 10:30am – 12:00pm
Thursday, Nov 10 – Thursday 6:30pm – 8pm
About the workshop
Advance Care Planning is a process of thinking and talking about what’s important to you. This helps you, and those closest to you, prepare to make future health-care decisions. This 1.5-hour workshop will help you to think about what matters most to you, to discuss your plans with those closest to you, and to begin recording your wishes. This workshop is conducted by Sheila Peters, a volunteer with PRHS.
About Powell River Hospice Society
Powell River Hospice Society provides compassionate support to individuals at the end of their life, to their family and friends, and to those who are grieving in Powell River, qathet Regional District and Tla’amin. We provide community education and advocacy regarding end-of-life issues. Our services and programs are confidential and free of charge.
Nov 19
Memorial Lantern Making with Kathryn Nuen
at qathet Art Centre 1 – 3pm
Nov 20
Green Burials Workshop
with Community-Supported Dying
at qathet Art Centre 1:30 – 3pm
Are you interested in green burials? Come and learn about local options in qathet, including caskets, shrouding, and natural burial sites available in our region.
About Community-Supported Dying:
Julia Adam, Laurie Norman, and Anna Byrne are the founders of Community-Supported Dying (CSD), an initiative in the qathet Regional District. The vision of CSD is a community literate in, and with the social infrastructure to support, those who are dying, their caregivers, and the bereaved.
Nov 23
WhaleTails! from junk to jewelry workshop
with Teresa Harwood-Lynn
at PR Recreation Complex Rehearsal Room – 11 to 3:30pm
Make a silver plated whale tail pendant from garage sale finds and then take a cold water dip in the Salish Sea. Call the whales!
WORKSHOP REGISTRATION: FULL
Nov 26
Remembrance Day for Lost Species – Process and Celebrate
Aerial Performance with Storytelling
Max Cameron Theatre – 4 to 5:30pm
- Collaborative storytelling and aerial performance
- Collective shrine building
- Q&A with performers
The 40 minute performance will highlight the cultural and ecological relevance of herring to the Tla’amin people and land, the sobering history of local herring populations, the interconnectedness of the marine and terrestrial systems that rely on herring, and the resilience of herring as a metaphor for hope and possibility in this era of the sixth mass extinction.
Storytelling with Naomi Steinberg will provide anchoring for the physical and visceral elements of the show. These will be portrayed through aerial and ground-based circus arts, choreographed by local aerialist and trainer Keely Sills, and performed by her growing team of aerialist performers.
Nov 27
Remembrance Day for Lost Species – Learn & Commit to Action
Bear Trek Screening
Patricia Theatre – 1 to 3 pm
- Film screening
- Panel Conversations
- Interactive information booths
Internationally renowned ecologist and conservationist Chris Morgan will give a brief presentation to introduce a screening of BEARTREK, a film that highlights the world’s most elusive and endangered bears.
The screening will then be followed by a panel conversation featuring Chris Morgan alongside local conservation experts and activists from Coastal Partners in Conservation and Tla’amin Nation.
November
“What I Miss About You” Art Project
at qathet Art Centre
Are you grieving a loss? Honour a loved one by decorating a puzzle piece with what you miss most about them. Together, the pieces will be assembled into a heart shape.
Available throughout the month of November.
November
Elderflower book launch
on ecological grief and endangered species
at qathet Art Centre & PR Public Library
Megan Dulcie Dill and Maya Voon collaborate in this 32 page full colour, hardcover, children’s book about ecological grief and transformation.
Pick up your book through November and December.
Context
The world is currently experiencing its sixth mass extinction. More than 500 species of land animals are on the brink of extinction and are likely to be lost within 20 years. British Columbia currently has 1,807 species of animals and plants at risk of extinction, including a dozen or more species and ecological communities at risk in the qathet region.
Despite this immense threat to our natural and social ecosystems, we have no rituals for coping with extinction, ecological destruction or environmental loss.
Remembrance Day for Lost Species offers an opportunity to translate ecological and social grief into hopeful action and connection.
Audience
These events are family friendly. Performances and conversations will acknowledge death and extinction which may not be suitable for some people.
You do not need to be an artist, climate activist or biologist to attend these events! The festival is open to all ages and experiences to explore issues around death and mourning, nature and conservation.
All venues are wheelchair accessible.
Organizers
Memento Mori Festival is being hosted by qathet Art Council in partnership with qathet Old Growth and Powell River Hospice.
With support from the BC Arts Council and the City of Powell River.
Exhibition Artists:
Venus Soberanes, Teresa Harwood-Lynn, Ursula Medley, Rick Giesing, Benjamin Fairless, James Tyrwhitt-Drake, Paula Galloway, Courtney Galloway, Solène Chatain, Nina Mussellam, Kate Matthews, Annie Simms, Kath Neun, Candace Parker, Brett Jasch, Angie Davey, Richard Armstrong
Events & Workshops:
Anna Byrne, Teresa Harwood-Lynn, Claudia Medina, Megan Dulcie Dill, Julia Adams, Laurie Norman, Chris Morgan, Keely Sills, Naomi Steinberg, Karen Kamon, Aimee Mitchell, Tad Hargrave, Kathryn Neun