Once in a while a shuffling music playlist will randomly select just the right song for that  particular time and place. While driving north yesterday from Williams Lake on the Old Soda Creek Road towards the Rudy Johnson Bridge across the Fraser River, I entered one of the intense burn zones from the summer’s extensive fires just as Sarah McLachlan started singing, “Into the Fire“. (without the video!)

Burnt trees and roots near Soda Creek, BC.

Burned out tree roots near Soda Creek, BC.

I encountered many stark, poignant and haunting views. Some charred, vaporized tree roots looked like dinosaur footprints left as they fled a shield volcano millions of years ago. If I was Harold Rhenisch, I might write a poem!

When I reached Mackin Creek Farm on the west side of the Fraser, north of the bridge, Cathie Allen was hard at work gathering the last of their cabbages, broccoli and cauliflowers before a heavy frost was to arrive that night. After many years of enjoying the wonderful vegetables she and Rob Borsato produce, I was glad to finally visit this beautiful place. And buy some food for the winter!

Cathie Allen works another row before frost sets in at Mackin Creek Farm.

For those who live outside the Cariboo-Chilcotin region of BC, here are some maps:

Here are some of the burnt needles that fell on our metal roofing in the summer. I wonder if some came from the Soda Creek area?

For some very powerful images from the summer’s fires, see some of the recent newsletters by photographer Chris Harris and the Facebook photo albums of Jesaja Class.

I welcome support from any of our friends for this new and exciting project to offer an introductory low tech water based screen printing workshop in Treaty 8 Territory.

“Reservoir” as seen from above. Cast resin, silkscreened mylar; painted canvas courtesy of Claire Kujundzic. Base approximately 22” x 18”. Photo courtesy of Denis Gutiérrez-Ogrinc.

Like the “Stakes in the Peace” terracotta field with screen printed stakes in the group exhibition Disturbances in the Field  (at the Omineca Arts Centre), “Reservoir” deals with the Site C. Since BC Hydro’s proposed dam lies within Treaty 8 territory – a treaty signed in 1899 – I visualized the reservoir submerging the treaty. So I screen printed a two page layout of the text of Treaty 8 on mylar, then cast it in resin in a clay mold shaped like BC Hydro’s renderings, with a small corner of the treaty remaining above the surface of the reservoir to represent my hope that we can still stop this project.

On the sides of the acrylic stand are Cree and Dane-zaa words for the Peace River, in tribute to the strength of these cultures and the power of their languages. And as a reminder that we are all treaty people, as our friends in the valley have patiently explained. Claire gave me a piece of painted canvas to place under the resin to catch light and colour – another element of hope to balance the daunting challenge we face.

New version of Reservoir – April, 2021

For the “All for Water” exhibition at Two Rivers Gallery in Prince George (concurrent with “An Exercise in Listening”), I made a new version of Reservoir. I enlarged the screen printed text to increase its legibility, and placed it under a thin pool of resin to symbolize the flooding of treaty lands. The Dane-zaa Wǫchiigíi and the Cree word mamahtâwisîpiy – both printed on birch bark – flank the treaty on each side. (These are the main indigenous languages of Treaty 8 territory.)

Thanks to Meghan Hunter-Gauthier, Assistant Curator, and to George Harris, Curator & Artistic Director at Two Rivers Gallery for their patience and persistence in dealing with these fragile works. Also thanks to Art Napoleon for translation of mamahtâwisîpiy, and to Verena Hofmann & Treaty 8 Tribal Association for the translation of Wǫchiigíi.