The Healing Water Project – designed to integrate art with
environmental issues – will culminate in a lakeside solstice
ceremony and a dance performance to live cello music on Langs Road
at 2 pm on Sunday, June 20th. The event is focused on St. Mary Lake
and “healing” this vital ecosystem.
The June 20th events begin at 2pm with a ceremonial blessing by
local Peneluxuuth' elder Florence James. Two short dances will be
performed beside the lake to the live music of local cellist Irving
Levin, and the event will also include songs about water and the
interconnectedness of all life from local choir, “Women of Note.”
Those attending are asked to bring flowers to help build a flower
labyrinth, a temporary art work that will disappear into the earth.
Everyone is invited to contribute prayers, poems and words about
water, which will be added to an eco-friendly art installation on
the site. Refreshments will be served. There is no charge for this
event, which is supported by local volunteers and community
donations. Linda Quinn of “Women of Note” choir says “The art forms
of music and dance are powerful tools in communicating the urgent
need to heal the waters and our earth.”
Dr. Seónagh Odhiambo initiated this project, which involved two
generations of dancers in a year-long workshop process. Originally
from British Columbia, Odhiambo now works as Assistant Professor of
Dance at California State University, Los Angeles. The project
involved several community members, including Caffyn Kelley of the
Islands Institute, along with local dancers Robbyn Scott, Anna
Haltrecht, Isabel Ma, and Wendy Judith Cutler during workshops held
between August 2009-June 2010. Odhiambo also worked with students
from the Gulf Islands School of Performing Arts, and their teacher
Sonia Langer helped students choreograph with movement derived from
the workshops. Dr. Odhiambo says, “I consider the creation of dance
to be an opportunity for community building and education around
issues. The Healing Water Project is about developing a ‘change of
heart’ in terms of how we think about water. The movement we created
is derived from the study of environmental issues as well as the
aesthetic qualities of water and its healing properties. The
dancers’ movements are fluid, and we considered water as a primal
source for this aesthetic inspiration.”
As this event helps raise awareness in our community about problems
with the water supply, the loss of biodiversity, and the impacts on
human, fish and wildlife, it simultaneously offers solutions. Caffyn
Kelley says, “I see the problem of contaminated lake water as a
cultural problem with cultural solutions. We have a culture that
wastes, and so we dispose of sewage by sending it downstream, or
ship garbage off to contaminate another area. Because of our ideas
about what is beautiful, we replace diverse lakeside vegetation with
monocultural lawns. This project suggests that we can invent and
practice a culture of balance, sufficiency, pleasure, appreciation,
beauty and craft. We can redesign culture as permaculture.”
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DANCE
A dance is being developed through a community
process on Salt Spring Island from
November 2009 through June 2010 under the direction of choreographer
Seónagh Odhiambo. This dance is about water, focused
through examinations of environmental impacts on St. Mary Lake and acts of healing this delicate ecosystem on Salt Spring Island.
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WRITE
We are collecting words about Salt Spring
Island water to share in our lakeside solstice ceremony on June 20th. Gentle exercises encourage
participants to walk in the watersheds, experiencing rhymes between
their bodies
and the world around them.
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RESTORE
Pacific willow saplings are available for all
who wish to make a gesture towards restoring water quality by planting a
tree.
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image of dance from Sand and Bone, Seónagh Odhiambo
choreographer, image of restoration planting from Trout Lake Community
Mapping Project, Caffyn Kelley artist/coordinator, image of 10th century
palimpsest from the Internet. |
