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1956 -
1971 |
I grew
up
near
the
river
valley
in
Edmonton,
and we
spent
much
of our
time
there,
and in
the
fields
behind
our
house.
There
was a
lot of
open
space
because
we
were
beside
the
railway
tracks,
in
Strathcona.
The
Edmonton
Fringe
festival
takes
place
in my
old
neighbourhood,
in and
around
the
health
clinic,
church
and
library
where
I
spent
my
childhood.
My
parents
read
us
Grimm’s’
fairytales,
and I
think
the
morality
of
stories
like
Snow
White
and
Rose
Red,
who
are
rewarded
for
inviting
a bear
to lie
by
their
fire
on a
cold
winter’s
night,
shaped
my
fundamental
ethics.
That
story
in
particular
my
sister,
brother
and I
performed
many
times
for my
mother
in
front
of the
fire
place,
sending
my
brother
outside
in the
fake
fur
parka
so
that
when
he
made
his
entrance
he
would
be
truly
cold
and
have
snow
on his
shoulders
like
in the
story.
We
organized
other
events
and
shows
with
the
kids
in our
neighbourhood.
I was
a
curious
and
sceptical
child,
and
spent
my
first
week
of
grade
one
searching
my new
reader
for
letters
that
weren’t
in the
alphabet.
I even
fantasized
about
being
in the
newspaper
for
discovering
this
letter.
There
were
books
everywhere
in our
house-
which
was my
grandpa’s
house.
The
How
and
Why
Wonder
Books
are
books
I
looked
at
often.
This
was a
paperback
series
that
covered
different
subjects
like
geology,
and
creatures
beneath
the
sea,
dinosaurs,
and so
on. It
was
while
looking
at the
map of
world
religions
in a
Wonder
Book
that I
had
one of
my
first
profound
thoughts
at the
age of
10 or
11. I
was
staring
at the
map,
divided
into
colour
zones
depicting
various
dominant
religions.
All
the
colours
started
to
blend
together
and it
was
like
there
was a
great
grey
cloud
being
created
by the
various
religions
praying.
I
suddenly
understood
they
were
all
praying
to the
same
god. I
ran
downstairs
to
tell
my
mother.
It was
like
we met
for
the
first
time.
We
spent
the
rest
of the
evening
talking
about
how we
saw
things
like
death
and
divinity.
In
grade
5 I
was
made
aware,
by the
snobby
“pure
Scottish”
kids,
that
to be
Ukrainian
was to
be a
Bohunk.
Whatever
that
was,
it
wasn’t
good.
I felt
ashamed
and
didn’t
even
ask my
mom
what
it
meant.
But
then I
leaned
that
Ukrainian
Christmas
was on
a
different
day,
so I
bought
my mom
a gift
for
Ukrainian
Christmas
and
decided
to
celebrate
it as
revenge
on the
popular
kids
who
only
had
one
Christmas.
My dad
introduced
me to
the
Oath
of
Athens
at an
early
age,
that
we
have
an
obligation
as
citizens
to
leave
the
world
a
better
place
than
we
found
it.
In grade
8, my
dad
helped
me
fight
the
school
board
to
allow
me to
take
industrial
arts
instead
of
home
economics.
It
helped
that
Ms.
magazine
was
hot
news
at the
time,
moms
were
going
on
strike
and
women
were
burning
their
bras.
So I
did
get
transferred,
and in
grade
9 won
the
honours
award
- the
only
time I
made
the
honours
list
ever.
My dad
was so
proud
of me.
I saw
Vanessa
Redgrave
in the
film
about
Isadora
Duncan.
In a
solemn
ceremony
she
burned
her
parents’
marriage
certificate
and
pledged
to
marry
herself
to
art. I
couldn’t
find
my
parents’
certificate
but
made
the
same
resolution.
When
we
were
in our
early
teens
we
started
to get
a
sense
of the
outside
world
when a
youth
hostel
called
Soft
Machine
opened
up
across
the
tracks
from
us.
Some
artists
moved
in,
and we
were
introduced
to the
idea
that
you
could
live
without
conventional
jobs
or
furniture.
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Paula
Jardine
was
born
in
Edmonton
in
1956.
The
scenes
and
stories
of her
childhood
in
nature,
home
and
neighbourhood
inform
her
vision.
She
writes
that
listening
to
Grimm’s
fairy
tales
shaped
her
fundamental
ethics,
and
later
drew
her to
the
notion
of the
hero’s
journey,
and
the
work
of
Joseph
Campbell
and
Carl
Jung.
In the
early
1970’s,
while
still a
teenager,
Jardine
founded an
experimental
theatre
group. She
learned to
pay
attention
to her
dreams,
developing
techniques
for
building
bridges
between
her
conscious
and
subconscious.
She was
deeply
influenced
by an
encounter
with
Canadian
artist
ManWoman,
who taught
her that
sacred,
spiritual
art could
be
irreverent
and fun.
At the age
of 17,
Jardine
moved to
Toronto
and began
an
apprenticeship
with
Theatre
Passe
Muraille,
where she
developed
her craft,
along with
a vision
of
relevant
theatre
produced
through
community
engagement.
After
returning
to
Edmonton
to comfort
a friend
in
trouble,
Jardine
attended
university
while she
experimented
with
varieties
of
community
theatre
and
participatory
research.
Through
the study
of myths,
fables,
and
archetypes,
Jardine
began to
formulate
ideas of
myth-making
for
contemporary
societies.
She began
to write
both
fiction
and
creative
nonfiction,
and she
continues
to use
writing as
an
important
aspect of
her
practice.
Struggling
through a
deep
personal
crisis,
Jardine
decided
that she
was meant
to be
neither an
actor nor
a writer,
but
rather, a
performer
and
storyteller.
She used
this
insight to
develop
her unique
voice in
community
theatre,
directing
the first
Public
Dream in
1979
In 1980
Jardine
met
Welfare
State
International
at the
Toronto
Theatre
Festival.
This
English
“tribe of
artists,
poets,
musicians,
pyrotechnitions
and
engineers”
(John Fox)
created
site-specific
performances
and
celebratory
theatre
projects
around the
world. The
encounter
left
Jardine
forever
changed.
For the
first
time, she
allowed
herself to
break free
of
narrative
forms and
the
boundaries
of
literalism,
creating
“Public
Dreams:
The
Walking
Tour.”
After
touring
with
Welfare
State as a
storyteller
in 1981,
Jardine
returned
to
Edmonton.
There she
created “A
Wake for
the Dead
of
Winter,”
an
exploration
of
darkness
in which
she linked
the
experience
of the
winter
landscape
with
cultural
archetypes
and the
inner
journey.
The form
of the
procession,
which
Jardine
first
employed
in “Public
Dreams:
The
Walking
Tour,”
seemed
rich with
possibilities
for
community
engagement
and
archetypal
resonance.
An
opportunity
to explore
this form
in depth
came to
Jardine
during the
World
University
Games in
1983. She
served as
“Parade
Boss” for
the City
Celebration,
creating
six
international
parades in
eight
days.
Jardine
moved to
Vancouver,
where she
worked
with
Leslie
Fiddler
and others
to
establish
“Public
Dreams” as
an
incorporated
society.
As
artistic
director
of Public
Dreams,
Jardine
created
many large-scale
public
projects
including
“Journey
to the New
World” in
1986 and
“The
Enchanted
Forest” in
1987.
Jardine
married
Calvin
Cairns in
1986. The
birth of
their
first daughter
was
transforming.
In 1989
Jardine
began to
work with
lanterns.
She
created
“Illuminares,”
a summer
festival
of light
at Trout
Lake in
Vancouver,
and
“Parade of
the Lost
Souls,” a
Halowe’en
celebration.
In 1994,
she
initiated
the “Trout
Lake
Restoration
Project”
as
Vancouver’s
first
Community
Centre
artist
residency.
The
project
brought
together
scientists,
engineers,
environmentalists,
artists
and
citizens.
They
created
art,
researched
environmental
problems,
and
produced a
20-year
plan for
Trout
Lake.
In a
1993
paper on
the
potential
role of
art in
environmental
projects,
Jardine
writes of
redefining
a
community's
relationship
with the
land by
nurturing
the
development
and
expression
an
“integrated
mythology”
that
transforms
and
redefines
current
cultural
myths. She
insists
that
community
art can
generate
“an idea
of nature
that
includes
human
culture
and human
livelihood.”
Through
co-creating
this art, we
can learn
to live as
part of
nature,
without
dominating
it. Key to
this
process is
the
capacity
of
community
art to
expand the
awareness
and
integration
of
diversity.
For
Jardine,
the term
“diversity”
implies
both
diverse
cultures
of
heritage
and
diverse
cultures
of
activity.
She notes
that
traditional
efforts to
engage
community
participation
are likely
to involve
only those
who are
comfortable
with the
culture of
meetings,
while
community
art can
encourage
a much
broader
participation.
Diversity
also
implies
diverse lifeforms;
her work
gives
voice and
presence
to lost
steams,
salmon,
forest,
the
elements
and
seasons.
In 1995,
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