Posted in Opinion

Toonik Tyme

Posted on by maherrv

This weekend, it is the start of Toonik Tyme, a celebration of the start of Spring in the North.


It includes outdoor events: ski, snowmobile and dogsled races and the sharing of traditional food and crafts.

Last night, at the Visitors Centre, we went to see two classic NFB films, Land of the Long Day (1952) and People of the Ice (2003). The latter featured Sheila Watt-Cloutier and is a documentary on the effects of global warming on the Arctic environment and the Inuit culture. The film is now sixteen years old, pre-dating the argument in her book, The Right to be Cold.

Next week, Wayne Johnston comes to town. He will talk on Ten Cities: the past becomes the present. He will look at the relationship between place and memory through writing and drawing. In preparation, I picked up his novel, The Navigator of New York at the Iqaluit library.

banner_BBChereBeDragonsFrom my brother, I received another BBC podcast, Here be Dragons. It explores the relationship between poetry and maps. The most obscure was the idea of using a city map of Havana to navigate the landscape of the Isle of Angelsey.

I did manage to finish Rubinstein’s book Born to Walk. While I enjoyed the chapter on Creativity, I found the book overall, very uneven.

COGSexpansionThis week, I received an email about the expansion of the COGS campus. While the additional infrastructure will provide a short term economic boost to the village of Lawrencetown. There were no details on the impact on the curriculum, research and teaching, or the relationship to the larger community, and rural economic development. It continues to amaze me at the lack of connectivity with place.

In a different context, to quote Sheila Watt-Cloutier:

“A great disconnect has grown between our communities, our economies and our environment. This has resulted in rapid climate change that now spirals out of control and fundamentally threatens the world. Those who have traditionally lived closest to the land, and who today maintain the strongest connections to nature, are now at risk of becoming just a footnote in the history of globalization.” p.323.

I would add that we need to demonstrate much more holistic, inclusive thinking, especially from our educational institutions.

Acknowledgements

To Heather and Edward willing participants in the journey.

 

Posted in New thinking

Elder Travel

Posted on by maherrv

bookCover_TrueNorthRisingIn True North Rising, Whit Fraser describes meeting Mary Simon’s parents in the Arizona Desert (p.138). For nearly twenty years, the in-laws made winter camping trips. Bob May started work for the Hudson Bay Company at Arctic Bay, where he met his wife, Nancy. This story reminds me of the changes in technology, and its relation to elder travel.

We head North, to Iqaluit, with a cell phone and iPad. On arrival, we are reminded that this is ‘old’ technology. Here are smartphones, text messaging and no landline in the house. My iPad only gives me access to email.

iqaluit_blackHeartCafeAquaticCentre
In Iqaluit, at the Black Heart Cafe and at the Aquatic Centre, I notice that they have a free book exchange. This allows me to read an essay by Margaret Laurence, ‘My Final Hour’. Laurence was Chancellor at Trent University, living in Lakefield. This connects me with my son, Patrick. They have recently moved their family to Peterborough. We once lived there, when I worked for the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources.

bookCover_BornToWalkOn our way North, we had a stopover in Ottawa. This was our chance to visit an urban Chapters bookstore. I picked up Dan Rubinstein’s Born to Walk: the transformative power of a pedestrian act. The book contains a reference to a wonderful Ray Bradbury short story, The Pedestrian.

“The year is 2053. Leonard Mead loves to walk. Every night, he strolls alone along the buckling concrete sidewalks of an empty silent city, peering at houses who citizens are riveted to their viewing screens. Suddenly, he is stopped by the city’s lone police car. (There is no more crime, nobody goes outside).

“Business or Profession ?” A metallic voice asks.
“I guess you’d call me a writer.”
“No profession”, says the voice.
“What are you doing out ?”
“Walking” replies Mead.
“Walking !”
“Just walking.”
“Walking, just walking, walking ?”
“Yes Sir”.
“Walking where? For what?”
“Walking for air. Walking to see.”

Mead is told to get into the car. There is no driver. He is taken to the Psychiatric Centre for Research on Regressive Tendencies.

Rubinstein, page 193. Chapter 6. Creativity.

As part of our elder travel, we need to understand the appropriate combination of technology in North America and elsewhere. We also need to make sure that we engage in walking, and have ready access to a variety of printed matter (books).

At the end of our third week up North, I am coming to the end of Sheila Watt-Cloutier’s book, The Right to be Cold. Recently, I became aware of a new blog site — northbooks

Acknowledgements
Heather Stewart, my travel companion, and Edward Wedler, my technology support person down South.

References
Whit Fraser. 2018. True North Rising. Burnstown Publishing House.
Dan Rubinstein. 2015.  Born to Walk. ECW Press.
Christl Verduyn (Ed). Margaret Laurence: an appreciation.
Sheila Watt-Cloutier. 2015. The Right to be Cold. Penguin Books.

 

 

 

 

Posted in Opinion

Lessons from Nunavut

Posted on by maherrv

banner_nunavutApril 1st. Twenty years ago, Nunavut was created as a separate territory from Canada’s NWT.flag_Nunavut
In the weekly Nunatsiaq News, there was a special 20th-anniversary supplement. It includes the following articles, in both Inuktitut and English.

  • Don’t forget Nunavut’s rural and remote regions
  • Has Nunavut’s economic boom left the small communities behind?
  • Learning our own language
  • Nunavut high performers: twenty years up on stage
  • The connected territory? Nunavut still waits (high-speed Internet)
  • After 165 years Inuit knowledge leads to Franklin’s wrecks
  • The big thaw: climate change
  • Nunavut’s protected areas for wilderness and wildlife

It would be interesting if our politicians in Nova Scotia could develop a relationship with Nunavut, and see how different jurisdictions address the same issues.

bookCover_2booksThis week, I visited one of the book/craft stores in Iqaluit and purchased two new books: True North Rising by Whit Fraser (book launch video) and The Right to be Cold by Sheila Watt Cloutier (presentation video). Both are biographical in nature. It was fun to read Whit’s book which starts with his employment at the CBC Northern Service in 1967, while I was looking out across the sea ice on Frobisher Bay. Both books provide a model for ‘life as an elder’.

There are also connections. Whit describes his association with Fred Roots, through Students on Ice. I recall Fred from the UNESCO MAB program. Heather and I were shepherding the nomination document for the Southwest Nova Biosphere Reserve through the bureaucratic process. Another connection, going back even further, was to Trevor and Hugh Lloyd, Geographers. I remember meeting them at the McGill SubArctic Research Lab in Schefferville, Quebec in 1964/65.

Whit is a keynote speaker at the EBLES event at the Temple on Queen Street, Bridgetown on June 29th. The other keynote is John Demont, who also comes from the reporting tradition, at the Chronicle Herald.

On Saturday night, we attended a concert at the Iqaluit High School. It was a high energy performance by the Jerry Cans. What was most surprising, was the audience demographic. Young Inuit families. Such a contrast to the Kings Theatre.

Another point of reference is the Iqaluit Centennial Library. This was a chance to catch up on lost gems.  I found Robert McGhee’s book  The Last Imaginary Place. A Human History of the Arctic World and Edward Said’s Culture and Imperialism.

sleemanLagerA final note. There is now a beer store in Iqaluit. Twenty-four Sleeman Silver Creek lager cost me $86. BTW the new snow has created excellent conditions for cross country skiing.

Acknowledgements
Thanks to Andrew and Julia for their hospitality. Edward for his support.

References
Nunatsiag News Nunatsiaq News
The Jerry Cans The Jerry Cans
Whit Fraser. 2018. True North Rising. Burnstown Publishing.
Sheila Watt-Cloutier. 2015. The Right to be Cold. Penguin  Books.
Robert McGhee. 2004. The Last Imaginary Place. Key Porter.
Edward Said. 1993. Culture and Imperialism. Alfred Knopf.

Posted in Art, New thinking

Mapping Plein Air Paint-outs

Posted on by Edward Wedler

As an artist, I experimented with Google mapping tools to view the geographic distribution of paint-out sites for the Plain Air Artists Annapolis Valley (PAAAV) and Plein Air Artists HRM (PAAHRM) 2019 season. Members of PAAAV and PAAHRM are artists of all levels, from beginner to professional; painting in oils, acrylics, watercolours, pastels, ink, graphite, and other media. Fifty-two sites are mapped.

Your feedback is welcome. (Click on the map’s top left icon to activate ALL sites — PAAAV and PAAHRM  )icon_PAAmap Click on any numbered site to see details of when paint-out is/was scheduled.

Posted in Book Review

Northern Reflections

Posted on by maherrv

We have been in Iqaluit for a week. One of the first stops was the Arctic Ventures store. They have a good collection of Northern literature from Inhabit Media. All week, I have been reading The Hands’ Measure. It is a series of essays honouring Leah Aksaajuk Otak’s contribution to Arctic Science.bookCover_HandsMeasure

”Leah was an oral historian and linguist with the Nunavut Research Institute in Igloolik. Leah’s lifelong advocacy of Inuit culture and language was uniquely expressed in her passionate promotion of traditional sewing skills and clothing-making techniques.

”To measure with the hands” she asserted, was the essential first step in producing a perfectly fitting garment. Aptly this axiom serves as a proxy for Leah’s unwavering certainty about the essential role of tradition in contemporary Inuit society”.

The nineteen essays were edited by John MacDonald and Nancy Wachowich. Of particular note, for myself, were the contributions by Claudio Aporta and Hugh Brody. Claudio teaches at Dalhousie University. Hugh is an anthropologist and filmmaker and holds the Canada Research Chair at the University of the Fraser Valley.

Aporto’s essay ‘Living, Travelling, Sharing. How the Land permeates the Town through Stories’ contained the following quotation.

”The concept of ‘body of knowledge’ only scratches the surface of that complex relationship that Inuit have with their environment. As Tim Ingold (2000) has argued, it is in the unveiling of relationships that people truly learn, through a process that he calls ‘enskilment’. Many books have been written describing this or that aspect of Inuit knowledge, but knowledge separated from skills (and actual performance) has only partial meaning in the Inuit world. This is perhaps true of any knowledge, but in the Inuit approach to learning, knowledge, skills and performance are fundamentally entangled, to the point that separating them is detrimental or nonsensical.”

Or Hugh Brody’s essay on ‘The People’s Land – the Film’

”To write about the film now is to be reminded that… hundreds of others in the North were determined that Inuit history be known, Inuit knowledge respected and the Inuit land – the people’s land – be a continuing source of every kind of nourishment for the Inuit.” The People’s Land was filmed in Pond Inlet in 1974.

Visiting grandchildren in the North, this book raises a number of questions.

For example,
What is the concept of an elder in Western society?
What skills do we have to pass on?
What happens when you remove people (elders) from the land?

References

John MacDonald and Nancy Wachowich (ed). 2018. The Hands’ Measure. Published by Nunavut Arctic College Media.

Inhabit Education is a Nunavut-based educational publishing company with a mandate to provide educators and parents with educational resources that are infused with authentic Northern perspectives, ways of life and imagery.Inhabit Education

 

 

 

 

Measure

Posted in New thinking

Ageing in Place

Posted on by maherrv

Last weekend we visited two different passive solar houses. At Sue and Celes Davar’s new house in the Gaspereau Valley, we were briefed on the passive solar concept, by staff at Passive Design Solutions.solarDesign They mentioned the following objectives:

  • Keeping the day-time living space to the south side and night-time living to the north side
  • Centralize all plumbing layouts
  • Provide for one level living, incorporating ageing-in-place guidelines wherever possible

Between Heather and myself, this triggered several conversations about bedrooms upstairs on the second floor, as well as the physical effort involved in heating our house, primarily through the wood stove.

There are many other ‘place’ considerations. For us, it includes growing your own vegetables, close proximity to the woods and wildlife, and active engagement in an organic orchard.

Our sense of place is at risk. Whether it is the rampant clear-cutting of the forests in Nova Scotia or the impact of climate change on the coastal communities. Or it is the changing economic model and its effect on rural Nova Scotia.

One approach to offset these risks or potential risks is to be increasingly informed about ‘place’. This might range from knowledge of landscape ecology to an appreciation of the literary history of a region.

bookCover_UnderRunningLaughterIn an earlier blog post (February 4th) I made reference to a novel by David Manners, Convenient Season set around Centrelea. This week, courtesy of inter-library loan, I received his second novel,  Under Running Laughter. It is set in a mill town in Eastern Ontario, about one hundred years ago. The story remains relevant today. It is about the values of the family that owns the mill and the values of local farmers. and the conflict between those who place a value on the landscape, and those who see things solely in terms of monetary values.

If we intend to adopt ‘ageing-in-place’, we need not only to recognize and understand the ageing process but also need to clarify our values and expectations in relation to ‘place’.

bookCover_WonderWithinYouThe next step in my David Manners research has been to track down his writing, after he moved to California, after the second world war. Fortunately, courtesy of Amazon, I am able to order David Morgan Jones (ed) The Wonder within You: From the Metaphysical Journals of David Manners and  Awakening from the Dream of Me.bookCover_AwakeningTheDreamOfMe Manners died in Santa Barbara, aged ninety-eight in 1998. I hope to find them in my mailbox when we return from Iqaluit.

Acknowledgements

To Celes and Sue Davar for their open house hospitality. To Edward for his continued artistic and technical support.

References

Passive Design Solutions Passive Design Solutions

David Manners. 1943. Under Running Laughter. EP Dutton & co. New York

Postscript

Some days,  you have your head down and so do not notice, so much, the activities around you. I just want to mention the sterling efforts of Edward Wedler. He has recently published a list of plein air art paint-outs for the Annapolis Valley this Summer. Check out the list in this pdf.

 

 

Posted in Opinion

Spring forward

Posted on by maherrv

Edward Wedler in his postscript (previous blog post) referenced the link between art and science to address public awareness of climate change. This connects well with the work of the Centre for Local Prosperity and their climate change video, as well as installations by Uncommon Common Art in Kings County.

The Ancestral Landscape of Sikniktuk.
The Ancestral Landscape of Sikniktuk. Map by Marcel Morin.

Last week, I turned the page on my Esri Canada calendar, and noticed for March 2019, the map by Marcel Morin, Lost Art Cartography of the ancestral landscape of the Sikniktuk. It shows the dykes and aboiteaux in the Chignecto region, Cumberland County.

If we want to maintain the dykelands of Nova Scotia, we must understand the risk from sea level rise. A recent example was the destruction of an aboiteau outside of Hantsport, leading to flooding of the river valley.

We need to combine the latest science on climate change, with new LiDAR-based topographic maps, combined with the art of cartography to gain a broader understanding of the impact on our landscape.

ebles_1Yesterday, we held a meeting of the Ernest Buckler Literary Events Society (EBLES) board over on the Bay of Fundy shore. In preparation for the program design for June 29th, it was necessary to read some of the related literature.

Barbara Pell’s book A Portrait of the Artist: Ernest Buckler’s The Mountain and the Valley offered the following quotations.

“Margaret Atwood told us in 1972:

‘Literature is not only a mirror, it is also a map, a geography of the mind. Our literature is one such map, if we can learn to read it as OUR literature, as the product of who and where we have been.’ p.13

“As contemporary political debates continue to illustrate, regionalism has always been a distinguishing feature of Canadian identity and literature. The Mountain and the Valley joins a long tradition of Maritime fiction that idyllically and elegiacally celebrates rural Atlantic Canada.’ p.14

” in its evocation of geography and history, it touches themes of universal importance. Buckler saw the advantages of his regional setting “In the Nova Scotia country,…… you get the universals more than almost anywhere else”.p.14

This afternoon, Heather and I are heading up to the Gaspereau Valley and Avondale to join a tour by Solar Nova Scotia on alternative designs for solar homes. Perhaps Spring is not far away.

Acknowledgements

To Anne Crossman for her storehouse of Buckler books. To Edward Wedler for his enthusiastic championing of science-meets-art. To Jane Borecky for hosting the EBLES board meeting.

References

Barbara Pell 1995. A Portrait of the Artist: Ernest Buckler’s The Mountain and the Valley. ECW Press.

Marcel Morin, Lost Art Cartography. Contribution to the Esri Canada 2019 calendar March.

Posted in Art, Nature, New thinking

Viewing vs Interpreting the Landscape

Posted on by Edward Wedler

Last fall, I drove through New Brunswick on my way to/from Québec and Ontario with my wife, Anne. The roads have improved immeasurably from a couple of decades ago, so we actually had time to savour the landscape and talk about what we saw. As we travelled, I noticed something strange about our conversation.

We increasingly saw the landscape as artists.

mixPaintsThe sky wasn’t just overcast or sunny. The sky was a mix of Burnt Sienna with a touch of French Ultramarine Blue or was a variegated wash from Cerulean Blue to Cadmium Yellow. We were not just engulfed in fall foliage of colours. Hills became brushstrokes of Alizarin Crimson, Quinacridone Gold (I love that colour) and Prussian Blue.

foreMidBackgroundWe divided the landscape into zones (foregrounds, mid-grounds, and backgrounds) and described how we would paint aerial perspective, “treat edges” and change tonal contrasts, to give a sense of distance.

POIMany times we would identify a focal point in the landscape (almost with “eye-spy-with-my-little-eye enthusiasm) and would suggest ways to direct viewers’ eyes to that point. Would it be the slope of the hills, the line of our winding road, edges of forest stands or the illumination of light breaking through the clouds? How would our favourite artists, or The Group Of Seven treat that focal point?

IMG_6235pairAs we drove, we unpacked our landscape NOT in terms of “things” (such as houses, fence rows, barns, silos or cows) but in terms of shape, line, colour, patterns, gradation and composition. We became exhilarated, as artists, to not only view the landscape but to offer ways to interpret the landscape — whether it be as a realist, impressionist or abstract artist — in oils, acrylics, watercolours or inks.

Anne and I enjoyed kilometres (miles) of child-like revelations and “aha” moments on what could have been just an ordinary road trip through New Brunswick, Quebec and Ontario (although the scenery was spectacular). We did not just see the landscape. We interpreted the landscape.047_BlueBarnsBaieStPaul_Sep17_90dpi

Great to be an artist!

LINKS:
Edward Wedler website: www.edwardwedlerart.blogspot.com
Anne Wedler website: www.annewedlerart.wordpress.com

 

sealevelInstallationPOSTSCRIPT:
Bob Maher brought to my attention an article where art and science meet to bring the issue of rising sea levels to the public’s attention in dramatic fashion (that helps connect my left brain and right brain).
LINK:  https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2019/03/lines-hebrides/

Posted in New thinking

On the Map: point, line and polygon

Posted on by maherrv

One of the benefits of relatives in foreign countries is that you receive input from other places. This week, my brother sent me the link to a podcast series, On the Map from BBC Radio 4.banner_BBConTheMap
It was prepared by Mike Parker. Of the ten episodes, two caught my attention. Podcast #8 described the current thinking at the UK Ordnance Survey with regards to digital mapping. The second, Podcast #9, described the role of StreetMap in updating these maps. Throughout the series, Parker raises the question: Whose Map is it Anyway?

We can apply these concepts and the related technology to mapping in Canada, and particularly Nova Scotia. For example, here in the Annapolis Valley, who has the responsibility for updating the civic address file, or adding new roads and trails? who maps changes in land use in Annapolis County?

In the world of GIS, features on a map are defined in terms of point, line, polygon. I can imagine the following mapping needs.

Point
The Winemakers Inn is scheduled to open in downtown Lawrencetown in 2019. How will the attributes of this business be attached to the civic address?

Line
In the Book, Waterfalls of Nova Scotia, there are a couple of pages dedicated to Eel Weir Falls. Who will GPS the trail from the parking lot to the Upper Falls?

Polygon
The Municipality of Annapolis has expressed concern about the changes in our forest cover as the result of intensive harvesting. Who will map the extent of the cuts? Similarly with agriculture, who is mapping the new vineyards and orchards?

The county is fortunate that the Centre of Geographic Sciences lies within its boundaries. This represents a resource for training and trained citizens. It offers the possibility of access to new technologies: LiDAR, UAV and GPS, as well as the related software.

map_touringAnnapolisThere are several examples of positive outcomes from this relationship e.g. MapAnnapolis, as well as local innovations. This week, I received a copy of Touring Annapolis, Venue guide for Artists produced by Annapolis Venues. It includes a reference map of pubs, eateries and community halls (including Centrelea Cinema).

My suggestion is: take a 15-minute break and listen to each BBC Radio 4 podcast. Look at the new map products and ask the question, can we do more; especially, with regard to the changes which are impacting our landscape and the lives of its inhabitants?

bookCover_MovingTargetsOn the Ernest Buckler front, I want to share a couple of books that crossed my desk this week. Margaret Atwood published Moving Targets, Writing with Intent 1982-2004. It includes two essays that struck a chord.

  1. Great Aunts. Atwood describes a visit with her Great Aunts to Ernest Buckler’s house in the early ’70s.
  2. George Orwell: some personal connections. Atwood describes how in 1984 she began writing The Handmaid’s Tale and the influence of Orwell’s books on her writing career.

bookCover_windowOnTheSeaThe second book is Nova Scotia: Window on the Sea. It combines a text by Buckler with photographs by Hans Weber. While the text and photography can stand alone, it would be interesting to see a map of the photo locations. The book was published in 1973 – forty-six years ago. Perhaps we need an updated photographic version for the fiftieth anniversary.

Acknowledgements

To my brother, Peter, for the link to the BBC Radio 4 podcast series. To Anne Crossman for access to her collection of Ernest Buckler books, To Edward Wedler for his graphics contribution.

References

BBC Radio 4 Podcasts On the Map On the Map

Annapolis Venues Annapolis Venues

Margaret Atwood. 2004. Moving Targets Writing with Intent. 1982-2004.House of Anansi Press.

Ernest Buckler and Hans Weber. 1973. Nova Scotia: Window on the Sea. McClelland and Stewart.

Posted in Book Review

Penguin Comfort

Posted on by maherrv

Last week at the Box of Delights bookstore in Wolfville, I noticed a new series of Penguin Books – Great Ideas.bookCovers_Orwell Number #99 was by George Orwell Some Thoughts on the Common Toad. It contained eight essays, including a defence of PG Wodehouse, an examination of Gullivers Travels, and a commentary on Tolstoy and William Shakespeare.

In the Great Ideas series, Orwell also contributed #20 Why I Write and also #57 Books v. Cigarettes. Further online research took me to the Penguin Classics web site.

From Some Thoughts on the Common Toad:

” So long as you are not critically ill, hungry, frightened or immured in a prison or a holiday camp. Spring is still Spring.

The atom bombs are piling up in the factories, the police are prowling through the cities, the lies are streaming from the loudspeakers, but the earth still goes around the sun, and neither the dictators nor the bureaucrats, deeply as they disapprove of the process, are able to prevent it” p.6.

With minus 20 degrees centigrade on the outside thermometer, it was good to stay indoors with a wood stove and the comfort of Penguin books.

bookCover_Thanks for ListeningThe Orwell essays complemented my reading of Ernest Buckler. I had the opportunity to read Glance in the Mirror. This quotation caught my eye.

“They thought that writing was always wonderful, but most of the time it was the loneliest job in the world. That crippling stillness when you sat down to try the first few lines. As if everything you looked at was tensed for you to make a sound and you are tongue-tied, like someone in a nightmare. If that lasted long enough you would sit there then and hear the sound of your own life going by. A lifetime is not forever, and yours was already half gone.”

EBLES hopes to present Glance in the Mirror as a short play on June 29th at the Temple in Bridgetown.

dog_feb2019_800x96dpi
For the last two weeks, we have been dog-sitting Uke and Siqsiq, our son’s twelve-year-old retired sled dogs. As Arctic dogs, they enjoy the cold weather. Cold comfort! Daily walks make us appreciate the wood stove and the books.

Acknowledgements

Anne Crossman for transcribing Glance in the Mirror. Heather Stewart for help with the dog walking and loading the wood stove. Edward Wedler for the graphics.

References

George Orwell. 2010. Some Thoughts on the Common Toad. Penguin Books. Great Ideas #99

Ernest Buckler. Glance in the Mirror