Saturday, May 2, 2-4pm PST
Sunday, May 3, 2-4pm PST 

In-person at Maplewood Flats (2649 Dollarton Highway, North Vancouver)

Registration Fee: $45 / Free for Indigenous participants

As Lee Maracle wrote, “the water owns itself.” When we focus on respecting the waters enabling our lives, how might we shift our language and our practices? How might we learn from and with the waters flowing through us, or the plants and creatures that water enlivens? Alongside the səlilwətaɬ inlet that is the origin and beloved grandmother of the Tsleil-Waututh people, we will walk together and practice listening to the place that holds us up, stretching towards healthier relationships than colonization allows. We’ll aim to learn from friends like fireweed how to outgrow fascism and stay dedicated to life, in all its vulnerabilities, fierce love, and surprises. Bring a poem to share for these times, a notebook to write in, and a heart open to learn from one another — human and more-than-human companions.

About the Facilitator

Guided by questions of respect for water, collective health, and just relationship, Rita Wong has written several books of poetry attending to the intersections of life, language, and land, and co-edited the anthology Downstream: Reimagining Water with Dorothy Christian. She is dedicated to collective action to address both the climate crisis and systemic inequities through an economy of care and solidarity. Wong has received the Latner Griffin Writers’ Trust Poetry Prize, the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize, and the Asian Canadian Writers Workshop Emerging Writer Award. From the Burrard inlet to the Gitxsan lax’yip, we are all endangered by the TMX and PRGT pipelines, which we cannot afford if we want a livable planet. 

Accessibility Information

ASL interpretation is available. If you would benefit from ASL interpretation at the workshop, please indicate so in your registration form when prompted. 

The venue is located in a spacious room accessible by a paved ramp. There are washrooms on the ground level. Further accessibility details will be added shortly.