Fire: Creation and Destruction, an evocative exhibition at the Italian Cultural Centre’s Il Museo Gallery, brings together the Sculptors’ Society of B.C. (SSBC) and six Indigenous artists to offer visitors a chance to reflect on fire’s significance in shaping landscapes, communities and traditions.
It is a thought-provoking collaboration that casts an introspective look at the profound impact of B.C.’s wildfire season through diverse artistic interpretations. It also marks SSBC’s 50th anniversary and examines fire as both a destructive force and a cultural symbol.
Fire: Creation and Destruction at the Italian Cultural Centre’s Il Museo Gallery | Photo courtesy of Italian Cultural Centre website
“It’s this idea of how we deal with the threat of fire and the fear based on their cultural backgrounds,” says Angela Clarke, the Italian Cultural Centre’s museum director and curator.
Facing fear and embracing diversity
Inspired by the devastating 2021 wildfires in Lytton, B.C., Clarke envisioned the exhibition sparking conversations about living with the fear and reality of wildfires while providing an inclusive space for artists to exchange cultural insights. In their understandings of fire, Clarke says artists are encouraged to follow any direction they prefer.
“The notion is to represent that as Canadians, we all have a mixture of identities, and that’s how we negotiate our place in the world,” Clarke explains. “It’s this idea of how we deal with the threat of fire and the fear based on their cultural backgrounds.”
Clarke points out that Indigenous communities have fascinating cultural ways of relating to fire. Fire is not only a destructive force but also a vital element that must be balanced with its counterpart – water. Indigenous artist Aaron Rice has chosen to project images of fire and water onto Indigenous drums, highlighting the interplay between these natural forces.
“If you have ways of dealing with it and understanding the elements, then you can harness it for something that is deeply meaningful,” Clarke says.
Indigenous communities are now adapting their ancestral knowledge of harnessing fire for modern use. They are actively sharing their prescribed methods of fire management with wildfire specialists, offering valuable insights into sustainable ways to deal with B.C. wildfires.
Gratitude, fire, and environmental warnings
“If you want to call it science or nature or Mother Earth…we have to take care of it; it’s part of a reciprocal relationship,” says Indigenous artist annie ross who infuses her connection to nature into her artistic interpretation of fire.
Having grown up in an Indigenous community in California and learned from plants, animals, and Indigenous culture, ross is both grateful to and fascinated by nature. Currently teaching at Simon Fraser University, this gratitude underpins ross’s exploration of fire as both a destructive force and a symbolic warning of environmental degradation caused by human indifference.
“The way we live our daily lives is burning everything up and it won’t come back,” she explains. “It has to quit. It has to stop.”
In her sculptural work, she creates protective ponchos with found materials for animal figures such as bears that represent a spiritual being within Indigenous community. These pieces symbolize the need to safeguard wildlife displaced by wildfires while reminding us of humanity’s role in environmental crises.
“It’s our responsibility to take care of every life more. It’s our responsibility to love one another,” she argues.
She also reimagines discarded figurines by dressing them in ceremonial attire, challenging conventional ideas of value and waste. These sculptures urge viewers to reconsider what society discards.
“I want people to think about what’s precious and why,” adds ross.
The exhibition also features a partnership with the Vancouver Historical Society, which hosted a series of fire-themed lectures on Oct. 24 to deepen public understanding of fire’s impact across cultures and landscapes.
“I hope [our work] is to have the conversation about why these things matter and consider for ourselves our own individual and collective part in how to fix it,” ross says.
The exhibition runs until December 31. For more information, go to www.italianculturalcentre.ca/current-exhibition.
Connecting people to nature through citizen science is an important first step in empowering local members to protect the region’s ecology. During Canada History Week this November, WildResearch, a volunteer-run organization in British Columbia, wants the public to engage with the nature around them.
“Getting people involved in science, research, and conservation – particularly people without a scientific background – helps us build a community of people who value science and research,” says Vinci Au, president of the organization’s board of directors.
WildResearch honours the cultural heritage of Indigenous communities through fostering a deeper respect for the history and natural dynamics of the spaces they work to protect.
Based in Vancouver, WildResearch offers citizen science programs and field study experiences to a diverse group of over 250 volunteers, including many early career biologists.
“Our mission at WildResearch is to build, train, and educate a community that contributes to conservation science,” says vice-president Kiirsti Owen.
Led by a group of dedicated professional biologists conducting long-term and large-scale field research, WildResearch provides young biologists, mostly graduate students, with practical research skills and career connections.
“This kind of field learning doesn’t come around quite frequently, and these kinds of skills are hard to gain,” explains Au. “You don’t get them in class.”
WildResearch’s board of directors – working to break down barriers and ensure equal opportunities for all – has always embraced diversity: varying backgrounds, identities, ages, and other underrepresented minorities. Au points out that the gender demographics at WildResearch has been “predominately women” and the organization works to build connections with Indigenous communities.
WildResearch member conducting volunteer work.
“Building relationships takes time, especially for those who have not worked with Indigenous groups before,” she adds.
Inspired by movements like Black Birders Week, WildResearch is making birding more accessible to all through its British Columbia Marsh Monitoring Program (BCMPP). The program, which focuses on preserving marsh birds and amphibians, connects with Indigenous groups – a chance to promote inclusivity in conservation communities – to foster partnerships and seek permission for research on traditional lands.
“As the survey regions expand, the leaders in each of those regions have attempted to reach out to Indigenous groups: to either partner with them, or to get approval from them to be on their land,” explains Au.
Incorporating the principles of citizen science, WildResearch is not only advancing conservation efforts but also working to create a welcoming, equitable community for all nature enthusiasts.
“Through citizen or community science, we’re making conservation science accessible to almost anyone and I think that’s amazing,” says Owen.
Au recalls a birdwatching experience at Terra Nova in Richmond: beyond the scientific of the land is the lost culture and history. “Terra Nova” was a name given by settlers, but the area’s traditional name from the Musqueam people is Spul’u’kwuks, which means “bubbling river.” The name refers to natural gas bubbles rising from beneath the river’s surface – an element of the landscape Indigenous knowledge has preserved over generations.
“Incorporating these historical and cultural tidbits into our walks is important to us,” Au says, noting how there is much to learn from Indigenous peoples. “It anchors us in place and time, and helps us recognize that we were not the first here.”
As WildResearch looks to the future, Au envisions continued public engagement– where motivated individuals rally together to advocate for strong governmental policies to protect nature.
Recently, WildResearch published a paper based on all volunteer gathered data in collaboration with Environment Canada. Au underscores the capacity of volunteers to move beyond gathering data and push forward rational conservation decisions that leave a lasting impact.
“Now, right after we publish this paper, the Vancouver wastewater treatment plant is about to receive an upgrade, and we are right on that property,” Au says. “So, they’re going to do ecological restoration, but also a giant infrastructure project; [and] we will monitor it for 10 years.”
WildResearch, which was established in 2010 by a group of six biologists and graduate students from Simon Fraser University, sees community as the key to conservation science.
For more information, see www.wildresearch.ca
Simon Fraser University’s (SFU) Department of World Languages and Literatures, in collaboration with the Italian Chamber of Commerce in Canada – West, is hosting Italian Culture and Books: The World Between the Lines on Oct. 18 at SFU Venture Labs. Celebrating the 2024 Week of Italian Language in the World and Italian Design Weeks, this event traces the evolution of Italian printmaking and typography.
Enrico Tallone | Photo by Ottavio Atti
“It’s about finding ways for innovation to enrich and extend the legacy of Italian craftsmanship in the modern world,” says one of the event’s speakers, Dionysios Arkadianos, SFU’s digital learning specialist.
The event also explores how Italy’s printmaking legacy intertwines and extends modern language learning, including the use of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. It further highlights the contributions of Italian language and culture to the broader, global society.
“They are transferable, and they have been transferred many times over since their origin, which is one of the wonderful things about Italian culture; [it] permeates many other cultures that is part of a global vocabulary, whether it be [in] design, printmaking, culinary, unique sciences, [and] so on,” Arkadianos says.
The event’s keynote speaker, Enrico Tallone, inherited the love and expertise of printmaking from his father, Alberto Tallone. Alberto is widely recognized for having developed the “Tallone typeface,” which remains exclusive to his family’s press. Raised in this family of craftsmen, Enrico’s passion for letters and printing emerged early on.
“Innovation is a publisher’s daily bread, since each new translation, every new line of poetry he publishes, represents the latest frontier of contemporary thought,” says Enrico.
Enrico understands the significance of typography in transmitting culture and communication. Adapting to the contemporary with a myriad of innovations, he treats each title as a work of art – distinctive in format and style. His continual exploration in editorial design keeps his work creative while preserving the ancient roots of Italy’s typographical heritage.
The event will also showcase SFU’s exploration of incorporating AI into literature learning and translation, while acknowledging its limitations. It does so by featuring a student project from an advanced Italian course that engages AI technologies, like Chatgpt and DeepL, to research Dino Buzzati’s Incontro Notturno for conducting applied learning.
“What expectations it created, and how these expectations came to fruition or not, and how things have been tempering as we approach a more rationalized implementation of AI in different aspects of learning, even in literature and translation,” says Arkadianos.
Students apply AI-based prompts to translate texts, summarize content, and analyze characters and themes. Comparing the results driven by different prompts, they then develop a group idea to envision the possibility of AI technologies in the framework of foreign language learning. One limitation of AI has already emerged.
“A cultural insight that has been discovered over the course of our preliminary research has been the specific dialect of this literary piece,” says student Eric Dye, who is minoring in Italian. “The difficulty with the AI has been the ‘incorrect’ translation of region-specific terminology.”
With respect to cultural traditions, Arkadianos suggests a cautious introduction and implementation when using new technologies in learning. Event coordinator Vlad Vintila adds that attendees might have the opportunity to appreciate some rare Renaissance books, specifically illustrated epics.
“I foresee, that these new technologies, at some point, will start to transform in order to complement the traditional way,” Arkadianos explains.
For more information, see https://events.sfu.ca/event/41667-italian-culture-and-books-the-world-between-the