A syilx woman and a settler woman share stories about the watersheds where they grew up, on opposite sides of the same mountain.
Suiki?st (Pauline Terbasket) was raised on a reservation amid her family’s traditional territory in the Lower Similkameen Valley, at the base of Fairview Mountain. At the same time, Teresa Marshall and her family settled on an old mining ghost town site on the Okanagan Valley side.
They come together in Water Voices, to share their stories, 7 p.m. Sept. 24 at the Kelowna Art Gallery, 1315 Water St.
WaterVoices celebrates the water and land as the frames and transmitters of our memories, in a transformative narrative process inviting indigenous and settler perspectives. The evening program includes a welcome by Westbank First Nation elder Grouse Barnes, songs by Csetkwe Fortier and interactive audience exchanges. This is a special advance presentation of the Social Life of Water in the Okanagan Valley exhibition opening this fall at the Okanagan Heritage Museum in Kelowna, and the Columbia River Watershed Storytelling Project, with the generous support of Kelowna Art Gallery.
The Social Life of Water in the Okanagan Valley multi-media exhibition is funded by Central Okanagan Foundation, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Okanagan Basin Water Board, UBC Hampton Fund Research Grant and Mitacs Accelerate Grant, with the assistance of a number of local sponsors.
The Columbia River Watershed Storytelling Project supports the sharing of community stories and dialogue among neighbours to deepen local knowledge and strengthen bio-regional alliances. Partners in events to date include Okanagan Nation Alliance, UBC Okanagan–Eco Art Incubator, Columbia Basin Transboundary Youth Network, IndigenEYEZ, Watermark and Okanagan Regional Library.
—JR