slope (2022-2024)
During the fire season of 2022, I found the closest active fire to my home and have been visiting the site seasonally ever since. The fire site is located in a clearcut which was harvested along a steep slope above Duhamel Creek, on the north shore of Kootenay Lake. It is in traditional unceded Sn̓ ʕaýckstx (Sinixt/Arrow Lakes) territory and located just above a historical intertribal trade route (Pearkes, 2022). When I first bushwhacked up to the fire site from a deactivated forest service road, it was still smouldering and sending up plumes of smoke. I have since hiked up to find fireweed and devil’s club blooms, autumn decay, snow cover, and creeks flooded with winter runoff. Currently, new plants and trees are finding their roots in the carbonized soil. My emerging relationship with this place has informed research into vegetal intelligence and regeneration in the aftermath of fire and beyond, as well as the layers of Indigenous, colonial, and extractive encounters on this site over time. I have grown attached to witnessing this place and its inhabitants transform and reanimate since the fire. This project is in-process and will involve video, drawing and painting.
I am grateful to the Canada Council for the Arts for supporting this work.
