Deborah Barndt

In June, I participated in an inspiring retreat on Cortes Island in B.C.: “Wild Soma Being and Becoming: Embodied Creative Practices Toward Collective Thriving,” facilitated by four Toronto-based dancers: Julia Aplin, Shannon Litzenberger, Andrea Nann, and Roula Said,

I was thrilled that they agreed to dance at the opening, with John Gzowski accompanying the dancers on the guitar. In preparation, we offered a land acknowledgement with tobacco at the apple tree in front of the house/gallery. I began the opening by getting everyone to sing Marie Lynn Hammond’s song “Temagami Round”:

If we lose this forest, if we savage the land,

we might as well be cutting off our own right hand.

For we and the Earth are one, under the moon, under the sun.

Over the evening, around 45 people visited the exhibit. At two different moments, the dancers led us outside, honouring the tree first with their movements then entering the gallery and responding to the images on the wall. With Roula leading with a hand drum, they riffed on the song.

The collaboration between trees, photos, and movement created a synergy that challenged the boundaries between nature outside and inside the gallery, and between frozen moments in photography and dynamic movement in response to the images.