An event to bring people together through dialogue and artwork to explore diverse notions of resilience in the context of Climate Change will take place early next month in Williams Lake.
Stories of Resilience Voices from across British Columbia’s Interior will showcase artworks and stories of resilience reflecting on the 2017 Wildfire season.
“This has been in the making for quite sometime,” Tina Elliott, Project Lead for the Resilience Institute said, “it’s a partnership between the Institute and the Canadian Red Cross. As we know there have been wildfires since 2017 that have had quite an impact on people across the Interior of BC so we certainly aimed at reflecting on the 2017 wildfire season. We asked people to reflect on all kinds of experiences and hardships that draw one to be resilient.”
Elliott said especially as we head into the summer and look to the future they want to have those opportunities for people to share what they’ve learned through their experiences and to learn from each other.
“For those who will be attending this event May 4th at the Tourism Discovery Centre, they will see one of a kind artwork that compliments the stories that will be told. There will be 8 story tellers, that includes one from Williams Lake, John Dell, they all worked one on one with the Project artist to come up with these creations. We’re also creating Podcasts, books, and other creative outputs so that we can share these stories, these ideas, and inspire other people.”
Elliott noted that she didn’t think it was easy for the storytellers to share their stories and that she has a deep, profound respect for them.
“I did hear reflections from them over the many months we’ve been working on this initiative together that they were challenged to think about what story they wanted to tell and what they wanted to communicate from their experiences. Sometimes they had to pause and take a break and reflect because it is very personal. I think it takes a lot of courage for people to share their their story and that’s incredibly meaningful,” Elliott said.
“Stories of Resilience” goes from noon until 5 at the Tourism Discovery Centre in Williams Lake.
It is a free event but those wishing to attend are asked to RSVP