In spite of the madness, I did manage to take in a bit of the World Urban Festival last week, happening in conjunction with the UN World Urban Forum. Lots of great local and international art, all of it political. Info booths on recycling (there’s a good one for properly disposing of old electronics: www.TechnoTrashRecycling.com)as well as organics delivery companies, and a display on green roof technology. There were shipping containers converted into mini-galleries. There were concerts and dance performances. We saw the Judith Marcuse company do a very cool piece on race, culture and the environment called Earth=home. We saw the Coup do a fabulous outdoor concert. Particularly liked a video project piece by Margot Butler about bees and the murdered women at the Pickton pig farm; and a piece by Haruko Okano made entirely of found organic materials. Part of the point of this piece is that it will eventually decompose. I’m sure it gives conventional art galleries, with all their assumptions about the eternity of art, a heart attack. There was also a little food fair with much delicious earth-friendly food.

i’m addicted to my car. and i really can’t stand driving, especially in this city, which continues to get more and more congested. i know, i know, money where your mouth is…

A piece by the artist Sonny Assu, right at the Earth Festival exit. A pointed reminder, especially having just come back from the Uts’am program last week, where we saw what False Creek was like 150 years ago (all old growth forest.)

Ran into my old friend Henry Tsang, who I used to do cultural organizing stuff with in the early 90s. He was showing part of his project Chinook Jargon at the Earth Festival.

These coyote pennants were everywhere. If you found a blank one, you could decorate it and hang it. I think they are part of a project called Co-Existing with Coyotes, aimed at reducing conflict among people, pets and coyotes in the Lower Mainland. Here’s a website: www.stanleyparkecology.ca

For the last ten years, the Squamish Nation has been organizing a project called Uts’am/Witness through the Roundhouse Community Centre in downtown Vancouver. They bring people up to the old growth forest at Sims Creek and the Elaho Valley to witness the extraordinary spirit and energy of the land here as it has existed for thousands of years. When the logging companies wanted to log it a few years ago, saying no one would notice because no one cared about the land, the Squamish called back all the people who had taken part in the Witness Program up ’til that point, to testify. They called a meeting and invited the logging company. The testemonials went on for hours. Now, the forest has been saved, which is why this is the last year of the project. Rita Wong, Lily Shinde and I went up this weekend. It was an extraordinary experience to be able to take part, for which I am inexpressibly grateful. I thank the Squamish Nation, the Roundhouse organizers, Chief Telalsemkin/Bill Williams and the beautiful land itself for this amazing opportunity.

on the first day, we hiked up a very steep bit of mountainside to these enormous twin fir trees. our guides told us they were around 500-600 years old. the energy in this place is extraordinary. it’s pristine old growth, a full functioning ancient ecosystem. one of the most spiritual places i’ve ever been to. the squamish nation has recently secured its preservation.

omg, did we every eat a lot– satays and fried wontons leftover from the colloquium reception, cheese, bread, soup, green salad, pasta salad, watermelon, sausages, cashews, chips, pineapple, avocado, kim bap, korean salads (daikon, beansprout, spinach, chocolate, millet flakes, granola, raisins, apricots, hemp seed, flax seed, cucumber. everyone envied our food. other major consumable– insect repellant. yes, there were lots of mosquitoes. very upsetting to the wong.

we ended up camping next to a family consisting of three couples and nine kids. so much energy, so much hope– a real reminder of what it is important to preserve this environment for. yes, they were cute. yes, they were noisy. i loved the energy and i occasionally wished we’d camped a little further down the riverbank.

it’s amazing how the people who do this work glow. rick is one of the volunteers who organizes the uts’am/witness program through the roundhouse. he is also the second man i’ve met this year who has slept in a tree to prevent a forest from being logged.