Worried Earth Forest Walk

October 22, 2022 at 2:00 pm (Please arrive by 1:45 pm)
Assiniboine Forest
Participants meet at the Assiniboine Forest parking lot at the corner of Grant Avenue and Chalfont Road (at the western end of the forest).
Google Map coordinates: 49.85836407956664, -97.25048406511134

Please contact Gallery 1C03 no later than October 16 to request ASL interpretation for this event.


Join ecologist and professor Andrew Park, writer and tree enthusiast Ariel Gordon, and poet and scholar Kristian Enright as they take you on a two hour mindful walk through Assiniboine Forest. 

Combining insights from science and poetry, your guides will use the forest as a catalyst to help you the participants explore the complicated emotions that accompany ecological change. Together, we'll investigate the forest as a dynamic entity in space and time, and at waystations along the trail, you'll explore your perceptions of change in a series of generative writing exercises.

Please arrive 15 minutes early, as the walk will commence at 2:00 pm prompt. Wear sensible shoes, prepare for the weather, and bring a notebook, pen, and an emotionally open heart and mind. We'll see you in the forest! 

This walk is one of the companion programs to the exhibition Worried Earth: Eco-Anxiety and Entangled Grief.


About the guides

Ariel Gordon is a Winnipeg/Treaty 1 Territory-based writer, editor, and enthusiast. She is the author of Treed: Walking in Canada’s Urban Forests (Wolsak & Wynn, 2019).]

Andrew Park is professor of forest ecology at the University of Winnipeg. His recent research includes investigations into forest adaptation to climate change, the environmental psychology of hope, and climate anxiety in the arts.

Kristian Enright is a poet, writer and educator residing on Treaty One Territory whose book, Postmodern Weather Report, is forthcoming with Turnstone Press.


Acknowledgments

Gallery 1C03 is on Treaty 1 Territory. We are located on the territories of the Anishinaabeg, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dakota and Dene peoples, and the homeland of the Métis Nation. Our water is sourced from Shoal Lake 40 First Nation.

This forest walk is supported by the New Frontiers in Research Fund, and is part of an interdisciplinary research project on eco-anxiety and climate change-related grief.  This research project is led by Co-Principal Investigators Melanie Zurba (Dalhousie University) and Erica Mendritzki (NSCAD University) with collaborators Andrew Park (University of Winnipeg), Roberta Woodgate (University of Manitoba), David Busolo (University of New Brunswick), and Lisa Binkley (Dalhousie University). The work is also supported by Research Associate Polina Baum-Talmor, and research assistants and graduate students:  Lily Barraclough, Sara Boyd, Morgan Brimacombe, Luke Fair, Natalie Goulet, and Bryanne Lamoureux.

Accessibility

The majority of Assiniboine Forest trails are mulch paths with some sections of asphalt and gravel. The path is mainly wide and flat but may be wet, soggy or muddy depending on the recent weather.