This post was written by Eun Jee, an Art History and Visual Culture major in FCCS. Eun Jee is currently working this fall as the Communications Assistant as part of the UBCO Co-op program.
Waterways – Past, Present and Future is the materialization of a four-year collaborative project between faculty and students at UBC Okanagan, Elders and Knowledge Keepers of the Syilx Okanagan community, Kelowna Museums Society, Okanagan Basin Water Board and the Okanagan Collaborative Conservation Program. This exhibition intends to raise awareness of the “fragile relationship between people and water in the Okanagan Valley and catalyzing sustainable water practices among residents.”
Waterways – Past, Present and Future is comprised of two main spaces and three main components. The outer walls highlight the Indigenous Syilx teachings, wisdom related to human-water relations, and the value of water, while the inner walls are centered around sharing the stories of knowledge and importance of water and water ecosystems management and sustainability. The three main components involve a physical “playground” with interactive elements for children, a virtual interactive storybook about the Okanagan Valley, and a documentary about the restoration projects.
What struck me the most was the usage of interactive media and the constitution of the exhibition. The cyclical presentation of the documentaries and storytelling creates an immersive feature that engulfs the viewers – and the combination of the auditory, visual and physical interactions furthers this sensation. In addition, the woodcut pieces that hold up the monitors depict aerial photos of the Okanagan Valley from 1948 onwards, which added to the changing environment. These woodcut pieces also have mobile cutouts of different species that were negatively affected and displaced due to the water practices and industrialization. It was interesting to see how the exhibition used these mobile woodcut pieces to further the narrative of the catalyzing effects of the water practices. These pieces enabled the audience to move these animals around the exhibition, displacing them and rearranging the initial presentation. It also furthered the child-like, storybook, playground aspect the exhibition was promoting.
Another key feature of this exhibition was to raise awareness of the Indigenous led twenty-year salmon restauration project in the Okanagan Valley, and other ongoing environmental restoration projects. The purpose of sharing the water ecosystem management and sustainability was to raise awareness of the declining salmon population and how our actions of industrialization have caused a near extinction of a species native to our water.
Furthermore, Waterways is a travelling exhibition that has efforts to travel around BC. Knowing how educative the exhibition is in nature, I find the travelling aspect (and potentially other provinces) to spread awareness and education about the indigenous led restauration projects and water ecosystem management to the rest of Canada. Knowing how educative the exhibition is in nature, I find the travelling aspect of this exhibition as one of its key features. While water ecosystem management, sockeye salmon restoration etc., are more focused on the Okanagan Valley, the overall message and teachings of the Syilx Indigenous community in their efforts to restore their traditional lands and water are stories to celebrate and spread more awareness of.
After viewing Waterways, it made me reevaluate how we view industrialization and the change in our landscape. While the Okanagan’s water practices and industrialization has their benefits and plays a crucial role in the economy and production of goods and services, it’s also essential to recognize the damage and harm it did. Like a double-edged sword, without these water practices, the economy and standard of living would not be the best, however, because of these practices, local species are going extinct, and infrastructure issues such as floods exist.
The interviews and stories the Syilx Indigenous community shared, especially how they demonstrate their resilience in the face of the mistreatment of their lands and water and overall injustice have enlightened me with the various forms of expressing resilience through peaceful and beneficial actions and endeavors.
Another key feature of the exhibition was its way of highlighting the collaboration between the Indigenous and Settler communities to come together to protect and restore the Okanagan waterways. The exhibition brings together two incompatible communities that are often in deplorable affairs and demonstrates how one can come together for a shared cause. It shares the message that regardless of our cultural background, history, and differences, all those can be tossed to the ground to campaign for our shared believes and objectives.
About Eun Jee Lee
Born in South Korea and raised in the Philippines, Eun Jee Lee is the 2021 Fall Co-Op Communications Assistant for the Faculty of Creative Critical studies, directly working under Shauna Oddleifson. Majoring in Art History and Visual Culture, her passions lie in exploring how the arts affect society and culture and the various ways to celebrate the arts. As her first editorial, this article explores her understanding and takeaways from the featuring exhibition Waterways: Past, Present and Future.