Over the past year, the students of Kelowna Heartwood Learning Community have identified and responsibly foraged for various berries, bark, fungi and plants on the land that they turned into dye baths. By learning about each plant, its properties, and the dye process, they continue to deepen an intimate relationship with the land we learn on, and explore what reciprocity means and how we can uphold and value the teachings of our syilx community and knowledge keepers.
Each student chose a plant, animal, insect or fungi that grows/lives at Camp Dunlop and the Lebanon Creek watershed and researched information about it and how it is connected to the larger ecosystem. They have drawn and painted or embroidered their chosen kin onto the dye fabric that has been linked/weaved together. The goal for this exhibition is mutual exchange and mutual responsibility. Engaging in a reciprocal relationship with the natural world involves understanding our responsibility within this relationship and committing to a two-way exchange, one that not solely benefits humans. Process based art experiences provide a rich learning environment to process inquiry into something concrete and actionable.
In the student’s words,
We love the earth and we did the art from our heart. We each picked a plant/animal/fungi then we dyed some cloth from stuff we found at Camp Dunlop. Then we drew what we picked on the fabric and painted it and put it together. We are trying to help you know that everything is connected. The world is connected. I know it doesn't all look the same, but it's all connected and there is something in common with it all. We are all connected.
Thank you to Judith Mueller who was so generous in sharing her experience and advice with natural dyeing. Limlemt Jasmine Peone for the cultural and plant knowledge that was shared that helped inform this project and a special thank you to Grouse Barnes who helped us with the title of the exhibition. Thank you to Scouts Canada for making their camp space available to Heartwood Kelowna and to the Rotary Club of Kelowna Okanagan Mission for their donation and support.
We are honoured and grateful to learn on the unceded and ancestral territory of the syilx Okanagan people.
This exhibition showcases the work of 52 students from Kelowna Heartwood Learning Community. Heartwood is a blend of 4 days per week of home-learning and 1 day per week of Forest School programming which focuses on nature learning, foraging/wildcraft, social-emotional learning, inquiry and outdoor free play. Our teaching team includes BC Certified Teachers, program mentors, learning coaches and guest educators. We hold classes in forested locations, outside, all year round, with Camp Dunlop as our home base.
Learn more about Heartwood Learning Community here.
This show was organised and installed by Kelsie Balehowsky. Kelsie is a Canadian contemporary visual artist and educator based in the Okanagan/unceded and ancestral territory of the Syilx people. She received her BFA from the University of British Columbia Okanagan in 2014 and has exhibited in group and solo exhibitions in Canada and abroad. Kelsie has over a decade of experience in public programming and art education. Prior to her role as an outdoor educator with Heartwood Kelowna, Kelsie acted as a Community Engagement Curator at the Vernon Public Art Gallery. Kelsie’s artistic practice has been primarily concerned with themes of the uncanny, technology and connection. She is passionate about community and in recent years her work has shifted towards more curation and community engaged and inspired projects/artworks.