Creative Witness
Following last year’s ‘What’s Your 60?’ program [1] by Alberta Wilderness Association, the organisation wanted to create another nature-based program that would be accessible to anyone in the province. With an outline provided by local artist, Bob Acton, AWA chose to run this (semi) self-directed 4-week adventure, ‘Creative Witness’.
The idea was for participants to choose a place they would go to weekly (back-yard, a favourite park, part of a nature walk…) and try to experience that location from different perspectives weekly - capturing impressions through journaling or art.
I chose to pick the walk along the Bow River that I sometimes frequent as an escape to urban life. The idea was to notice changes throughout the weeks. The biggest change I noticed was the clear water in the first week, by the second the river was filled with mud and had flooded into the banks (after heavy rainfall), and by the end of four weeks it had started to regain some of its green colour.
The image of a man
etched into the wound of a severed bough on this tree, made me think it was a warning sign.
Tree Signs
Warning to other trees!
Just minding my business and,
Man cut off my boughs.
Thinking about the impacts of humans on the landscape over centuries and viewing the space down to the macro level makes you bond with your ‘ancestors’ in this place. I liked the idea of committing to a specified time to frequently revisit a space and feel connected to it. I will probably always stop here on future walks to take notice of all the changes. I hope to redo this program again in the fall, and to witness and journal about the changes I see.
[1] My challenge in 2025 was to write 60 nature-based haikus, walk 60 km/month and post 60 new iNaturalist observations. You can read some of my haikus here - Haikus for Nature XII.
