Few places in Nova Scotia offer natural beauty on the scale of Cape Breton during the fall months. Add in spirited live music and cultural events, as venues across the region do every year for the Celtic Colours International Festival, and you've got plenty of reasons to take a trip to the island.
This year, a team of 色妹妹直播 researchers, students, and staff brought research and community engagement to the island as part of Waters Flowing Together (Oct. 15-17) 鈥� a three-day celebration of science, music, and culture organized by .听
The 脌ros na Mara centre in Iona offers hands-on opportunities to interact with and learn about the Bras d'Or Lake UNESCO Biosphere Reserve.听
The agenda included panels on Indigenous knowledge, ocean science, and eco-tourism with 色妹妹直播 researchers and community leaders as well as outreach activities in local schools.
A Musical Celebration of the Sea at St. Columba Church, part of Celtic Colours, rounded out the week's programming on Friday. The afternoon event included performances of Message in a Bottle by Ingrid Henderson and friends and the Celtic Mass for the Sea by Scott MacMillan, Breton Chamber Choir and a Scottish-Canadian ensemble with soloists from 色妹妹直播. Composers, musicians, workshop panelists, and Prof. Nick Owens, director of the Scottish Association for Marine Science, came together for a closing panel discussion following the performances.听
笔丑辞迟辞驳谤补辫丑别谤蝉听听and Eva Carmichael听were on hand to capture some of the events and reflections from participants on behalf of Dal News.听
Shelley Denny, Advisor at the Unama鈥檏i Institute of Natural Resources
鈥淭his event today in Iona is really important because it brings people together for a common purpose around Bras 鈥橠or Lake. I've been around for a few decades now and observing what happens on the Bras 鈥橠or and it kind of comes in cycles. So we've had this momentum before, but it wasn't as powerful as something we have here today because we have not just organizations wanting to collaborate, but we have citizens, people who are part of communities wanting to collaborate, right? We鈥檝e never had concerned citizens be part of it, so I think this is a really great first step. This is where we need to go in order to create that opportunity to learn from each other, to share what we know, and to make plans for the future.鈥澨�
Mathew Molyneux, Program Manager at Coastal Action, Watersheds Water Quality Team听
"So we're here at this Waters Flowing Together symposium and it's been really great to see how all these different perspectives are coming together and how all these different organizations and entities and communities are bringing in their own perspective and lenses into this idea of a living lab. It's very exciting for us because we're always looking for opportunities to incorporate two eyed seeing into our own projects. Having communication early about the project and just starting those conversations and getting all the appropriate stakeholders into the conversation first I think is a really important aspect of what they're looking to do here going forward."
Leim Joe, Research Assistant at the Centre for Sound Communities
Leim Joe, second from right above.
"Music to me is more than just listening, and I learned that throughout my time in university and in events like this. When we hear stories about how we used to be and how we sustain and how we can use concepts or ideas like Two-Eyed Seeing, then you can truly understand why we do what we do and especially as Mi'kmaq as an oral history telling tribe we take a lot in the music. Music is more than that, it's sometimes descriptive, it's a place like the whale hunting song or it can be as simple as doing it for yourself. Music doesn't have to be pretty music, it can be a single note. So to me music is much more than a performative act; it's who we are as Mi'kmaq, it's who we are as people, and in an event like this where we can collaborate and think about how we can help Pitu鈥檖aq 鈥� the Bras d'Or Lake. In language, storytelling, especially Two-Eyed Seeing, we can make this place a better place."
William Austin, founder of the Oceaneers, Member Celtic Mass Choir,听biomedical engineering graduate student
"Bringing students together with music and culture at a science-based event was important for numerous reasons 鈥� both to help bring more public awareness to what's happening, but also to bridge people together and get conversations going with that celebratory aspect. The perfect combination was having symposia at the same time as music, or a Q&A following the Celtic Mass. We had the public there for the event, and now they could engage with both the people who wrote the music and inquire about it, but also approach subjects 鈥� whether it's construction of golf courses or developments in climate change鈥攆rom different perspectives in a Two-Eyed Seeingsort of way. What I really pulled away is that we need more of this cross-talk. We need more understanding of what each other does and how this all comes together in community. We need more events like this, where we bridge these worlds together, because that's how we build community.听
Patricia MacNeil, Volunteer at Aros Na Mara Centre
"My family the McNeils landed here about 1770 something and they were met by the indigenous people of the Mi'kmaq and they actually became friends. They helped my family survive the first year here. So for me this is still indigenous land. These are the most incredible people and to share this lake is amazing. The largest saltwater lake in the world. So we've been here for over 200 years and in the last few years our culture started slipping away and now there's a resurgence and it's being helped by the Mi'kmaq because they're going through their own renaissance. So our听脌ros na Mara center started off as a thought like 15 years ago or so and now here we are at an international symposium with a twinned organization from across the ocean and it's just amazing to think that we started with just like, Hey, what do you think? We could have something here."
Theresa Harroun, Youth Coordinator with Collaborative Environmental Planning Initiative听
"I really like the way that there was different perspectives put into one event, and I think that what was done here is inspirational in the sense that it brought together youth, it prioritized different cultures, and it prioritized community when everyone was brought together in this space. And I think that that's something that schools need to do, that's something that government needs to do, in order for community, cultures and different groups of people to feel represented and feel understood and feel heard鈥攖o have people together and working together and actually represented within spaces. And I think that that was done really well here, and since it was done here, why can't it be done everywhere else? Like 色妹妹直播 does that, where they bring community together."
Dr. Anya Waite,听Chief Executive Officer and Scientific Director, Ocean Frontier Institute
"To me, this is an important gathering because it's a collection of different people who love the same place. So it's a place-based meeting bringing science, indigenous knowledge and other thinking together. And it's also linking to our sort of cousins in Scotland, which I really like, that link between the Highlands of Scotland and Cape Breton Highlands. So it's bringing a large group of people together to think about the Bras 鈥檇or Lakes, why they're important to their indigenous communities and others. How do we collectively do something concrete, useful and helpful to bring together all those different types of knowledges to preserve and support the Bras d鈥檕r Lakes going forward? "
Julie Cossette, Parks Canada, Site Manager for Alexander Graham Bell National Historic Site
鈥淭oday was a great opportunity to be able to meet different people working and that had interests with the Bras 鈥橠or Lakes. Also, all the work that we do with the Mi'kmaq, it is definitely one of our priorities to collaborate and co-manage our Parks Canada sites with the Mi'kmaq. So, today was a great subject for a session to get to better know the relationship of the Mi'kmaq and the Bras 鈥橠or Lake. So, a nice way for me to get to know better all that relationship and get the chance to meet with great people that can help continue this collaboration in the future.鈥�
Closing panel discussion at St. Columba Church.