Writing students engage with COP30 climate summit

by | Nov 19, 2025 | climate, Faculty, Undergraduate, Writing

The COP30 UN Climate Change Conference may be convening in Brazil this month but that doesn’t stop our students from getting involved. A series of climate survivor testimonials taken by Department of Writing students Ashley Ciambrelli, Raamin Hamid and Fernanda Solorza are running in the UK’s Guardian media outlet this month as part of a partnership with the Climate Disaster Project.

“This is an unprecedented career-defining opportunity for undergraduate students to have their classroom research reach a global audience with one of the most prestigious news media outlets in the world,” says CDP founder Sean Holman. “We’re training students to work on the frontlines of climate change — which is changing from a future threat to a lived experience. And this ongoing partnership with The Guardian represents the importance of those skills.”

Writing student Raamin Hamid (photo: Gouchen Wang)

Learning from traumatic experiences

Raamin Hamid captured Ruchira Gupta’s harrowing account of surviving a devastating 2005 flood in India and Ryan Kirkham’s experience with the 2023 Maui fires. Fernanda Solorza spoke with Peruvian mountain guide Saúl Luciano Lliuya about his landmark lawsuit against German energy firm RWE and its role in increasing glacial melt. And Ashley Ciambrelli connected with Jaguar Identification Project founder Abbie Martin about the impact of fires in Brazil’s Pantanal region in 2020, which killed at least 17 million animals and burned 27% of the vegetation cover. Find out what this opportunity meant to our students in this blog story about their experiences.

“Until [I got involved with] the Climate Disaster Project, I never realized that the majority of our planet’s population has experienced a climate disaster — whether they know it or not,” says Hamid, who was moved by Gupta’s experience with the flood that killed over 900 people. “The effects of a climate disaster can vary on a very long scale, and it is important to bring those effects to light to cultivate community and encourage action.”

As an international student from Mexico, Solorza’s account of Lliuya’s lawsuit was especially meaningful. “I was determined to write his story with care, and the more I wrote, the more I could see the struggles of my own people and country through him,” she says. “I hope that readers will engage with Saúl’s testimony and reflect on whose voices are often left out of global climate conversations, even when they bear the heaviest consequences of the crisis.”

Ciambrelli feels that this experience has changed how she sees the world. “Hearing these stories firsthand helped me learn that numbers only tell part of the story, and that hearing human experiences makes it real,” she says. “We are all vulnerable to the effects of the climate crisis. After conducting these interviews, I realize we all play a part in these events, and each of us has something to contribute to make a difference.”

 

Writing student Ashley Ciambrelli  (photo: Chad Hipolito)

A new kind of journalism

Ciambrelli feels the trauma-informed perspective of the Climate Disaster Project had a real impact on her writing. “Part of our process was re-learning how to use empathy to connect with our storytellers,” she explains. “It sounds simple, but being able to trust and support each other throughout such a vulnerable storytelling process was crucial to this project’s success. Practising empathy is a lesson I will carry forward in both my writing and my life.”

Similarly, Solorza says her CDP training will impact her work going forward. “I’ve learned the importance of holding people’s stories gently. Stories are people, and people are stories. By getting to know someone, asking questions and listening, they share a vulnerable part of themselves that must be held with care. The CDP taught me that gentleness in storytelling is collaboration, not extraction. I’ll carry that forward into all my future writing.”

Hamid also realizes how unique the CDP training is when it comes to treating people’s personal stories with the utmost care and empathy. “In my future writing, I will never compromise on the amount of care which the CDP has taught me to handle my stories with.”

Writing student Fernanda Solorza (photo: Chad Hipolito)

A rare opportunity for students

All agree that having their work published by such an internationally respected media outlet is a rare opportunity. “The Guardian is a source I’ve always respected and admired as a young journalist, so being featured by them is an honour,” says Ciambrelli. “It inspires me as a writer to see what else I can accomplish when I set my mind to it. I hope this also inspires other young writers to take chances.”

Solorza describes this as “both an honour and responsibility . . . . I hope readers will reflect on those whose voices are often left out of global climate conversations, even when they bear the heaviest consequences of the crisis.” And Hamid says the whole opportunity has been extremely rewarding. “It doesn’t feel real! I never thought that I would get such a prestigious opportunity.”

For Holman, the ongoing partnership with The Guardian is an essential part of the Climate Disaster Project’s work.

“People who have lived through climate disaster today have the knowledge needed to help us survive a warmer tomorrow — but too often their knowledge isn’t shared and their experiences are forgotten,” he says. “That’s why the kind of work our students is doing with The Guardian is so important.”

Writing professor wins Bill Good Award

by | Nov 6, 2025 | Alumni, Award, climate, Faculty, Writing

Congratulations go out to UVic Writing professor Sean Holman on winning the Bill Good Award at the 2025 Webster Awards on Nov 3!

The Bill Good Award is presented to a BC individual or organization that makes a significant contribution to journalism in the province, or addresses a community’s needs & benefits via journalism — and, as the Wayne Crooks Professor in Environmental & Climate Journalism and founder of the Climate Disaster Project, Holman certainly qualifies on many fronts.

An award-winning investigative journalist before joining UVic’s teaching faculty (and also a UVic Alumni as well), Holman’s words to the awards audience were appropriately insightful.

“We are becoming a fact-resistant society, where experience is more important than the evidence, where what we believe is more important than what is real — and that means it’s a troubling time to be a journalist,” he said.

“We are activists for the truth at a time when the truth is hard to find, and even harder to tell. I’m so honoured to be part of that community.”

Holman keeps fighting the good fight as he trains the next generation of journalists in the Climate Disaster Project, teaching his students to use a trauma-informed approach and building a model of cooperation that can be replicated in newsrooms as they shrink.

Read the full award citation here. 

Call for grad student proposals: 2026 ONC ArtScience Fellowship Program

by | Oct 31, 2025 | Art History & Visual Studies, Award, climate, Graduate, Research, School of Music, Theatre, Visual Arts, Writing

UVic’s Faculty of Fine Arts and Ocean Networks Canada (ONC) are now calling for graduate student applications for the paid 2026 ONC ArtScience Fellowship program. The application period closes on December 23, 2025.

The ArtScience Fellowship strengthens connections between art and science that broaden and cross-fertilize perspectives and critical discourse on today’s major issues, such as environment, technology, oceans, cultural and biodiversity, and healthy communities.

This program is open to all current Fine Arts graduate students who have completed most of their course requirements with practice in any visual, written, musical or performance media, or art historical research. Co-led and sponsored by Fine Arts and ONC, the Artist-in-Residence program receives additional financial support from UVic’s Faculty of Science.

Our most recent ArtScience Fellow was Visual Arts graduate student Parvin Hasani. As the sixth Fine Arts graduate student to hold this position, she proposed exploring the extreme ecosystems of deep-sea hydrothermal vents via her sculptural practice. The result was the September 2025 exhibit and artist’s talk, Tides of Memory. 

 

“Scientific data gave me the language of [vent] formation and collapse, but art practice allowed me to interpret the knowledge,” she explains in this video about her fellowship activities.

Learn more about previous ONC artistic residents, Megan Harton (Music, 2024), Neil Griffin (Writing, 2023), Colin Malloy (School of Music, 2022), Dennis Gupa (Theatre, 2021) and Colton Hash (Visual Arts, 2019).

About the ArtScience Fellowship

The ArtScience Fellowship (previously known as the ONC Artist-in-Residence program) will ignite cross-disciplinary exchanges, interacting with Fine Arts faculty members and scientists & staff at ONC, as well as with other individuals using ONC’s world-leading ocean facilities. This program is inspired by the ArtScience Manifesto of 2011, and numerous references to this concept in the literature. The Fellow will learn from and engage with the current research, connecting it to their own practice, and to wider societal and cultural aspects, creating work for public presentation at the end of the residency. The Artist will also be invited to contribute as a lead or co-author in scientific conference proceedings and/or journal articles.

 
The selected Artist will actively engage with researchers on a variety of ocean science themes that may include:
  • Deep Sea Ecology
  • Seabed-Ocean Exchanges
  • Coastal Ocean Processes
  • Marine Natural Hazards
  • The Ocean Soundscape
  • Arctic Ocean Observing
  • Ocean Big Data.
 
The ONC Artist-in-Residence program is established to:
  • explore the potential of the arts or alternative cultural practices in the area of the visions, challenges, philosophical, aesthetic, and ethical aspects of the ocean and the impacts humans have on it;
  • add a complementary artistic and creative perspective to ocean science, the societal ramifications of its exploitation, and its cultural aspects;
  • create opportunities for potential new research questions, experimental approaches and knowledge synthesis resulting from interaction between the arts and science; and
  • help envision and communicate the potential long-term impact of ocean changes on humanity.

Proposal Submission

Interested applicants are to email ONC’s Dwight Owens at dwowens@oceannetworks.ca with the subject line “Ocean ArtScience Fellowship,” and attach:
  1. the artist’s CV
  2. a concise portfolio of previous relevant artistic work;
  3. a letter of motivation explaining your interest in the program and its alignment with your past experiences and future career goals; and
  4. a 500-word project proposal with a separate project-costs budget.
The application period closes on December 23, 2025. Applications will be reviewed by representatives of Fine Arts and Ocean Networks Canada. Artists may be contacted for an interview or to supply further information before a decision is made.

Public Event or Exhibit

At the conclusion of the fellowship, the Fellow will host a public event and/or exhibit within a specified budget agreed to during the fellowship and depending on the type of project. Assistance for marketing and/or ticketing could be made available from other UVic departments (Visual Arts, Theatre, etc.) 
Financial Provision for the Artist
The residency period will be May 1-August 31, 2026. A cost-of-living stipend of $3,500/month will be paid to the selected Fellow, with limited additional funds to support production or materials. At the conclusion of the residency, the Fellow will plan and deliver a public exhibit and/or event sharing the fruits of the fellowship. This event will be promoted by ONC and Fine Arts.

Parvin giving her ONC talk

 

About Ocean Networks Canada

Established in 2007 as a strategic initiative of the University of Victoria, ONC operates world-leading ocean observatories for the advancement of science and the benefit of Canada. The observatories collect data on physical, chemical, biological, and geological aspects of the ocean over long time periods, supporting research on complex Earth processes in ways not previously possible. The observatories provide unique scientific and technical capabilities that permit researchers to operate instruments remotely and receive data at their home laboratories anywhere on the globe, in real time. The facilities extend and complement other research platforms and programs, whether currently operating or planned for future deployment.
 
The ArtScience Fellowship was initiated by ONC’s late Chief Scientist Kim Juniper, whose leadership and transdisciplinary approaches continue to inspire many in the ArtScience space.
 

About the Faculty of Fine Arts

With experiential learning at its core, the Faculty of Fine Arts provides the finest training and learning environment for artists, professionals, and students. Through its departments of Art History and Visual Studies, Theatre, Visual Arts, Writing and School of Music, the Faculty of Fine Arts aspires to lead in arts-based research and creative activity and education in local, national, and global contexts by integrating and advancing creation and scholarship in the arts in a dynamic learning environment. As British Columbia’s only Faculty exclusively dedicated to the arts, UVic’s Faculty of Fine Arts is an extraordinary platform that supports new discoveries, interdisciplinary and diverse contributions to creativity, and the cultural experiences of the students and communities UVic serves.
With thanks also to the Faculty of Science for their support.

UVic double alumna Lyana Patrick practices the art of health in all she does

by | Oct 27, 2025 | Alumni, climate, indigenous, Writing

Writer-director Lyana Patrick. All images courtesy the National Film Board of Canada, Lantern Films & Experimental Forest Films

These days, UVic double alumna Lyana Patrick is a picture of success in multiple arenas. She’s a lauded professor at Simon Fraser University,  specializing in issues surrounding Indigenous health and justice. She’s also an award-winning filmmaker whose new documentary, Nechako: It Will Be A Big River Again, is lighting up screens across the country.

But once, Patrick was a young journalism student struggling to land a University of Victoria co-op position. “I couldn’t get a job to save my life,” she laughs. “I was very shy and nervous and interviewed terribly.”

Patrick is a member of  BC’s Stellat’en First Nation, near Fraser Lake, but mostly grew up in Vanderhoof. She was drawn to UVic because of the Writing department’s co-op program. “At the time, you could still get a job at a community newspaper, so my dream was to be a journalist.”

But, unable to secure that co-op position, she fell back on her writing skills and secured a co-op position with the Native Voice—an acclaimed Indigenous newspaper. During that time, she wrote about the Kenney Dam and the efforts of the Aluminum Company of Canada (Alcan) to divert the Nechako River for the benefit of its aluminum smelter… at the cost of both the Stellat’en and Saik’uz nations.

Patrick went on to earn a BA double-majoring in Creative Writing and History in 1997 and later an MA in Indigenous Governance in 2004. Now, 30 years after her article, she returned to the topic of the multi-generational legal struggle to create her feature-length documentary, Nechako.

“For me, the most important thing is hearing voices that haven’t been heard and telling stories that people want to tell,” she says. “Those are my motivating factors in everything I do, and that’s pretty much what Nechako was about—understanding what the community’s priorities were, talking about the court case, showing that we’re still here on these lands, living with love and strength.”

Resistance is far from futile

When Alcan built the Kenney Dam in the 1950s, 70 per cent of the Nechako River was diverted into an artificial reservoir, severely impacting the lives of local Stellat’en and Saik’uz nations and leading to decades of resistance, including legal actions against both the federal and provincial governments and Rio Tinto Alcan, a subsidiary of global mining conglomerate Rio Tinto.

The film is rooted in Patrick’s experiences of resilience and adaptation, with Patrick’s father, a former Stellat’en chief, also featured in the documentary. Nechako follows both the flow of the river and the community’s ongoing fight to restore their way of life amidst large-scale environmental destruction and corporate rule.

“There’s an expectation of understanding and engaging with this Western system, on top of knowing your own traditions and cultures and histories,” she says. “It’s really hard work and I just wanted to show that kind of love and care and attention that I was fortunate to witness as I made this film.”

The story of Nechako is grounded in the kind of Indigenous community health and justice work Patrick specializes in, but she honed her production skills during a co-op term she did land in the ’90s working on CBC’s North of 60.

Telling Indigenous stories

A long-running TV series set in the fictional Northwest Territories community of Lynx River, North of 60 offered breakout roles to Indigenous actors like Tantoo Cardinal, Tom Jackson, Michael Horse and Adam Beach, as well as behind-the-scenes opportunities for students like Patrick.

“I’ve always had a very strong curiosity about hearing people’s stories,” Patrick says. “While journalism is incredibly important, visual storytelling offers a combination of all the elements:  context, background, history, relationships. Being at North of 60 allowed me to witness the work done in the different departments—story, editing, directing—and I found a lot of power in bringing these elements together when thinking about a story and who was telling it.”

Working on North of 60 also marked the first time she’d ever seen Indigenous screenwriters telling stories from their own perspectives. “I realized I wanted to tell stories that were community-centred and community-driven, and when my path went in the more academic direction I knew I wanted to integrate storytelling into my work.”

The Kenney Dam

Building on that experience, her master’s work included information about community-based Indigenous filmmakers and the importance of place. “At that point, Indigenous people hadn’t had the opportunity to tell our own stories yet… now, there are incredible Indigenous filmmakers making major inroads into film and television.”

She then augmented her UVic degrees with a year of film studies at the University of Washington’s Native Voices documentary film program, which led to her first short film, Travels Across the Medicine Line, about how the Canada/US border bisected the Indigenous nations who lived along it. She continued to integrate film, video and visual approaches while pursuing her PhD in Community and Regional Planning at the University of British Columbia.

Her PhD cohort included a colleague and now good friend, Jessica Hallenbeck, who ended up starting the documentary film company Lantern Productions, with whom Patrick has spent a decade producing Indigenous-focused, client-driven videos as well as three short films for Knowledge Network. Combined, all that experience has led her back to Nechako. Creating the film was a five-year process to tell a story 70 years in the making—that she first explored as a UVic undergrad.

Fighting the notion of deficit

While the story of Nechako is personal to her, it’s also universal in the environmental and legal struggles it represents. “We’re doing this for everybody, because we all impact each other,” she says. “The whole idea is a holistic perspective of interconnectedness—that’s the message most First Nations are trying to convey—and I feel like we’re contributing to that.”

But Patrick also feels it’s about telling a familiar story in a different way. “This is the kind of health research I challenge in my day-to-day life, that deficit approach where it’s about community or individual dysfunction. Traditionally, it’s about showing negative health statistics and how sick everybody is compared to the rest of the population—but the fact is our community has a lot of strengths and there’s a reason we’re still here.”

Ultimately, she feels Nechako challenges negative ideas and stereotypes about Indigenous people that still endure in Canadian society. “I actually see a whole movement towards self-determination and self-governance,” she says. “There’s so much to learn from our history and from what we’re continuing to do… amplifying that message is how we can move forward. It’s how we’ll survive what’s coming.”

Nechako is currently playing at film festivals across Canada, including the opening night of Toronto’s Planet in Focus environmental film fest (where Nechako won the Mark Haslam Award), Vancouver’s DOXA fest and an in-person screening at UVic’s Cinecenta in November 2025. Patrick is heartened by audience reactions to Nechako.

“It’s had an excellent reception,” she says. “Especially from people who don’t know anything about this story. It’s been really affirming to discover that this is a story people want to know more about and are motivated to do something about.”

While she has ideas for other documentaries (including one possibly involving Metchosin’s William Head Institution), the experience of making Nechako has also offered Patrick the chance to reflect on her own personal journey.

“A few months back I found an article that had been written 30 years ago for UVic’s Ring [newspaper] about my co-op experience, and it said I wanted to be a film director,” she laughs. “It might have taken a while, but I did finally direct a feature-length film—so, you know, sometimes our dreams take a little bit longer to realize!”

The Nechako River as seen in the film

2025 ONC ArtScience Fellow debuts exhibit

by | Sep 5, 2025 | Award, climate, Graduate, Visual Arts

When Parvin Hasani applied for the 2025 ArtScience Fellowship with Ocean Networks Canada — the sixth Fine Arts graduate student to hold this position — she proposed exploring the extreme ecosystems of deep-sea hydrothermal vents via her sculptural practice. Now, after spending the summer in conversation with ONC researchers and constructing her own conceptual pieces, she’s ready to debut her exhibit, Tides of Memory.

“Initially, I imagined creating pieces inspired by vent chimneys, but the work shifted toward a more layered connection,” Parvin explains. “I began linking the vents not only to geology but also to the deep mind — tracing parallels between flows of iron, water, and the ways memory forms and erodes.”

Ultimately, she came away with a deeper sense of how scientific ways of seeing the deep ocean could intersect with artistic imagination. “Hydrothermal vents revealed themselves as natural infrastructures — hidden, porous networks where flows of minerals and water carry echoes of memory across deep time,” she says.

Tides of Memory runs September 8-12 at the Audain Gallery in UVic’s Visual Arts building, with a public talk at 5pm Tuesday, September 9 in Visual Arts room A146.

Combining art with science

Thanks to ONC’s oceanographic research on the Endeavour Hydrothermal Vent Field — an active, mineral-rich environment on the deep-sea Juan de Fuca Ridge — Parvin was able to create a visual interpretation of these hidden systems that was grounded in her MFA sculptural practice.

“My graduate work explored water infrastructures, which shaped the way I began to think about the ocean and hydrothermal vents as kinds of natural infrastructure,” she says. “The materials and the techniques I used — plaster, brass in scagliola and electro-etching — allowed me to transform scientific information into installations and sculptures.”

Using these creative processes, she was then able to echo mineral growth and erosion. “These pieces translate data about vent fields into installations and sculptures that act as bodily archives of memory and time.”

The surprise for the artist was finding how deeply the notion of hidden networks resonates — “whether in the porous chimneys of hydrothermal vents or in the ways we imagine memory,” she says. “Talking with scientists, I felt we were tracing the same invisible lines from different worlds.”

Hear from the artist

As well as learning about her process and getting a guided tour, audiences at the public talk will learn more about the artistic and scientific concepts behind the exhibit.

“I’ll share how Tides of Memory reimagines hydrothermal vents through installations and sculptures — as bodily archives where geological processes, iron, and water become metaphors for memory and survival across deep time,” she says.

The call for applications for the 2026 ArtScience Fellowship will go out in Fall 2025. Read about our previous Fine Arts graduate student ONC artistic residencies: Megan Harton, Neil Griffin, Colin Malloy, Dennis Gupa and Colton Hash.

One-day art action supports Indigenous sovereignty

by | Jul 15, 2025 | Alumni, climate, Events, Faculty, indigenous, Research, Visual Arts

First it was taking an orchestra onto the surface of a glacier, then it was putting a glittering digital projection into the background of a Metallica video. Now, two University of Victoria art professors are using their unique creative talents to join over 100 people working to present an extraordinary day of art on the land — but they are not seeking an audience.

On July 24, Department of Visual Arts professors Paul Walde and Kelly Richardson will join Ma’amtagila artist Makwala-Rande Cook to present Ax’nakwala (Part 1) at the unpopulated traditional village site of Hiladi on the east coast of Vancouver Island. Translating as “growing endlessly in relation with the living planet,” Ax’nakwala will offer open-air performances and media installations to draw attention to the urgent need to save precious old-growth forest and return unceded lands to Indigenous stewardship.

If a tree sings in the forest 

The day begins with Paul Walde’s Forestorium, a new full-length, site-specific operatic performance addressing the primary forests of Vancouver Island and the challenges they face. Featuring 17 vocalists, 18 instrumentalists and a crew of 20 (including 5 camera operators and 3 audio recorders), Forestorium echoes Walde’s 2013 Requiem For A Glacier in both its creative audacity and environmental concerns.

“Forestorium will help raise awareness of the complexity of these old-growth forest ecosystems, which continue to be clearcut at an alarming rate,” says Walde. “From my work on Requiem I believe that art, because of its non-oppositional and experiential nature, can reach audiences and engage the media in different ways than science and traditional activism.”

After sunset, Kelly Richardson will project her large-scale video installation Origin Stories — famously used in the 2023 Metallica  video 72 Seasons and at galleries worldwide, but never before in BC — which uses a cosmic field of shimmering crystalline forms to visualize our sixth mass-extinction crisis, partially fueled by ongoing resource extraction in Ma’amtagila territory.

“For many years I’ve used art to encourage the public to ask urgent, crucial questions about what it is that we truly value as a species,” says Richardson. “Through this work, I try to speak with everyone, not just those who understand contemporary art or frequent galleries. Art can be a powerful tool to reach the whole of who we are as a species, connecting the head with the heart and inspire much-needed action.”

Makwala-Rande Cook, Land Claim

Former Audain Professor & event co-organizer dances

The day will also feature two performances by artist, hereditary chief and former UVic Audain Professor Makwala-Rande Cook. In the world premiere of Dance of the Fungi Kingdom: A Mycelial Odyssey in Ma’amtagila Territory, Cook will introduce a Kwakwaka’wakw dance for these fungal beings. He and dancers will then perform the Maʻamtagilaʻs origin story, the Dance of the Seagull, while covered with the sparkling imagery of Richardson’s Origin Stories. This cross-cultural collaboration calls for united work to protect all species — including humans — and their homes.

All this will be filmed and recorded for future gallery and theatrical exhibitions, including a possible Fall 2025 presentation in Victoria.

Ax’nakwala is presented by Hase’ — a collective comprised of Cook, Richardson and Walde along with artist and current UVic Audain Professor Lindsay Delaronde and curator Stephanie Smith — in partnership with the Awi’nakola Foundation and at the invitation of Ma’amtagila leaders. Ax’nakwala (Part 1) supports Ma’amtagila efforts to regain sovereignty of their territories under Crown law, stop ecologically harmful practices on their lands, and enact a conservation vision to care for both land and people.

The performances are part of the fifth annual Tree of Life Gathering, facilitated by the Awi’nakola Foundation in partnership with Indigenous Nations. At the invitation of the Ma’amtagila, the 2025 Tree of Life gathering will take place at their traditional village site of Hiladi, and will see Kwakwaka’wakw knowledge keepers, artists, scientists, students, NGO representatives, policy makers and other community members gather to build relationships, share knowledge, and seek paths to larger-scale action.