2003 Lecture - Arts Everywhere

November 1, 2003 marked the inaugural Guelph Lecture—On Being Canadian. The keynote lecture was delivered by Severn Cullis-Suzuki, who at the young age of 23 had already presented at the Earth Summit, received an award from the United Nations, written a book, created a TV show, and graduated from Yale University. The literary guest was Guelph’s own* Thomas King, who later that month would deliver the Massey Lecture, and the performance portion of the program was a set of dance pieces from The Young Turban Professionals with Esmeralda Enrique.

*As of 1995…

View the 2003 Program PDF

Essays

An Opinion—On Being Canadian

Originally Published November, 2003

by Joy S. Roberts, Ph.D.

Lately, I’ve been thinking about what it means to he Canadian. It’s not just that the topic has come up…

All Essays

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Highlights

Severn Cullis-Suzuki grew up in Vancouver and has been active in environmental and social justice work since Kindergarten. At age 9, she and some friends started the Environmental Children’s Organization (ECO). They were successful in many local environmental projects, and raised enough money to travel to 1992’s Rio Earth Summit. While there, 12-year-old Severn was invited to address a Plenary Session where she gave a powerful speech to the political representatives.

In 1993, Cullis-Suzuki received the UN Environment Program’s Global 500 Award at a ceremony in Beijing, China. Now 23, Cullis-Suzuki often speaks to schools, corporations, conferences, and international meetings. She is especially passionate about encouraging young people to speak out for their future.

An accomplished television host and presenter, she has participated in many programs in Canada, the U.S., and Britain — most recently as the host of Suzuki’s NatureQuest, a children’s television series, aired around the world on Discovery Channel. She has written numerous articles and has published a book, Tell the World (Doubleday).

The First Nations people of the West coast have been a major influence on Severn since she was small. She has worked with and learned from the First Nations peoples of British Columbia, Southeast Asia, and the Amazon. She has been honoured by three British Columbian Fist Nations: she was adopted into the Haida Nation and given the name Killthgula Gaayaa; she has been named Mah Nulth Athluk by the Nuchaanulth people; and is also an adopted member of the Heiltsuk Nation.

Sev loves kayaking, rafting, hiking, fishing and snowboarding. In 2000, she and five girlfriends celebrated the millennium by cycling across Canada in a campaign for clean air called Powershift 2000. In the summer of 2001 she worked at the remote Pinkaiti Research Station in the Xingu valley of the Brazilian Amazon, contributing to her recent B.Sc. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Yale University.

In the spring of 2002, Severn and some friends spearheaded an internet-based think-tank called The Skyfish Project. As a member of Kofi Allan’s Special Advisory Panel, she and members of the group brought their first project, a pledge called the Recognition of Responsibility, to the recent UN World Summit in Johannesburg in 2002. Their trip also was the subject of a documentary film that aired on CBC’s documentary series, The Nature of Things, in January 2003. The African adventure was followed up by a speaking tour of Japan in November, 2002. Earlier this year, Severn returned from hiking Nepal’s Annapurna Circuit with her mom, and spent the summer exploring her home province of British Columbia.

Thomas King, who is of Cherokee and Greek descent, is an award-winning novelist, short-story writer, scriptwriter and photographer. His most recent novel is Truth and Bright Water. His first novel, Medicine River, won several awards, including the runner-up for the 1991 Commonwealth Writers Prize, and was made into a television movie starring Graham Greene and Tom Jackson. Green Grass, Running Water, his second novel, was shortlisted for the Governor General’s Award and won the Canadian Authors Award for fiction. He has also written the detective story DreadfulWater Shows Up under the pseudonym Hartley GoodWeather.

He has written two acclaimed children’s books, A Coyote Columbus Story (Groundwood Books) and Coyote Sings to the Moon (Key Porter). His highly praised short story collection, One Good Story, That One, was a Canadian bestseller. He is author of, and performed in, The Dead Dog Café, on CBC Radio. Thomas King will present the highly esteemed Massey Lectures in November 2003. He is an Associate Professor of English at the University of Guelph.

The Young Turban Professionals: The Bhangra, a National Folk Dance of India, has its origins in the soils of the Northern state known as “Punjab.” It is believed that Bhangra, meaning “merriment,” existed in some form or another since the 14th or 15th Century, when farmers would bring home the grain, ready to celebrate a good harvest and to bring in the New Year. Traditional Bhangra is danced to the beat of a drum known as a “Dhol.” Bhangra is also part of the urban culture where it has recently invaded the pop scene.

The Young Turban Professionals’ repertoire includes traditional dance, complete with colourful costumes from Punjab, as well as modem interpretations in Bay Street suits!

Essays

An Opinion—On Being Canadian

Originally Published November, 2003

Highlights