Say the Names...

Al Purdy wrote a wonderful poem called "Say the names say the names" which celebrates the names of Canadian rivers - Tulameen, Kleena Kleene, Similkameen, Nahanni, Kluane and on and on in a celebratory song.

Enbridge is planning to build a dual pipeline that will carry bitumen and condensate across hundreds of waterways between Edmonton and Kitimat. Some of these waterways are rivers like the Parsnip (or what's left of it), the Nechako, the Morice and others are smaller creeks whose names are often known only to the folks who live along their banks or who fish in their shadows or who bend to wash or drink as they cross paths.

I want to collect the names of these rivers and creeks, to collect your stories, your poems, your songs so we can collectively give voice to the land living under the line Enbridge plans to draw.

People have also sent me copies of their presentations to the community oral presentations. If you'd like to add your voice, email me (sheila.peters900@gmail.com) your stories and I'll post them for you. The copyright remains with you.

All the best.
Sheila Peters

Sunday, September 4, 2011

Buttercup has been found

I got some wonderful news last week from Hilary - after several heroic attempts, Buttercup, our canoe, and Hilary's kayak have been found and brought back from the Crooked River (see Crooked River Hindsight, June 15).  Here's Hilary's description:

The canoe was totally full of water and hidden in the vegetation so we could only see the water and white ends! No, we didn’t get my camera or paddle but got well-fermented lunch bag! The kayak was upside down on the bottom, a fair bit downstream of that tree which was across the river. We found it with probes and were walking waist deep in the river. It was a very successful afternoon. We went with 1 canoe and 2 kayaks then one guy paddled your canoe down from there and we towed my kayak. We took out at the 200 rd which still took us over 1 hour of paddling from the capsize.


We are planning a trip back to Summit Lake to celebrate and bring Buttercup home - maybe even in time to travel up the Fulton River to see returning sockeye...thanks, Hilary.
Posted by at
Labels: , , ,

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)