Refugia: Part 2

Wayne Mercier and Alyssa Semczyszyn of Thrums, playing spinning wheel generated electronic music. Photo by Trevor Gear

The Gabriola Arts and Heritage Centre was abuzz the weekend of November 6-8 as the Gabriola Island Fibreshed Working Group hosted the second iteration of Refugia, a multidisciplinary event exploring fibre, music, and storytelling. Ursula LeGuin’s essay on the Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction set the theme for the event – suggesting that civilization was founded on the making of baskets and bags with which to hold gathered food, and that the carrier bag contains the stories of our collective knowledge.

Sharon Kallis, lead artist, helps one of the participants get started on the CATG. Photo by Martin Gisborne

Last year’s Refugia came about after our Fibreshed pod led a community visioning session as part of the Gabriola 2050 planning process. Based on Amy Twigger Holroyd’s Fashion Fictions, one of the ideas that came out of the fictional world creating process was how important rope is to do so many things, and what would we do for rope in a future scenario where our island is cut off from imported goods. The first Refugia, with lead artist Barbara Adler from The Only Animal theatre company, centred around the making of cordage – string or twine twisted by hand using plant or animal fibres, and a precursor to rope.

Photo by Martin Gisborne

Photo by Mars on the Harp

This year we went full on into rope making, using torn cotton strips from donated used bedsheets, twisting them into strong hanks of rope or braiding them into thick multi-strand cords. We were led by artist and author Sharon Kallis from Earthand Gleaners, gathering around Sharon’s invention: the Community Anchor and Tension Gauge (CATG). The CATG is a very thick handmade rope suspended from the ceiling, tied to a bucket full of water surrounded by stones to stabilize it. We tied on to the CATG, using it to provide the necessary tension to make a sturdy braid, noticing how the rope was much more stable as the number of people in the circle increased – a good metaphor!

The Community Anchor and Tension Gauge. Photo by Martin Gisborne

Pod member Yarrow Koontz watches Sharon use the "rope machine".

By the end of the second day we had braided enough material to begin construction of a carrier bag. Very much a collaborative effort, we sewed the braids into flat rounds, which were then joined together to form a vessel. More braids were sewn to form a lid, and a shoulder strap, and the bag was finished an hour before we had to pack up and go!

Photo by Mars on the Harp

Twisting and braiding and sewing was not all that was going on. On the walls of the hall was an installation by Tawny Maclachlan Capon. Titled Earth Quilt, panels of pocketed white silk cloth held fragments of the Gabriola landscape: twigs, moss, feathers, seed pods, dried leaves, pebbles and tufts of wool. This elegant, shimmering expanse was faced with an array of Maclachlan Capon’s small close-up photographs of the shores and forests of Gabriola, creating an ephemeral sense of refuge.

Artist Tawny Maclachlan Capon with Earth Quilt. Photo by Martin Gisborne

Pod member Christi York listens to Whispered Field Notes, created by Laura Cameron and her Queen's University Geography Fieldwork class. Photo by Heather Cameron

There were guest speakers: Farmer Graham Bradley on food security; philosopher Nola Semczyszyn on the aesthetics of care; and artist Christi York on Flax Arcana, her installation using Gabriola-grown flax. There was music (and sonic perambulations): David Gowman playing his hand-carved fu-horn, Mars on the Harp singing and playing her harp, while the strings of another harp were woven with sound altering materials; Gabriola Microsynth Orchestra, playing their tiny electronic instruments: and Loomcore icons Thrums. Tucked into the mix was Whispered Field Notes, a video of an exhibition at the Queen’s University Art and Media Lab featuring the work of Laura Cameron’s geography students, and a basket woven from Gabriola cattail fibre.

David Gowman playing his hand-carved fuhorn, behind the CATG. Photo by Sharon Kravitz

Mars on the Harp and Gabriola Microsynth Orchestra. Photos by Sharon Kravitz

Susan Yates told us stories as we braided, and David Bodaly, Snuneymeux elder and knowledge keeper officially opened the event.

The finished Carrier Bag, created by many hands from the donated used bedsheets and curtains of the community. It will have a permanent home at the Gabriola branch of the Vancouver Island Regional Library.

What is a Refugia? 

I first came across the idea of refugium in artist Rachael Matthews' book Rag Manifesto. She describes it as follows and then asks the most interesting question: "What if our creative practise is a form of refuge?" In biology, a refugium (plural = refugia) is a reservoir of sorts—a space, often isolated, that at once protects and nurtures, shelters and cultivates. A refugium is a sign that something has gone wrong. Sometimes it’s used to describe a pocket of habitat that allows an endangered species to endure and even recover. In the context of our changing planet, refugia might be found in places where species have migrated to escape evolving conditions in their original range or a space within that range that, for whatever reason, has been shielded from change. ‘Refugium’ is related but not the same as ‘refuge,’ Refugia are not utopias. They’re not necessarily reliably safe. They’re almost by definition temporary. They’re not a place to hide for very long; they’re a place where work gets done. Against a backdrop of political extremes and climate emergency, we seek a pocket of time and space to find solace and renewal in our creative practise.