Pacific Opera Victoria's Civic Engagement Artist Residency, Nicole Mandryk, the Yarrow Collective, Karen White, Zoe Dickinson, Library volunteers, Bruce Parisian Library, Victoria Native Friendship Centre
Friday
Jun 23, 2023
5:00pm
Saturday
Jun 24, 2023
11:00am
Sunday
Jun 25, 2023
11:00am
Monday
Jun 26, 2023
5:00pm
Venue Various
Cost Free
Join us for a peaceful stroll through some of Victoria’s most vibrant parks.
This year at Voices in Nature you can choose your own adventure! There is a designated trail walk to see all of the artists and installations.
Tours will occur every 15 minutes for the first hour and half of the event. If you wish to be sure to see every performance, this is the best way. Tours will conclude after this period, and the performances will become more free form and spontaneous.
Please refer to the map for the Host Station. All walking tours will depart from this site. If you are joining us for the intermittent second hour, please begin your tour where you wish and in the order that suits you.
Please share your feedback with our host on site on your way out. We hope you enjoy this year’s Voices In Nature
As you explore the stunning gardens, look out for the four members of Pacific Opera Victoria’sCivic Engagement Artist Residencyand guest artists Zoe Dickinson, Nicole Mandryk, The Community Action & Learning Team, Bruce Parisian Library from the VNFC,and Yarrow Collective.
Food on Saturday will be provided by Greekngo, and food on Sunday will be provided by Cup-a-Roni Truck.
June 23 | 5-7 PM
June 24 | 11 AM – 1 PM
June 25 | 11 AM – 1 PM
June 26 | 5-7 PM
Tour Schedule
Please note: These tours are self guided, so you will not be necessarily accompanied by opera staff or volunteers. We highly recommend you take a photo of the map at the Host Station or refer to the map above with a smartphone.
Friday June 23rd and Monday June 26th
5:00
5:15
5:30
5:45
6:00
6:15
Spontaneous performances after the 6:15 tour goes out.
Saturday June 24 and Sunday June 25th
11:00
11:15
11:30
11:45
12:00 pm
12:15
Spontaneous performances after the 12:15 tour goes out.
Transportation and Parking: Parking available on site. To see a full site map with parking and washrooms marked,click here.
Artists
Civic Engagement Artist Residency | Resident Citizen Artists of 2022|23
Through artist-led learning, fostering creativity, and cultivating community, our artists bring music to life in the third year of theCivic Engagement Artist Residency.
Nicole Mandryk is of Anishinaabe, Irish and Ukrainian descentHer traditional Anishinaabe name is Niibinobinesiik, which translates to summer thunderbird and comes from the loon. She does not yet know her clan or the First Nation her family descends from.
Nicole has been working to reclaim her family’s identity by connecting to her culture, building relationships and coming to understand indigeneity outside colonial understandings. Nicole’s maternal great grandmother, Marie Evelyn Bigelowe had previously made attempts to connect back to community and regain her status but was denied by Indian Affairs. Marie Evelyn’s mother and Nicole’s great great grandmother Annie Laforce, lost her status when she married Jeremiah Bigelowe. Annie parents Paul Laforce (Mohawk from Kanesatake) and Marie Suzanne Story (Anishinaabe/ Algonquin) were married in Oka in 1825.
Her father’s side are Ukrainian. They eventually came to Canada and settled in Treaty 1 territory on the homelands of the Metis, Cree and Anishinaabe people, now known as Winnipeg.
Nicole and her sister were born and raised on the on the traditional territory of the Lekwungen, Esquimalt, and WSANEC nations. She is a grateful guest on these territories and raises her hands to the caretakers of the land, skies and waters.
Nicole is completing her Masters of Fine Arts at the University of Victoria. Currently she is interested in how dream methodology and stories can inform the creation of physical installations. Further, Nicole has been engaged in community practices through composing. Her songs have been sung by “The Wildflowers”, “ ANSWER” and the Lafayette String Quartet for the project “ B.K Weigel/Lafayette String Quartet Legacy Project”. She is also an emerging beader. Nicole’s mentors are Lindsay Delaronde (Mohawk), Jessica Gokey (Anishinaabe) and Lynette La Fontaine ( Metis). Her work has been featured in two shows at the Legacy Art gallery “On Beaded Ground” (2021) , Qw’an’qw’anakwal: To Meet Together (2021) and Open Space gallery “Queer Futurities” ( 2022).
(photo credit: Amanda La Liberte, 2020)
Yarrow Collective | Multidisciplinary Artists
Every plant has a story… if we can slow down and listen. Unsettle inherited notions of what belongs and what is out of place by exploring your relationship to invasive plants and the role you play in stewarding an ecosystem.
This collaboration between Yarrow Collective and Elder Johnny Aitken asks you to consider: what does it mean to heal the land? Learn more about Yarrow Collective’s Garden of Stories: yarrowcollective.ca/gardenofstories
Yarrow Collective are artists, community activators, backyard gardeners, and a certified bee steward. We create participatory art installations that raise awareness of native pollinator plants and wild bees.
Yarrow Collective’s work has been featured at Pacific Opera Victoria’s Voices in Nature, SKAMpede Performance Festival, FringeKids, Fairfield Fall Fair, Play Streets, The City of Victoria’s Tree Appreciation Day, and the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria’s Family Sunday. Learn more about us atwww.yarrowcollective.ca and follow us on Instagram @yarrowcollective_
We pay our respects to the traditional keepers of this land, the lək̓ʷəŋən-speaking people, now known as the Songhees and Esquimalt Nations. The loss of bee and plant habitat in this territory are a direct result of colonization and stolen land.
Karen Lee White | Author
Karen Karen Lee White is Northern Salish, Tuscarora, Chippewa and Scots from Vancouver Island, British Columbia. Adopted into the Daklaweidi Wolf Clan of the Interior Tlingit/Tagish people on whose land her first novel The Silence (2018 Exile Editions) unfolds; in 2018. The Silence went into a second printing within six weeks of release. In 2018 Karen was commissioned by the Banff for Fables for the 21st Century, and in 2017 she was awarded an Indigenous Art Award for Writing by the Hnatyshyn Foundation. Her work has appeared in Exile Editions That Damned Beaver anthology, Bawajigaan anthology, EXILE/EQ Magazine, Impact: Colonialism in Canada, and other literary journals. A playwright, she has been commissioned by multiple theatres in Vancouver and Victoria.
Nicole Mandryk is of Anishinaabe, Irish and Ukrainian descentHer traditional Anishinaabe name is Niibinobinesiik, which translates to summer thunderbird and comes from the loon. She does not yet know her clan or the First Nation her family descends from.
Karen