Working on the Water: Industrial Realism in West Coast Poetry

Abstract

In this paper I am suggesting that work poetry and ecopoetry are not only closely related, but in fact they are two facets of the same literary gesture. I am calling this double genre a "Janus-poetics," that is, a single figure with two countenances. This paper provides a brief introduction to this thesis, by discussing the theories of Tom Wayman, Jonathan Skinner, and Marcella Durand. This paper is the first stage of a larger project on work poetry and ecopoetry; it does not yet address the West Coast poetry mentioned in the title.

Bio

Kelly Shepherd's second full-length poetry collection, Insomnia Bird: Edmonton Poems (Thistledown Press, 2018) won the 2019 Robert Kroetsch City of Edmonton Book Prize, and was shortlisted for the 2019 Stephan G. Stephansson Award for Poetry. Kelly has written seven chapbooks, and is the poetry editor for the environmental philosophy journal The Trumpeter. Originally from Smithers, British Columbia, Kelly lives and teaches on Treaty 6 Territory, in Edmonton.

Applying Systems Thinking to Storytelling to Address Polarization During Energy Transition

Abstract

The energy transition has been met with unrest and skepticism. This paper will argue that storytellers exploring energy narratives can more consciously approach this topic by applying systems thinking to their work. In doing so, the storyteller may become uniquely positioned to not only provoke emotion, but to inspire contemplation. Because systems thinking requires a shift away from linearity, resulting in changed story patterns, the storyteller's intention would need to shift towards a more exploratory mindset, thereby relinquishing the desire to promote an agenda.

Bio

Emma is a writer based out of Calgary, Alberta. She is deeply interested in emerging energy narratives and is focused on exploring the relationship between energy literacy and storytelling. She believes that stories are a powerful tool in helping us tackle important issues with curiosity and empathy.

With a BA in History and Creative Writing from the University of Calgary, Emma is an experienced researcher and energy communications specialist. Over the years, Emma has woven together a myriad of skills, including research, interviewing, creative writing and illustration to create compelling stories that depict universal, human experiences. 

Website: emmagammans.com

Duck, Duck, Goose: Waterfowl, Workers, and "Founding Fathers" (in a Tailings Pond)

Abstract

This paper, part of a broader study of texts written by oil workers, experiments with grouping three texts around their use of ducks, geese, and tailings ponds as central metaphors. In Northland Trails, "father of the tar sands" S.C. Ells uses geese to represent his own freedom, belonging, and mastery in the Athabasca region. Following the 2008 drowning of 1600 ducks in a Syncrude tailings pond, however, Kate Beaton represents ducks and workers together as exploited and endangered in her 2014 webcomic Ducks. In her 2019 poetry collection Boom Time, Lindsay Bird also compares ducks and geese with oil workers. She borrows a technique from Beaton's other comics to imagine "founding fathers (in a mall)"—that is, to juxtapose the histories of modernizing and colonial heroes with the dystopian present, the unfolding bust, and an uncertain future.

Bio

Melanie Dennis Unrau respectfully acknowledges the original caretakers of the land known as Treaty 1/Winnipeg, where she lives as a visitor of mixed European ancestry on the traditional territory of the Anishinaabeg, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dakota, and Dene peoples and the homeland of the Métis Nation. Melanie is a SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. She is the author of Happiness Threads: The Unborn Poems (The Muses' Company, 2013), a co-editor of Seriality and Texts for Young People: The Compulsion to Repeat (Palgrave, 2014), and a co-editor of The Goose: A Journal of Arts, Environment, and Culture in Canada.

Telling stories as belief

Abstract

“That was the frustrating [part of the process] …. I was so naïve. I thought, we would go tell our story and everyone would believe us, and we’d get something done” (JA 1920).

This quote is taken from an interview with a group of people during my fieldwork in the spring of 2019. In early 2000 they formed a group to bring concerns about a toxic gas leaking from a nearby battery site (where oil is separated from gas and water) to the province and became increasingly frustrated. They told their stories but struggled to create institutional change, in part because the severity of their concerns was not accepted as fact. 

I draw on critical place inquiry of Tuck and McKenzie (2015) as a geographic craft of gathering data and telling stories about the place of oil. I gathered information about how oil happens in Manitoba through interviews with people engaged in oil, document analysis of information produced, and encounters with physical infrastructure. I also shared my findings in public settings and gathered feedback from the audience. This paper details the results of this method and suggest settler colonial futurity forecloses even settler life in geographies of oil.

Bio

I am Mya J Wheeler, a Canadian-American settler born in southern Colorado but I live and work in Winnipeg, Manitoba. As a settler, I work to understand my role in affecting change towards justice and reconciliation, particularly with the people of Treaty 1 and the homeland of the Metis nation, which is where I have lived and worked for more than 13 years. I am also a co-parent of two small children who keep me honest and busy.