Water acts and poetry
Water is a precious necessity that shapes and sustains our lives, yet current and potential watershed problems are a serious challenge on PEI and globally. The Island is the only Canadian province to rely solely on groundwater for drinking water. To ensure the continual sustainability and potability of our water, province-wide hearings are currently being held for the Water Act.
In a timely visit to PEI, Dr. Rita Wong—professor, watershed researcher, activist, and poet—will deliver the inaugural UPEI Don Mazer Arts and Science Lecture February 4 at 7:00 pm in the Alex H. MacKinnon Auditorium, room 242, of UPEI’s Don and Marion McDougall.
Dr. Wong’s talk, entitled “Humble Autonomy: Renewing Culture through Participatory Water Ethics,” will focus on Vancouver, with ample time afterward for the audience to discuss parallels with PEI. A reception with refreshments will follow.
In addition to research presentations on watershed issues, Dr. Wong uses poetry to reflect on human relations with water. Her poetry book Undercurrent reminds humanity that “we are water bodies,” and that we need to honour this reality.
UPEI is also honoured to to be host Dr. Wong on February 5 at 7:30 pm for a public reading of her poetry, in the Dawson Lounge (Room 520) in SDU Main Building. The reading is sponsored by the UPEI faculties of Arts and Science, with funding from the Canada Council for the Arts.
Dr. Wong grew up in Calgary. She is currently an associate professor in Critical and Cultural Studies at Emily Carr University in Vancouver. Living and working in Vancouver, she became interested in water ethics because she learned how many salmon streams have been buried and lost to urban development. She lives on the path of a buried salmon stream that she and her neighbours aim to reconnect with and bring back to memory and daylight.
In the earlier part of her career, she was known for her work in Asian Canadian studies and her inter-disciplinary research. For this work, Dr. Wong received a doctoral fellowship from the Social Sciences and Humanity Research Council of Canada. As her focus has shifted more on water issues as a cultural nexus, she has also received a major SSHRC research-creation grant for this collaborative work with filmmaker Dorothy Christian.
She has won the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize and the Asian Canadian Writer’s Workshop Emerging Writer Award, and is renowned for examining relationships among contemporary poetics, social justice, ecology, and decolonization.
Dr. Wong’s water talk and poetry reading come at a vital time for development of PEI’s understanding of water ethics and sustainability. As many Islanders work to modernize our water laws, those who want to gain new perspectives on water’s value will have the opportunity to listen to one of Canada’s important investigators of participatory water ethics and watershed issues.
The UPEI Don Mazer Arts and Science Lecture is presented by the UPEI faculties of Arts and Science.
