HazNet’s ‘EMERGENCE’ program is a collaborative initiative that brings together experienced writers and emerging Indigenous and immigrant writers and artists to create awareness about disasters and climate resilience. The program focuses on creating mentorship opportunities and a platform for supporting underrepresented voices in disaster resilience and climate adaptation action, such as youth in foster care and youth from remote reserves.

EMERGENCE was created in partnership with the Tillikum Lens Program, Preparing Our Home programs and schools and youth programs across the country.

Meet some of the EMERGENCE writers, artists and youth leaders:

My name is Cheyenne Cockerill. I was born on April 30th, 2002 in Manitoba. In addition to drawing, I also like to paint, play the tuba and guitar, go bike riding, and track. I hope to continue to grow as a person and an artist.

My name is Ashiele Thomas, I come from Ahousaht Nation, and a large family. I began doing art when I was about four years old. I slowly started off my artistic skills by painting with acrylic and water colours. I then started wood carving when I was 16. One of my largest Art Projects was a 25’ totem pole that took me three months to finish. I would most definitely say Art has a huge impact on my life, and describes my personality in many different ways that I cannot. I am most passionate about art, and I enjoy doing it.

My name is Kelsey Nelson. I am from Lil’wat Nation. I live is in British Colombia just outside of a small town in Mount Currie on Lillooet Lake Road. I am currently upgrading for college for Veterinarian technology at Ts’zil Learning Centre. I have three younger brothers, one of them is my twin brother, one just recently been born on the 5th of September 2017. The interesting thing is that I live on a ranch with my grandmother, father, auntie, cousin, and my twin brother, we have multiple livestock on the farm: chickens, horses, cows, cats, and dogs. My horses are all mostly barrel horses, so far we have six in our corral, three are for barrels, one is a yearling, and the other two is like a companion horse when we go to rodeos far away. Their names are Macho (my horse), Rocco, Slim, Baba, Marilyn, and Roxanne. I enjoy riding my horse, watching YouTube videos, listening to music, learning about my culture, and rodeos.

Explore content from EMERGENCE:

Cover shot for the Floods issue by Tressa Peters, a youth from Lil’wat Nation.

Tressa’s school, the Xetólacw Community School, is located in the Xetólacw Village site, in the central portion of Mount Currie Indian Reserve No. 6, Lílwat’s largest reserve. The village is a planned community that was developed/relocated to the higher ground in the 1980s in response to flooding concerns. Check out the issue here: http://haznet.ca/haznet-magazine-spring-2019-issue/

 

Cover photo by Brooke Tanner of the Osoyoos Indian Band for the Indigenous Issue.

Brooke was a participant of the Tillikum Lens program (www.tillikumlens.com) that enables the Indigenous youth to tell their stories through photography and digital storytelling. The Indigenous Issue is available here: http://haznet.ca/fall-2016-vol-8-no-2/

 

The Portal by Nina Chetvertneva

The illustration is included as part of the print version of the feature article “Time Capsule: A message to future emergency managers, resilience practitioners, and disaster risk reduction scholars”, the Future issue: http://haznet.ca/haznet-magazine-spring-2020-issue/

 

“Queen of the Sea”, on being expressive without speaking by Allaura Langford, Curve Lake First Nation for HazNet

This illustration was featured in interview with Bob McDonald: http://haznet.ca/communicating-climate-change-an-interview-with-bob-mcdonald-canadas-chief-science-correspondent/

Cover image for Innovation Issue by Carime Quezada, Ashiele Thomas, and Lilia Yumagulova.

The cover of Innovation Issue is a collaboration between Carime Quezada (Vancouver-based Mexican-Canadian artist and HazNet’s layout designer/illustrator), Ashiele Thomas (a young artist from Ahousaht First Nation), and Lilia Yumagulova (a Bashkir woman and the Editor for HazNet). The image was produced as part of HazNet’s EMERGENCE program which provides support and a platform to unheard voices in the field of disaster risk reduction and risk communication. As the Innovation issue was being finalized, Ashiele’s remote island community declared a state of emergency over threats to its drinking and fire-suppression water supply. The full issue is available here: http://haznet.ca/haznet-magazine-fall-2018-issue/

Featured illustration: a wolf by Cheyenne Cockerill, a 16-year old youth from Lockport, Manitoba for HazNet with a graph of observed climate warming, globally and within Canada, from 1950 to 2014 (from Environment and Climate Change Canada, 2016). Produced by Lilia Yumagulova; layout by Carime Quezada. Read the full article here: http://haznet.ca/adapting-to-the-changing-risk-of-climate-hazards/