Nurtured Inspirations

(she/her/settler) is a geo-poet, environmental artist and geographer. For almost twenty years she has engaged children and adults of all ages in land-based engagements, community-based research and ecological learning through the arts, by partnering with a range of schools, institutions, universities, and community organizations. The lead author of the two-volume Art of Land-Based Early Learning, and lead writer of Learning the Land: Creative Community Engagements, she has facilitated workshops, supported study groups, and given talks across Ontario for educators, parents and organizations. She has provided art workshops in schools and through after school and summer programs since 2002, for several years she led and mentored a team of artists-in-residents/atelieristas in the Rainbow District School Board, and has deepened her work in ecological research with children through her collaboration with Early Years Collaborations (founded by Sharon Speir). Co-authored articles with Sharon Speir and Julie Kelly have appeared in Innovations in Early Education, and the Journal of Childhood Studies, profiling water pathway research with children. Her environmental poetry has been published in numerous literary magazines, including The Capilano Review, Arc Poetry Magazine and Empty Mirror among others. She is currently working on a full length collection of poetry titled Interview with a River through funding from the Canada Council for the Arts, and a durational textile installation project that confronts the intersecting ‘quiet violences’ of environmental change and gender violence. She holds an M.A. in Interdisciplinary Studies (Laurentian), a Certificate in Creative Writing (Humber) and a PhD-ABD (Queen’s U). She is based on Mnidoo Mnising (Manitoulin Island) in northeastern Ontario.