Wild Bird Trust of BC Events

Events

The Maplewood Flats Conservation Area hosts a variety of walks and tours throughout the year. Check out our Zeffy page and Calendar below to see what events are coming up and register your spot!

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Past Events

recordings of our livestreamed events

Decolonizing Land-Based Learning and Bird Knowledge with Creators Garden. For our December Circle, we watched a captivating presentation by Creators Garden speakers: Joseph Pitawanakwat, Andrés Jiménez Monge and Junaid Shahzad Khan from Ontario. Creators Garden are leaders in decolonizing bird knowledge in Canada who help us deep dive on western science bird classification, western taxonomy of bird names, and how and where we bird. Did you know how the 'Canada Jay' name came about? Hear from Joseph Pitawanakwat about this and more! Maplewood Flats and Creators Garden have remarkable similarities with respect to their emphasis on land-based education, birds, native plants, and First Nations' language. In this 1.5 hour event we learn from their interdisciplinary approach to decolonizing birding while lifting up First Nation's sovereignty. We explore how Creators' Garden engages settlers in land-based learning and we explore similarities with Maplewood Flats. Video program: 0:00 Welcome Protocol with Les George, Tsleil-Waututh Nation Knowledge Keeper and Secretary of the Board of the Wild Bird Trust of BC 3:30 Background with Irwin Oostindie, VP, Wild Bird Trust of BC, sets the stage for today's discussion with some background. 8:00 Host introduction by Heléna Mauti (Trent University) - The role of land-based education to support Indigenous-led conservation, sovereignty and land back. 11:00 Speakers: Andrés Jiménez Monge, Junaid Shahzad Khan and Joseph Pitawanakwat of Creators Garden. 56:30 Cross-cultural conversation led by Heléna Mauti involving Creators Garden and Tsleil-Waututh and Wild Bird Trust members. This collection of monthly learning circles supports community learning and design of Maplewood Flats' place-based & land-based education pedagogy. Maplewood Flats is a platform for decolonizing work as we lift up Tsleil-Waututh knowledge and placebased redress. Through training and learning we aim to support settler accomplices and local First Nations working together for landback projects such as Maplewood Flats. Sponsored by the Real Estate Foundation of BC Produced by Voor Urban Labs for Wild Bird Trust of BC --- The Wild Bird Trust of British Columbia (WBT) is a non-profit society that manages the Conservation Area at Maplewood Flats in North Vancouver. Our mission is to provide wild birds with sanctuary through ecological protection and restoration, and support communities with education, culture, and reconciliation programs. We acknowledge that The Conservation Area at Maplewood Flats is situated within the traditional and unceded territory of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation (TWN). https://wildbirdtrust.org #maplewoodflats #decolonizingconservation #wildbirdsanctuary #CreatorsGarden #decolonizebirding #realestatefoundationofbc #refbc
Learning Circle #1: Decolonizing Land-Based Pedagogy at Maplewood Flats September 28, 2024, 1-5pm Through a place-based & land-based education pedagogy, we consider how education systems can promote praxis and actions where settler accomplices and local First Nations can support land back projects such as Maplewood Flats, and broader decolonizing work. Hear from Sarah Martz - Vice Principal of siʔáḿθɘt Tsleil-Waututh Nation; Heléna Mauti - Sessional Faculty of Indigenous Environmental Studies and Sciences at Trent University; Melissa West Morrison, ‘Namgis/Chinese food sovereignty worker; Karen Thomas, WBT President and Tsleil-Waututh archeologist; Irwin Oostindie - @maplewoodflats and Voor Urban Labs Director and Associate with SFU @humanitiesinstitute --- The Wild Bird Trust of British Columbia (WBT) is a non-profit society that manages the Conservation Area at Maplewood Flats in North Vancouver. Our mission is to provide wild birds with sanctuary through ecological protection and restoration, and support communities with education, culture, and reconciliation programs. We acknowledge that The Conservation Area at Maplewood Flats is situated within the traditional and unceded territory of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation (TWN). https://wildbirdtrust.org #maplewoodflats #decolonizingconservation #wildbirdsanctuary
Session 6 Roundtable: Decolonizing Birding Organizations Reconciliation And Redress In Conservation Highlighting models and plenary discussion from participants. *** Decolonizing Bird Knowledge Symposium Saturday, November 30th from 10:30am to 4:00pm PT Birding across Turtle Island is undergoing a long overdue moment of accountability and diversification, and this first-of-its-kind gathering heralds the future for birding. In this symposium, hear inspiring speakers from across Turtle Island on Indigenous Knowledge and decolonization of birding and bird knowledge. Through practical case studies from some rock star birders and theoretical sessions this was an inspiring day! At its heart, Indigenous Knowledge holders continue to confront the biases embedded in western science that dominates this space, reflecting its colonial roots. Together we want to go further and address land dispossession and other decolonizing birding issues. 1. Emerging culture shift in birding communities and efforts to decolonize, diversify, and implement ‘Two Eyed Seeing.’ 2. Lessons of tackling bird names and efforts at un-naming from the USA. 3. Amplify projects around building inclusivity and cultural safety. 4. Consider where we bird and First Nations’ land rights beneath our feet. How does UNDRIP impact birding? 5. Be inspired by what Indigenous Knowledge teaches us about biodiversity and birding. Why is the Wild Bird Trust of BC doing this work? Wild Bird Trust of BC has worked methodically for 7 years towards land back of the only wildlife sanctuary in Vancouver’s harbour. We now recognize that by creating this celebrated birding conservation area 30+ years ago we displaced Tsleil-Waututh Nations from land and waters they have stewarded for millennia. Today the Wild Bird Trust of BC is controlled by Tsleil-Waututh community members, marking the first time a conservation organisation has surrendered control to a local First Nation. Through public programs and our magazine ‘Wingspan,’ we educate the community and promote this practice. In 2022 we created a Decolonizing Ornithology Advisory committee including Melissa Hafting (Author, BC Birder Girl), Jeffrey Nichols (President RAVEN Trust), and Irwin Oostindie (WBT Board, Decolonization Planner). Our work proposes a disruption in birding practices here in British Columbia, and beyond, towards inclusive birding that reconsiders bird knowledge through an Indigenous lens. --- The Wild Bird Trust of British Columbia (WBT) is a non-profit society that manages the Conservation Area at Maplewood Flats in North Vancouver. Our mission is to provide wild birds with sanctuary through ecological protection and restoration, and support communities with education, culture, and reconciliation programs. We acknowledge that The Conservation Area at Maplewood Flats is situated within the traditional and unceded territory of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation (TWN). https://wildbirdtrust.org | https://coastsalishplantnursery.org #maplewoodflats #decolonizingconservation #wildbirdsanctuary
Session 5: Whose land are we birding on? Access, displacement, and land rights A panel discussion with Steve Hampton, Seth George, Cease Wyss, and Alyssa Bardy Steve Hampton is a member of the American Ornithological Society's Ad Hoc Committee for English Bird Names, where he helped draft the recommendation to change all honorific names. He worked for the California Dept of Fish & Wildlife for 25 years, involved in oil spill damage assessments, seabird restoration, and tribal coordination. He lives in Port Townsend, Washington (also known as qatáy, S'Klallam lands) and serves as the Conservation Chair of Rainshadow Bird Alliance (formerly known as Admiralty Audubon Society). Steve’s writings are at stephen-carr-hampton.com. Seth George has been a Culture Teacher at the Tsleil-Waututh Nation siʔáḿθət School. Seth is a Guide with TWN-owned Takaya Tours social enterprise outdoor adventure company. He enjoys paddling and canoe culture and has frequented Maplewood Flats all his life. T’uy’t’tanat Cease Wyss is an Indigenous Matriarc of the Skwxwu7mesh, Sto:lo and Hawaiian people. Through her work as an ethnobotanist, artist, activist and community-based educator, they strive to share Indigenous customs, teachings, and futures and to connect Indigenous peoples. Wyss’s thirty-year career encompasses a vast array of practices, from weaving, making remedies, medicine walks to the realm of Indigenous Digital Futurisms. Ceases’ interactive, community-based work is insightful and informative of their contemporary conditions. Cease Wyss has been an inspirational teacher at Maplewood Flats sharing her vast array of knowledges impacting ecology and Indigenous rights. Her ideas are shared on her website https://tuyttanatceasewyss.ca/about Alyssa Bardy is a self-taught natural light photographer and a visual storyteller, a mother and a wife. Her photography tells the stories of motherhood, Indigenous reconnection, nationhood, and interconnectedness with Land, with a special passion for birds. Alyssa uses the lens as a tool for herself, her children, and future generations to learn and share the brilliance and beauty of both culture and creation. Alyssa is Upper Cayuga of Six Nations of the Grand River and is a member of Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte, where she and her family reside. Examples of her work can be found in publications for Canadian Geographic and the McMichael Canadian Art Collection. She has collaborated with artists such as Morningstar Designs and Chief Lady Bird and has provided imagery for the written words of Christi Belcourt, Waubgeshig Rice, Amy Shawanda and Christine Lukasavitch- MacRae, among others though the Centre for Humans and Nature. Most recent exhibitions include her piece, People of the Longhouse in the Woodland Cultural Centre 2023 Indigenous Art show, and Nyá:wen Wháta, on public display in downtown Kingston, in 2023 as part of the Waawaateg exhibit. *** Decolonizing Bird Knowledge Symposium Saturday, November 30th from 10:30am to 4:00pm PT Birding across Turtle Island is undergoing a long overdue moment of accountability and diversification, and this first-of-its-kind gathering heralds the future for birding. In this symposium, hear inspiring speakers from across Turtle Island on Indigenous Knowledge and decolonization of birding and bird knowledge. Through practical case studies from some rock star birders and theoretical sessions this was an inspiring day! At its heart, Indigenous Knowledge holders continue to confront the biases embedded in western science that dominates this space, reflecting its colonial roots. Together we want to go further and address land dispossession and other decolonizing birding issues. 1. Emerging culture shift in birding communities and efforts to decolonize, diversify, and implement ‘Two Eyed Seeing.’ 2. Lessons of tackling bird names and efforts at un-naming from the USA. 3. Amplify projects around building inclusivity and cultural safety. 4. Consider where we bird and First Nations’ land rights beneath our feet. How does UNDRIP impact birding? 5. Be inspired by what Indigenous Knowledge teaches us about biodiversity and birding. --- The Wild Bird Trust of British Columbia (WBT) is a non-profit society that manages the Conservation Area at Maplewood Flats in North Vancouver. Our mission is to provide wild birds with sanctuary through ecological protection and restoration, and support communities with education, culture, and reconciliation programs. We acknowledge that The Conservation Area at Maplewood Flats is situated within the traditional and unceded territory of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation (TWN). https://wildbirdtrust.org | https://coastsalishplantnursery.org #maplewoodflats #decolonizingconservation #wildbirdsanctuary
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