ROB MURRAY: I’m speaking with Ben Green and Lucas Braun, Canadian Rockies Youth Summit co-founders. The Canadian Rockies Youth Summit runs May 12th through 14th. What is this?

LUCAS BRAUN: The Canadian Rockies Youth Summit is essentially helping to bring together youth voices from around and within the Rocky Mountains in order to have a collective input on conservation and environmental issues. We’ve been hosting a series of workshops to get youth inspired to take action during the Summit. We’ve been trying to connect them to mentors, resources, and whatever else they may need to start taking action through what we call action projects, which are little initiatives that youth can take to help improve the environment, help raise awareness about conservation issues, and have their voices heard on conservation issues.

BEN GREEN: We hosted our first summit in November 2019. We had 45 students who came together in Jasper. This is kind of the second summit, and we’re hoping it will become an annual event.

RM: Are you both in high school yourself?

BG:  Finishing Grade 12 right now.

RM: What inspired you to launch this event?

BG: I began this project in Grade 10. I’m a big skier and I really wanted to get involved with the Lake Louise Ski Area expansion proposal. I wanted to share my input, but even though there are many stakeholders that are involved in that consultation, youth were not one of them. That spurred me and Lucas, and also my friend Alex, to create the Canadian Rockies Youth Summit.

RM: What are you going to be going through during the Summit May 12th through 14th?

LB: Guest speakers and keynote presentations, as well as activities designed to inspire youth to think how they can take action within their communities. We’re going to have a sort of virtual campfire night where we’ll have various artists and musicians perform. We’ll try to incorporate some at-home outdoor activities. We have a watershed walk planned in which youth will follow their own local watersheds and examine how that affects their day-to-day lives. We’ll have a more citizen science oriented activity.

RM: Who are some of the presenters that you’ve lined up?

LB: We have two panels. We have one on grizzly bear-human coexistence and just wildlife coexistence in general. Our second panel is about climate change and the effects that it’s having on the tourism industry and the Park. On top of that, we’ll have some guest speakers, including one of our favorites Brooks Arcand-Paul who’s an Indigenous lawyer who, at our last Summit, gave a presentation on the importance of Indigenous co-management and trying to reconcile some of the injustices that occurred in the creation of our Parks system.

RM: Who’s invited to this Summit?

BG: Now that we’re online we’re able to turn this project into a bigger thing and invite more people. Our target demographic is going to be high school youth, but any member of the public should be able to join either through YouTube or by joining the Zoom event from all across Alberta and even Canada.

RM: Where can people find more information about how to join in on the Summit?

LB: On our website. You can also follow us on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. We have a YouTube channel that’s broadcasting, some of those pre-summit workshops I’ve been talking about, and I’m sure there’ll be more content on the YouTube channel coming with the actual Summit.

BG: I’ll just add, if there are any adults listening to this that are working in policy or any decision-making – try to involve youth with as many decisions as you can. We’re not really seen as a proper consultation body because we’re young and we have very diverse opinions, but youth are going to be growing up into positions of power and positions of ownership in the future, and we’re going to be making these decisions one day. It’s very important for us to be considered in informed decision-making today.

 

Photo: Rockies Repeat Facebook page

 

 

RM: I’m speaking with Caroline Hedin about the Rockies Repeat film, as well as your participation in a big campfire benefit concert with the Canadian Rockies Youth Summit this week. First of all, what is Rockies Repeat?

CAROLINE HEDIN: Rockies Repeat is a documentary and exhibit project presented by my small media company, Transmission Media, and my partner, Rundle Films. We’re working with the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies as well. The goal of our project is to bear witness to climate change through the eyes of emerging artists. We are taking a team of six incredible young women and two-spirit Indigenous artists, and we are returning to some of the original sites that early Banff artist Catherine Robb Whyte painted in the Canadian Rockies nearly a century ago. We’re bearing witness to the changes we’re seeing on the landscape, especially in glacial landscapes.

RM: What inspired you to create this project?

CH: We can kind of fool ourselves into thinking that climate change is only something that’s happening in the Arctic, or somewhere far away. We really wanted to draw attention to the severe climate impacts that are happening right here in our backyard in places that are really near and dear to us, like Lake Louise or Bow Lake. Current research projects that, by 2100, those iconic glaciers that really define the Rockies are going to be nearly completely gone, and we want to really inspire action through art. It’s not just scientists who can raise awareness about climate change, but it’s everyone from filmmakers, to artists, to youth. We also want to honour that these lands are Indigenous lands, so having that lens of these young Indigenous artists is really important to us as well. While also recognizing the important legacy that Catherine Robb Whyte played as an early female creator in the Rockies, and really breaking barriers that have allowed for a future generations of female artists to express themselves and express their views on the world.

RM: Is this film complete and available?

CH: It is not. It’s in progress. We’re wrapping up this year, and then we will be presenting the final film in addition to an exhibition at the Whyte Museum next January as part of the Exposure Photography Festival. We’ll be exhibiting the original works of Catherine Whyte alongside the new interpretations of the artist team to really see that scale of change in a century.

RM: You’re part of this Canadian Rockies Youth Summit campfire benefit concert Wednesday night from 7 – 9 PM. What are you going to be doing there?

CH:  We’re so thrilled to be part of this campfire benefit concert. It’s presented by the Canadian Rockies Youth Network, which is a youth led and organized environmental summit to really empower youth to make change. We are going to be part of this virtual campfire program that will feature local artist Amelie Patterson along with youth environmental leaders from the Bow Valley. Some of our artists who are participating in the Rockies Repeat film project and myself will be sharing stories about what the Rockies mean to us and some of the actions that we’re taking to help protect these places.