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Jul 30, 2023

Experience Bitterroot Climate Stories on Sept. 7

Wildfires have become a common thing over the last decade thanks to climate change caused by humans and poor land management practices. Sciencealert reports that something similar happened 13,000

Wildfires have become a common thing over the last decade thanks to climate change caused by humans and poor land management practices. Sciencealert reports that something similar happened 13,000 years ago that caused an extinction.

The Bitterroot Climate Action Group is organizing interactive sessions and workshops to encourage community members to tap into their personal climate story and express it through storytelling and collaborative art.

BCAG has partnered with Families for a Livable Climate and Stories for Action in the Montana Climate Stories project. The project features stories of Montanans who have felt the impact of climate change, the challenges and solutions. Those stories show the determination of Montanans.

Bitterroot Climate Action Group Chair Peter Reynolds said the Hamilton event is an opportunity for the community to come together and talk about the personal impacts of climate change.

“We feel that everyone needs to understand what is happening to the climate and how we feel about it so that we can build a consensus about the need to take action to reduce the pollution trapping heat in earth's atmosphere,” Reynolds said.

Lead organizer Cynthia Mealy said the partnerships with Families for a Livable Climate and Stories for Action are in the larger project of Montana Climate Stories.

The event in Hamilton spans nearly a week with opportunities to participate in art and storytelling from Sept. 1–7.

Barb Lucas, founder of Open-ended Expressive Arts Studio, is a long-time resident of the valley and an expressive arts therapist in private practice. She will host two aesthetic-response, open-studio sessions at Open-Ended Expressive Arts Studio ahead of the storytelling session. Then after the workshop, she will lead a participatory group art project, kids included, to weave together the stories.

Barb Lucas encourages the community to make art, Sept. 1 and 5, and tell their climate story on Sept. 7 at MineShaft Pasty Co. in Hamilton during a “Voice Your Climate Story” workshop and collaborative art experience by the Bitterroot Climate Action Group.

The “Voice Your Climate Story” workshop will be held from 5 to 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 7, at MineShaft Pasty Co. where space is limited but food and drink will be available for purchase.

Reynolds will emcee the Bitterroot Climate Stories. Guest speakers and workshop leaders will be Cinematographer and Director Lara Tomov of Stories for Action, and Caitlyn Lewis, Education & Event Coordinator with Families for a Livable Climate. The storytelling workshop portion will include coaches Alex Hibala, with the Bitterroot Water Partnership, and Laura Garber, Founder and Director of Cultivating Connections, and owner and co-operator of Homestead Organics.

Mealy said being part of the Montana Climate Stories, a website and Instagram site, is an opportunity.

“It is wonderful to have our local input about the climate change and the solutions we might bring,” she said. “We’ll also be part of a larger project to hear from many Montanans in various communities who are sharing the same kinds of stories that are local to them.”

Mealy said the project has been planned for over a year and stories have been gathered.

“We think this will be a really sweet event because Lara Tomov and Caitlyn Lewis will lead the workshop that will help us learn to draw stories out of ourselves,” Mealy said.

Hibala, a professional guide on the Bitterroot River and other waterways, will tell about the stories he has seen on the warming waters.

“He’s sees the impact on the fish first-hand,” Mealy said.

Garber is also a storyteller.

“She does so much for our community and we are honored that she is telling her stories about her life as a farmer and how climate change affects her livelihood in the Bitterroot Valley,” Mealy said. “Laura will talk to us about how climate change affects her farm and those who garden and seek self-sufficiency by growing their own food. She is connected with so many people.”

Audience members will hear some stories from storytellers then tell their own story in small groups. After the storytelling will be interactive and collaborative art project lead by Barb Lucas.

“We’ll make a common piece together and take from the storytelling portion of the evening and weave it into this collaborative art piece,” Lucas said.

She is hopeful that the collaborative piece will travel, possibly to the Bitterroot Public Library.

“The goal is for the art to prompt conversations with in the community. By now we are probably all aware,” Lucas said. “It’s just how do we talk about it and what is our response to it.”

Mealy said the event is open to all.

“Everyone is invited,” she said. “[It will be a wonderful experience] to those who want to listen to how climate is affecting us in the Bitterroot from their neighbor. Also, those who want to have conversations about climate change and how it is affecting them. I want to leave room for those who don’t have a story but want to hear.”

Lucas said she is collaborating with the BCAN to provide an art experience in response to the climate change discussion.

“Expressive arts are a gentle way to touch this material that we really have not experienced on confronting,” Lucas said. “It’s therapeutic, being in community is therapeutic, having conversations is therapeutic.”

She said climate change is a new experience and generational knowledge and wisdom is not available.

“We’re making it up as we go, which is what arts are great at — creating something new,” Lucas said.

She will host two art sessions at Open-Ended Expressive Arts Studio 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 1, and, or 6 to 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 5. Facilitators will be on hand to support creative projects each person’s individual response to climate change.

“[All the art will be] different,” Lucas said. “That’s the idea of expressive arts, you turn into what you are focused on. There is something speaking through you. It may be loss or transition, expressive arts are to help you express what’s in your heart and maybe develop some language around it. It makes those feelings easier for us to hold, whatever it is.”

She said the scope and scale of climate change is what attracts our attention.

“We realize our limited ability to meet the demands of the changes,” Lucas said. “Art can help us with that whether it be the loss of a loved one, lost jobs, vocation, housing and other impacts from weather.”

She said loss of habitat and loss of species impact fishermen on the river, firefighters and their families, first responders to a flood or landslide.

“We are walking around holding all of that,” Lucas said. “An expressive art piece can hold it for you, so you have more space to take action, to have peace in your heart and mind in the midst of change.”

She said the collaboration between Open Ended Arts, Bitterroot Climate Action Network and MineShaft creates a shared experience for the community.

“We can come together and have conversation and learn and inspire each other about how to have a positive outlook or have clarity,” Lucas said. “We tend to be frozen and stuck in overwhelmed. So, if we move it to art and storytelling we feel we can still move forward.”

The art will be hung in Mineshaft on Wednesday and remain up for the month.

“So anytime you’re coming in for your cold drink, or hot drink, or pasty you can also enjoy the art,” Lucas said.

Chapter One Book Store is supporting the Climate Stories event by hosting a nature-themed story hour for 2-5-year-olds during their regularly scheduled story time at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 5.

The Bitterroot Climate Action Group’s next event is the Bitterroot Resilience Forum on Oct.13 and 18.

“It is the most important project BCAG has undertaken to date,” Reynolds said. “It will the first effort to bring together the community to assess the risks to the economy and our way of life posed by extreme heat, wildfires, floods and drought and what we can do about it.”

Dr. Bruce Maxwell from Montana State University will be the expert presenter on these subjects.

“Bruce is a native of Hamilton and a respected scientist who worked on the Montana Climate Assessment,” Reynolds said. “We're planning a videotape project of his presentation and the forums being produced by local video artists Lara Tomov. The event on Oct. 18 will be a presentation of the findings on Oct. 13 and will hopefully draw out more input from the community. It is intended for those who could not, for various reasons, attend a weekday event — such as high school students.”

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Wildfires have become a common thing over the last decade thanks to climate change caused by humans and poor land management practices. Scienc…

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