FOCUS AREA |

HISTORY & CULTURE

The stories that shape Canada.

COMPLETED PROJECTS

The Fight For Healthy Food In Canada's North

Patrick Kane • Northwest Territories & Nunavut • 2021

Food insecurity in the North is about more than grocery prices. For many Indigenous communities, access to country food is also connected to harvesting and relationships with the land.

Across Nunavut and the Northwest Territories, Patrick Kane documented the barriers that make healthy food difficult to access, alongside community-led efforts to keep harvesting traditions strong and improve access to locally sourced food.

Jessica Houston • Nunavut & Northwest Passage • 2022

Arctic exploration has long been told through the journeys of famous men, leaving many women’s stories out of the historical record.

Beyond Her Horizons followed an all-female expedition through the Northwest Passage, bringing together the stories of Indigenous and non-Indigenous women whose knowledge and experiences offer a different perspective on Arctic exploration, past and present.


'Two-Eyed Seeing': Using LiDAR To Document And Illustrate 11,000 Years Of Environmental And Cultural History In The Georgian Bay

Kirsten Kennedy • Ontario • 2023

Some of Georgian Bay’s oldest stories are hidden beneath the forest canopy.

LiDAR technology and Indigenous knowledge came together through the principle of Two-Eyed Seeing to map geocultural sites around Georgian Bay. Kirsten Kennedy’s work reveals how more than 11,000 years of human history are woven into a changing landscape.


Beyond Her Horizons


Kinauniqput Ammalu Arvangniaqtitt: Exploring Inuit Identity And The Influence Of British Whalers

Shelly Elverum • Nunavut • 2021

Why do Scottish fiddle tunes, square dancing and bannock remain part of Inuit life today?

Through the Ikaarvik program, Inuit youth in Pond Inlet explored how relationships between Inuit and Scottish whalers influenced their community, tracing connections that remain visible in food, music, dance and other parts of Inuit life today.


Dinosaurs Of The Spatsizi Plateau

Victoria Arbour • British Columbia • 2023

High in the remote Spatsizi Plateau, dinosaur fossils are emerging from a landscape where few palaeontological expeditions have taken place.

An expedition led by Victoria Arbour discovered a bonebed near the top of a mountain, with fossils from a tyrannosaur, a horned dinosaur and a small meat-eating dinosaur.

Amy Romer • Canada • 2024

What happens when the places, species and ways of life people care about are altered or lost?

In the six-part podcast series Beyond Ecological Grief, Amy Romer follows people living through environmental change, using the stages of grief to explore how loss can shape identity, culture and our responses to a changing world.


Tofino

Melissa Renwick • British Columbia • 2024

Tofino is one of British Columbia’s most photographed destinations, but life beyond its familiar postcard images is less often seen.

Four seasons of photography capture the landscapes and people of this remote coastal town. Melissa Renwick’s work creates an intimate portrait of a community shaped by its sense of place and the growing pressures of tourism.


Beyond Ecological Grief

The Ice Patch Project

Taylor Roades • Yukon • 2025

As alpine ice patches melt across the Yukon, they are revealing hunting tools and cultural artifacts that have remained frozen for thousands of years.

Taylor Roades’ photography brings the Yukon Ice Patch Project into view, connecting remarkably preserved artifacts with the First Nations knowledge and stewardship that give them meaning today.


ACTIVE PROJECTS

QʷAYAĆIIK

Sam Rose Phillips • British Columbia • 2025

Along the west coast of Vancouver Island, people and coastal wolves are increasingly sharing the same landscape.

QʷAYAĆIIK follows Skookum John of Ahousaht Nation and Marcie Callewaert John as they live alongside a coastal wolf pack and work to prevent the wolves from becoming habituated to people. Made with communities across Nuu-chah-nulth territory, the film explores relationships between people and wolves through Nuu-chah-nulth knowledge and perspectives.

Michael Christopher Brown • British Columbia • 2026

Nearly two decades ago, Michael Christopher Brown photographed the Muskwa-Kechika for National Geographic. Now he is returning to the same remote mountains, rivers and valleys as a changing climate reshapes the landscape.

Sacred Balance will create a new record of the Kechika River watershed with Kaska Dena Land Guardians, Elders and youth, combining repeat photography, traditional knowledge and science to document changes in permafrost and wildlife.


Sacred Balance: Climate Change & Co-Stewardship in
the Muskwa-Kechika

A Nation's Fight to Remember: Ancient Forests as Living Memory
for the Ma'amtagila

Maia Wikler • British Columbia • 2025

Ancient forests on northern Vancouver Island hold physical records of generations of Ma’amtagila presence, from culturally modified trees to traditional burial sites.

A film and photo essay will document this cultural evidence before it disappears. Maia Wikler and Ma’amtagila hereditary Chief Mak’wala Rande Cook are examining what its loss could mean for Ma’amtagila history, identity and rights.


EXPLORE OTHER FOCUS AREAS

WATER

LAND

WILDLIFE

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