JULIA KIDDER

Contributing Artist | Map of 7 Generations
(20-mins) multi-sensory projected animation
Bill Reid Gallery (2023) | New Westminster Museum (2024-2025)

This multi-sensory map translates the movement of wild salmon and the Honouring Our Grandmothers Healing Journey for display at the 13 Moons Around the Lake exhibition at Bill Reid Gallery (and presented at New Westminster Museum the following year). Through animation and sensory layering the map follows the Adam’s River Sockeye, telling a story of the Salmon’s enduring quest for survival - one that parallels the journeys we take to move freely through space, to overcome loss, to offer sacrifice and feel the renewal of cyclical rebirth.

From the juveniles in the nourishment of their home lake, the Salmon’s journey also deals with intuition and memory - moving out towards the open ocean in a coastal sojourn before their tenacious return upriver, these beings also offer an important analogy for the human experience - which we hope to honour here by weaving animation, ecoacoustics, mapping to engage the senses and travel through memory and time - towards healing and collective action. The Map of 7 Generations was co-created in an iterative process between Julia Kidder, Matthew Bayly and Nadine Spence for 13 Moons Around the Lake. My mapping and acoustic storytelling contributions for 13 Moons Around the Lake come from a deep respect for fish and more-than-human worlds, and in gratitude to Nadine Spence, and everyone involved in Honouring our Grandmother’s Healing Journey for sharing and allowing me to witness their journey.

Fraser River Estuary Research Collaborative | UBC Sustainability scholars (2023)

Workshop design | Getting to the Root of Adaptation: the Values that Shape Our Work - 5th National Adaptation Forum, Baltimore MD (2022)

This workshop was designed for anyone who is working in the adaptation space to understand how values shape their work and decision-making. Using LWW as a case study, the training will utilize storytelling and small group discussion to provide necessary context for integrating values in adaptation. Through this workshop, participants will: Recognize the values influencing adaptation processes; Enable reflection on what and whose values are prioritized in adaptation; Start designing a process for a collaborative values statement.

Workshop design, moderator | ‘How can (Your) research support indigenous-led initiatives’ - Fraser River Estuary Research Collaborative (2022)

I worked with West Coast Environmental Law lawyer Rayanna Seymour-Hourie, to co-moderate and develop this workshop, which took place on August 19th at the UBC Farm Gardens/UBC Yurt. Rayanna is Anishinaabe (Ojibway) from Lake of the Woods in Treaty #3 Territory (Northwestern Ontario) and invited Fraser River Estuary Research Collaborative scholars together to reflect on how their research can support Indigenous-led initiatives, and better understand Indigenous laws and governance expressed along the mighty Stó:lō (the Fraser River).

Host | Lo Fi Dance Theory x Yo-Yo Ma, Wapikoni Mobile (2019)

Lo Fi Dance Theory was proud to host Yo-Yo Ma and Wapikoni Mobile during our residency at White Wall Studio in Montreal.

The event took place as part of Yo-Yo Ma’s Bach Project and was centered around the theme of “Indigenous Futures in Media”, which included a panel discussion, performance and film screenings. Thank you for letting us host this event on the traditonal territories of the Kanien'kehá:ka (Mohawk) of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, Huron/Wendat, Abenaki, and Anishinaabeg (Algonquin) people.

Co-creator | Lo Fi Dance Theory x LES History Month - ‘10002 COMPOSITIONS’ (2019)

10002 Compositions was an interactive workshop that took place on Saturday, May 18th in the neighborhood where Lo Fi Dance Theory began in 2015 - at IATI Theater, NYC in celebration of Lower East Side History Month.

Co-creator | Lo Fi Dance Theory x Lower East Side (LES) History Month - ‘Mapping Now: Vital little plans’ (2020)

LFDTLAB’s ‘Mapping Now: Vital Little Plans’ is a map inspired by New York City’s grid systems on the Lower East Side. The map’s annotations are statements inspired by the writings of Jane Jacobs and come with gentle suggestions or prompts that can be taken into action through reflection, in movement, or on the streets.

Jane Jacobs was an urban planner, activist and social theorist. Her work centered around philosophies of inclusion, resistance and community-building. The toolkit that she created during her life’s work came from a broad dissection of social and built environments. Jacobs centered her work around resistance to commercialization, criminalization and segregation, and her theories on urban planning and social organizing were meant for application. These tools for building civic capacity rest on the foundational principle that public space is defined by the degree to which we participate with it.

’Mapping Now: Vital Little Plans’ was created in collaboration with The People’s LES, LFDTLAB, Jaymes Moore and Julia Kidder.