3rd BIPOC Night Hike: Mothing Workshop

BIPOC Outdoor Gear Library is proud to partner with Shan Seahra (PhD) and the artists of the Moth Garden Project (Lisa and Christina) for this fun event!

Activities for the evening are predefined and will last about 2.5hrs. Please be prepared to stay with the group for the full duration for everyone's safety and enjoyment.

On this guided NIGHT hike you will be lead along a wide, flat and mowed trail to the Moth Garden created by local artists Lisa Hirmer and Christina Kingsbury. The two will lead a tour of the garden with opportunity to encounter moths and caterpillars using UV flashlights. Afterwards Shan will guide the group on a short walk to a moth sheet (small hills and tree roots along terrain) where you will discuss who, what, why, how of the moth sheet and visit with some more moth friends. After the moth sheet, a wooded trail and habitat river walk will bring us back to the parking lot to end.

You will be provided with headlamps (bring your own if you have one - red light feature suggested). We recommend wearing sturdy footwear (let us know if you need to borrow shoes/boots from the Gear Library - indicating size), and long sleeves/pants. If you have a bug jacket and would like to wear it, feel free (we will have some in a variety of sizes S-XXL for those who need it). Please DO NOT wear bug repellent.

An image showing the location of the Loyala House parking lot is included here. Note: that Ignatius is a religious property and there are religious imagery and symbols along some of the trails.

RAIN DATE SCHEDULED FOR THE SAME TIME JULY 5TH

SPOTS ARE LIMITED DUE TO SPACE AND CAPACITY ISSUES. ONLY THOSE REGISTERED WILL BE ABLE TO ATTEND.

See below for more about your guides and the garden.

NOTE: This event is intended as a safe(r) space for BIPOC Community Members. You are encouraged to show up exactly as you are; and are guaranteed dignity, respect, and a feeling of belonging.

YOUR GUIDES:

Shan (she/they) @biodiversity.shan

Shan Seahra (PhD) is an ecologist and researcher who works on the restoration of native ecosystems and wildlife habitats, emphasizing a holistic approach that integrates Indigenous Knowledge and climate change considerations. Her fascination with biodiversity and the factors that drive its evolution and ecology has been a lifelong passion. Shan is particularly interested in studying moth ecologies and how they co-exist with their environment, including humans.

Lisa (she/her) @lisa.hirmer

Lisa Hirmer is an interdisciplinary artist working in visual media, especially photography; social practice/community collaboration; performance; and occasionally writing. Her work is focused on collective relationships—that which exists between things rather than simply within them— both within human communities and in human relationships with the more-than-human world.

Christina (she/her) @christinalkingsbury

Christina Kingsbury’s interdisciplinary art practice is inspired by histories of care and explores themes of place, ecology and inter-species relationships. Christina’s work is rooted (often literally) in the ecology of the Grand River Watershed and the treaty lands of the Mississaugas of the Credit and part of her practice works through relationships to land as a settler person.

THE GARDEN:

Moth Garden is an artist-made garden for moths and other nocturnal pollinators. In a world where attention, care and conservation efforts have a bias towards creatures who align with human perception—the big, the beautiful, the colourful—Moth Garden is a project that wonders how we can relate to beings that are harder for our bodies to perceive. It is a poetic gesture that attends to the tiny and the barely visible around us.

Moth Garden invites visitors to spend time in the dark with nocturnal beings and hopes to offer embodied, sensory experiences at the edge of one’s capacity for perception: perhaps the flicker of moonlight off an iridescent wing, a fluttering felt on the skin, or a rhythmic thrum in the eardrum as a moth flies by.

Also check out other Arts events in Guelph, Workshops in Guelph, Trips & Adventurous Activities in Guelph.