Ariel view of cultural burn. Image: Josh Neufeld Photography
Who: Taylor Baptiste and Russell Myers Ross
What: Artist talks and panel discussion moderated by Tania Willard
When: Friday, July 10, 3:00 – 4:30PM
Where: University Theatre, ADM 026, UBC Okanagan Campus
Cost: Free and open to the public
Parking: Nearby paid parking is available via Lot E
Join us on Friday, July 10, for Smoke Forecast II, an afternoon with visual artist Taylor Baptiste (Okanagan Nation) and UBC Vancouver lecturer in Indigenous Land Stewardship, Russell Myers Ross (Tsilhqot’in Nation). Baptiste and Ross will explore the relationship between artistic practice, cultural burning, and Indigenous wildfire knowledges, concepts echoed in the current UBC Okanagan Gallery exhibition The Structure of Smoke on tour from Vancouver’s Morris and Helen Belkin Gallery. Ross’ work with Gathering Voices Society has resulted in the development of the Yunesit’in Fire Stewardship program. Baptiste’s work responds to her experiences of the 2021 wildfire in her home territory of Nk’Mip using Syilx storytelling, ceremony, and ways of knowing.
After individual talks about their own practices, Baptiste and Ross will be joined by UBC Okanagan Gallery and Belkin Gallery Director Tania Willard for a panel discussion. This discussion will bring together concepts of wildfire, Indigenous land stewardship and environmentally informed artistic practice. This event is offered for free by UBC Okanagan Gallery and is open to the public, light refreshments will be served.
The Structure of Smoke is made possible by a grant from BC Art Council and the support of the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery. Exhibition programming is supported by the UBC Strategic Equity & Anti-Racism Enhancement Fund.
About the Speakers:
Taylor Baptiste is an interdisciplinary artist from the Osoyoos Indian Band of the syilx Okanagan Nation. Raised in Nk’mip — a landscape of sagebrush and wild roses between the mountains and Osoyoos Lake — her practice is rooted in family, community, and ancestral history. Drawing from syilx storytelling and ways of knowing, her work reflects an ongoing relationship with the tmxʷulaxʷ (land) and tmixʷ (all living things), and a commitment to listening to the places and teachings that continue to shape her. In 2024, Taylor earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Emily Carr University of Art + Design. She has since returned home to Nk’mip, where she lives and works as both an artist and the Cultural Coordinator at the Nk’Mip Desert Cultural Centre.
Russell Myers Ross (MA) is Indigenous to the Tsilhqot’in Nation and from the community of Yunesit’in. He has a Masters of Indigenous Governance from the University of Victoria (2010). Russell has since completed an eight year term as an elected Chief of Yunesit’in Government from 2012-2020. Within the second term, the Tsilhqot’in experienced the 2017 wildfires and Russell worked through the emergency, recovery, planning and preparation to prevent wildfires, which includes working with Gathering Voices Society (2017-2025) in organizing Indigenous Fire Stewardship by applying fire to the landscape.