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Reflections on the conversation with Aleksandra Dulic

Ilyas Kanybek

Dr. Dulic is quite an interesting scholar. Her discussion on "regenerative sustainability" (a notion presented by John Robinson) was very relevant and interesting for me. She asked us a question: "How can everything we do make the world a better place?" Though I personally cannot give a fulfilling answer, I do see the necessity of pointing out the importance of seeking an answer to this question. Perhaps there is no one single answer, but rather every person finds or maybe should find an answer to this question.

I very much agree with Dr. Dulic's argument in regards to industrial-age hierarchical societies and regenerative collaborative societies (such as those of the Neolithic age). I think we often tend to fall into the trap of thinking that things have always been like they are. It makes us voluntarily accept many of the concepts and structures. However, seeking knowledge frees us from such fallacies. Partnership cultures can be seen as incredible sustainability models. I think as such, they should be studied. As Dr. Dulic pointed out, understanding our place in this world is the first step.

Understanding the world we live in, the world we are a part of, is the first step toward challenging and possibly addressing profit-driven resource extraction and capitalization.I wholeheartedly agree that we created the system that is causing us harm. It is essential that we remember, as Dr. Dulic said, that we are feeling creatures and should be seen in the context of our feelings. I think that is what we often overlook or undermine—the value of what we feel.

Dr. Dulic also discussed ritual performance and how the artists in these acts are the keepers of knowledge. This idea is striking to me as an example of the interdisciplinary study of anthropology and art.

Hoda Pourpirali

I firmly believe that the changes we have made to nature cannot be resolved by a single solution. It is imperative that we take a stand and defend what we believe is best for ourselves and future generations. The concept of a "partnership culture" can serve as a model for sustainability and by accumulating knowledge through partnerships between cultures, we have the potential to discover phenomenal solutions to the problems we currently face.

The role of artists in preserving knowledge through ritual performance highlights the importance of interdisciplinary studies. By bringing together various fields of study, we can gain a deeper understanding of the world around us. This interdisciplinary approach provides a broader perspective and can lead to innovative solutions to complex challenges.

We must remember that the challenges we face today are complex and multi-faceted. Therefore, it is necessary to adopt a holistic approach that encompasses diverse perspectives and approaches. The integration of different cultures and fields of study can bring new ideas and solutions to the table and help us find sustainable ways to address the changes we have made to nature. By fostering partnerships and encouraging interdisciplinary studies, we can work together to create a better future for all.

Anjali Desai

Coming from a worn-torn country and adapting to life here in Canada as an immigrant, Dr. Aleksandra Dulic from the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies gave a very relevant and thought provoking talk on regenerative sustainability. The undertone of anti-colonial practices was very evident throughout the presentation despite the fact that she had never experienced colonialism back in her home country. Her work was evidently very closely tied to indigenous culture and knowledge and tapping on the artistic and emotional side of the issue of sustainability. It took my mind to the place based methods we explored as a class last term at the Woodhaven regional park and the process of learning and unlearning information about a land. She said, “We are creatures of feeling” and spoke of developing a connection to the place we are a part. She essentially brought up the point of considering a place as land and not Land. (Land = Property, land= nature- soil, air, water, animals, and plants). Much like how Dr. Chen highlighted the usage of digital media in the construction process mapping, the regenerative mapping of the Indigenous lands is a very unique usage of technology.

She brings up the reality of the world we live in where most of the activities are primarily profit driven and these systems cause substantial damage to the environment. Unsustainable resource extraction and the capitalistic society has far reaching impact on our lives and has for ages caused exploitation of native communities and their land. The themes of the book “Pollution is Colonialism” which we read last term, seemed to repeat here with an important quote “Colonialism lurks in assumptions and premises, even when we think we’re doing good” applicable in the context of the current world. Hence, it is very important to ensure that everything we do has the betterment of the environment and world at heart.

In context with the Brandt’s Creek project, my take away from this presentation is to sensitize the local community about the current state of the creek, mobilize public support and use arts based methodologies to engage the cultural and artistic side of people to draw attention.

Gabrielle Heschuk

It was great that Anjali linked the book pollution is colonialism as I did the same during my reflection of Dr. Dulic's presentation. It is interesting to hear about another student making that connection and being able to bring in topics we have previously discussed to continue our learning. I also liked how Anjali was able to create a link and provide a useful connection between Dr. Dulic's presentation and our project at Brandt's creek. I think this is a great idea that I will also consider during my group's project of Brandts creek.

Sofia Bahmutsky

Dr. Aleksandra Dulic from the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies gave a lecture about her work, particularly highlighting her project Waterways. Dr. Dulic highlighted throughout her talk how she is an immigrant to Canada and in her home country, colonialism is not something she experienced until she moved to Canada. The undertones of indigenous knowledge were prevalent in her speaking and opinions. I agreed with so many of Dr. Dulic’s statements, particularly the sentiment about dismantling resource extractive capitalism as the only step forward to sustainability. Introducing the video clip of Jeanette Armstrong relayed Dr. Dulic’s sentiments very succinctly and incredibly sensibly in my opinion. I agree with Jeanette’s statement that she believes humanity will turn to indigenous knowledge and societies in the face of climate change adversity.

A few weeks ago, I took a trip to the Sncewips Museum in the Westbank First Nation. I have always wanted to know more and discover about the indigenous people of this area; the museum was a good place for me to start. The story of the Four Chiefs was presented at the museum in art form, paintings so beautifully made. This memory of the artwork connected me more to Dr. Dulic’s presentation, seeing as her work was also in the fine arts and so closely linked to indigenous culture and knowledge. I have long been an artist myself, usually focused on landscapes and portraits, but I found that my pieces lacked deep subject matter, and mostly were works to practice or draw my favourite plants/places. When I listened to the Four Chiefs story at the museum and during Dr. Dulic’s talk, the vivid image of the artwork came to my mind so easily, having a meaningful story to connect to the visual artwork makes the both the image, and the story magnitudes more impactful for me.

In terms of sustainability in the context of IGS 585 and Brandt’s Creek, I believe that Dr. Dulic’s message about the importance of knowledge dissemination to the public by means of art installation is very relevant. How can we expect the general population of Kelowna to care about a creek if they do not know about it? I think that art and storytelling carry a lot of impact and has the ability to touch a huge range of people to a deep level, perhaps more so than statistics, reports, and more ‘scientific’ dissemination of information. At least, for me, I tend to have stronger emotional connection to information and ideas when I experience them via artistic forms.

Annie Furman

I completely agree, I also have a much stronger connection to information that’s expressed via narrative (whether that narrative is embedded in writing, visual art, performance, etc.) than through statistics or other data-heavy analysis. It’s much easier to have empathy for narrative than numbers.

I think you also raise a very important point when you ask how we can “expect the general population of Kelowna to care about a creek if they do not know about it.” Honestly, the more I think about it, the more curious I am how Dr. Dulic and the Waterways team chose to focus on Mission and Mill Creeks. Was it a question of not having the time/resources to cover a larger geographical area of Kelowna that included Brandt’s Creek? Or were there other factors that played into that decision that might shed light on challenges we might face in disseminating knowledge about Brandt’s Creek?

Leandra Vanbaelinghem

A lot of content from Dr. Aleksandra Dulic's presentation were concepts I learned in my IGS sustainability class last year. For example, we had a module dedicated to learning about being in a place and how we learn about a place. This module was in the back of my mind while Dr. Aleksandra Dulic talked about the importance of connecting with our environment. That establishing a connection with the environment helps us create the desire to take care of it. The quote, " How can we care about the fish if we don't celebrate the fish," resonated with me and encapsulated all these lessons and ideas. As these ideas were familiar and had been explored previously, it was easy for me to see the relevance and value of using media to strengthen our relationship with Land. Generative art would therefore work quite well at completing the task of sharing knowledge and connection with Lands. I also found the interdisciplinary requirement of artists, scientists and engineers to create generative art very appealing. However, on a personal level, the old Kelowna game output, although very interesting, did not seem like it would increase or satisfy my place-based connection with an environment like Kelowna. Perhaps it would be if it was a familiar area in Kelowna or a place I grew up in, as I am not from Canada. Something with a similar purpose but with an execution that seems more effective for me was this website shared by Daisy, where anyone can pin a place on earth and share an old memory or experience relevant to that place. This context seems to create a greater sense of community and care for a place for me.

I deeply appreciated learning about what the salmon represents for the indigenous people of the region (I don't know if this pertains only to the Syilx people). Dr. Aleksandra Dulic explained in this context what losing salmon would mean for indigenous people. This helped me understand that even within the group of people that care about sustainability, resiliency, and the preservation of all living things and the environment are not affected on similar levels, and their priorities may differ. This difference may come down to care and connection for the Land on an emotional level, depending on worldview, as the presenter suggested. I understood these concepts by recollecting what I learned from A nutmeg's cure by Amitav Ghosh, where the love indigenous people have for Land is vividly shown against the colonists' perspective of Land as something to exploit and terraform.

Lastly, the idea of a regenerative society was new to me. The presenter described this idea as making all our actions positive instead of a simple net-zero goal setting. My initial thought (which may change with a better understanding of regenerative society) are that while I like this idea's continuity and positivity, goal setting a net-zero target compared to a positive-impact target makes achieving goals more realistic for our current planetary circumstances and pressing crisis.

Sofia Bahmutsky

I agree with many of Leandra's statements and reflections. In the previous semester, IGS 584 prepared me for thinking about indigenous meanings of place and land which Dr. Dulic spoke about throughout her presentation. Just like Leandra, I also read the book "The Nutmeg's Curse" by Amitav Ghosh, so I believe that our ways of interpreting and understanding Dr. Dulic's speech are highly similar. I am also a newcomer to the Okanagan like Leandra, and although I have grown up in Canada, there is a much different presence of indigenous importance and connection to the land here compared to where I grew up in Alberta. I think Leandra raises an interesting perspective about setting a net-zero target instead of a positive-impact target in the face of the climate emergency. I personally think that net-zero is not enough, mostly because of the "net" part. In fact, if a company can purchase energy or carbon credits to offset their operations, in my mind this is not net-zero because they are still operating as usual. Most companies only care about their bottom line, and until a human consciousness shift happens at a massive scale... greenwashing and concepts like carbon credits and net-zero will continue to dominate the new "greening economy". It's like Anjali once explained in IGS 584, bamboo toothbrushes now replacing plastic ones, coming full circle to offer a solution to problem in a place who's indigenous population had used natural plants for toothbrushing for ages.

Thomas Letcher-Nicholls

As part of my research project I have just been looking at the “Waterways” exhibition, so it was super exciting to have Dr. Aleksandra Dulic present to the class and talk in part about the exhibit! I find the collaborative approach to the project fascinating – combining science, art, multimedia, and Syilx environmental ethics and knowledge in an impactful way.

During the presentation, I found Dr. Dulic’s discussion of the need to change our perspectives and worldview compelling – but also daunting. Dr. Dulic argued that the ideology and structure of capitalism is eroding our relations to the rest of the non-human world; and that this undergirds our contemporary climate crisis. Sofia also highlighted in these reflections how Dr. Jeanette Armstrong gave a powerful criticism of capitalism in the video.

I certainly agree with this argument. In my field, literary studies and sustainability (ecocriticism), we often talk about the need to re-imagine our relationship to the world – and especially to learn from specific, situated Indigenous and non-Western traditions from around the world. I think this is super important and crucial.

But sometimes (often/always) I worry about how to make this happen or whether it will even work. In my discipline, literary critic Timothy Clark has asked whether literary and humanities scholars overestimate our own power and impact to change our environmental imagination – and whether a change in perspective or imagination will make a difference (Ecocriticism on the Edge, 2015). This is not at all to say that I will stop doing the work of reimagination, but that we also need to mobilise all kinds of knowledge (science, economics, politics, everything) to make a change.

Furthermore, when Dr. Dulic talks about the need to change our worldview, I wonder who “our” means. Ilyas made a similar comment during our discussion. I agree it is completely essential to work towards changing our economic system of rapacious resource extraction and to try and encourage a different mindset, but I also think of the millions (billions?) of people around the world who struggle to survive everyday and for whom this might seem like a luxury.

But maybe this is another consequence of the system in which some people (broadly the West) have a lot and the rest of the world has very little. This is due to our economic system and the histories of colonialism and conquest that have lead to it. Class this week took place just before Australia Day (January 26^th), which marks the arrival of Europeans on the continent now known as Australia and the beginning of the dispossession and genocide of the First Nations of the continent.

I am excited about the Brandt’s creek project because it is a very specific, local case study in doing the work of sustainability. Learning from Dr. Dulic, I think doing this work means including as many perspectives as possible, but most importantly that of the traditional custodians of the land to imagine a future for the creek.

Daisy Pullman

It must have been really exciting to hear this presentation already having some knowledge of the Waterways project! I also agree that the collaborative approach exemplified in the project is interesting, and it gave me a lot to think about in terms of my own work as a research assistant on an interdisciplinary project that necessitates collaboration across a broad spectrum of disciplines and backgrounds.

I appreciate how you've focused on legacies of colonialism in your reflection, as I think that many of the fundamental sustainability issues the world faces today can be directly linked to colonial and neo-colonial patterns of extractive capitalism and indigenous dispossession. In approaching our project at Brandt's Creek its essential we identify our positionality (as far as I know mostly settlers) in relation to the land and work to prioritise the needs and perspectives of indigenous communities.

Gabrielle Heschuk

Dr. Aleksandra Dulic was the second guest speaker and spoke about the project called Waterways. She brought up some extremely relevant and interesting points during class about the importance of including indigenous knowledge and ways of doing environmental work. As she was speaking about the project she brought up the question of, how can human activities lead to the improvement of both environmental and human wellbeing? As well as, how can every action we make create a positive contribution? These questions were followed by her explaining the idea of regenerative sustainability which sparked my interest as my research is about regenerative tourism in Kelowna. She talked about rather than stopping actions it was about creating net positive reactions and creating positive change rather than no change. This way of thinking is what my research surrounds but with creating positive environmentally sustainable changes with tourism.

Dr. Dulic was able to connect many of her thoughts and points she made to concepts that I had learned about last semester in two of my courses. The first course was the IGS 584 course last semester where we talked a lot about indigenous relationships with the environment. During that course we learned about the importance of researching in that mind frame to solve issues of sustainability as the connection to the land and its resources are extremely important. One concept that we touched on that Dr. Dulic also mentioned was that empathy is a huge driver for change and more specifically in this context, creating empathy through relationships to the land in an indigenous lens can help to promote sustainable policy action. The other course where we learned about the importance of indigenous knowledge was an undergraduate sustainable geography course. We had guest speakers come and talk to the class about the importance of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK). Similar ideas were brought up such as how solving many sustainable issues will require indigenous knowledge.

Dr. Dulic’s perspective on colonialism was also interesting. Last semester I read a book called Pollution is Colonialism which discussed the origins of plastic pollution and the violence that it creates within environments. This book also discussed the dangers of colonial mindsets regarding the environment. During this presentation, I was able to make so many different connections to my research as well as other courses I have taken. It was useful to see how this way of thinking and the way that Dr. Dulic approaches the idea of sustainability is shared among many different scholars and disciplines.

Ilyas Kanybek

I agree with Gabriella that the concept of regenerative sustainability was indeed very interesting to hear. It was very clear that Dr Dulic is an expert in what she was doing and connecting concepts with real life examples was something particularly special about her presentation. I also agree with Gabriella that discussing the importance and the value of the notion of empathy was very interesting. I think it was something we as students do not get to learn a lot about. On contrary however it is critically important in my opinion to invest more time and effort to the studies of how more empathetic and empathy driven policy making and decision making can improve our approach to the sustainability issues.

Annie Furman

I was very excited to hear Dr. Aleksandra Dulic present on her involvement with the Waterways project and her approach to building sustainability through building community. Her question about how every human action can make a positive contribution is very familiar to me, both from my own artistic praxis and in the context of the CRWR course I took last term with Chantal Bilodeau (a visiting playwright and the founder of Climate Change Theatre Action, an international festival promoting climate solutions through theatre).

One of the central questions we focused on with Chantal in our writing last term was how, when creating work engaging with the climate crisis, can we hold grief and hope at the same time? Recent studies, including one conducted by researchers from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology at COP21, have concluded that “effective” climate art (i.e., art that empowers audiences to actually get out and do something about climate change) are those that walk this line between acknowledging what we have lost/are losing and providing a line of hope that there is definitive action we can take for a better, more sustainable future.

In her talk, Dr. Dulic explained this in the context of Waterways as looking for ways to focus on success and asking where the future is present now. I think of this as another small but important aspect of Western worldviews that must change in order to transition from an Industrial Age society to a regenerative society—a shift in narrative framing away from the dystopian view of the future frequently embraced by media and toward toward narratives that instead work to hold radical hope. I think this narrative framing is very important to keep in mind when considering how we ultimately end up sharing our knowledge about Brandt’s Creek with communities. If we don’t just want communities to care about Brandt’s Creek but to care and feel empowered to take action on any key items we identify, the way in which they are engaged needs to reflect this.

Em Isaak

Wow, oh my gosh! Your reflection is worded so eloquently. I think it is amazing that art can be used as a method of knowledge mobilization. I feel like art is often dismissed in this context where folks might not feel the need for art, but art moves people.

The article you cited about hope and grief sounds very interesting! That resonates with me but in a queer context. It is devastating to see how many protesters will come out to drag storybook time but what I find hope in is the counter-protesters that come in much larger numbers in support of the LGBTQ2IA+ community.

I think it would be really cool if we could integrate art into this class somehow because I think that could be one way that we could share our knowledge and findings with the community.

Em Isaak

This reflection is split into two different parts which seems to be the way that makes most sense to me. The first part are my thoughts and reflections on Dr. Dulic’s presentation in the broader context. The second part of the reflection are my thoughts on how this presentation can be connected to the work we do in this class.

The word ‘worldview’ seems to be the all-encompassing message of Dr. Dulic’s presentation and this very much spoke to me. I completely understood the need to position ourselves within projects and research. How can we ignore our humanity within this sort of work? I think the term sustainability has been stretched so far from its core meaning but Dr. Dulic explained the forgotten components. Some of those components are worldview and reciprocity. Research and science have made it so researchers separate themselves so much from their research in order to maintain objectivity. I believe that this does not work when working with other people. How can we ignore the humanity? Or the political and social contexts of sustainability?

It has been a few days since Dr. Dulic’s presentation, and I believe it was especially important that her presentation be on the first day. Dr. Dulic’s work will help us as a class understand our positionality on this land. Since we are looking at sustainable initiatives for Brandt’s Creek, it makes sense that we first talk to the original stewards of this place. The Syilx Okanagan Nation will have a much deeper understanding of the land here. I believe one of the first steps we should take as a class would be to create a relationship with the Syilx Okanagan Nation.

Thomas Letcher-Nicholls

Thanks so much, Em – I completely agree that it was important and meaningful to have this talk early. Like Em, I found the talk a helpful reminder of my particular situatedness and position here. Dr. Dulic showed us that this is not to be taken for granted: that as an uninvited guest, she herself had taken a long time to learn the significance of living on this land.

I also support Em’s reflection that our projects must involve the Syilx Okanagan Nation; I agree that, if it is possible, we should try to communicate with and create a relationship with the Syilx community here. My reflection on this point, I think, would be to wonder how best to do this. In this IGS program, one of the things I am keen to explore is community engagement. This is not something I have done much of before – so I am eager to learn more about how to reach out to communities and partners, and in particular how to do that with intention, consideration and care, especially in the case of First Nations groups.

Shaiyan Siddique

Professor Aleksandra Dulic presented after professor Chen and discussed about the Okanagan Waterways project, which focused on the innate connection between water and the communities of the region. Being new to Canada, I could relate to professor Dulic’s early experiences after arriving in Canada, facing a learning curve regarding the lives and cultures of the indigenous people. However, thanks to an interdisciplinary sustainability class that I took last semester I could comprehend many of the concepts.

One of the concepts shared by professor Dulic which particularly resonated with me was the functional and socio-cultural importance of salmon for the indigenous people of the Okanagan. For my previous sustainability class, I read the book Pollution is Colonialism by Max Liboiron. The book highlights the indigenous concept of connecting with and respecting Land (capitalized L), which is not just the physical area but the overarching essence giving rise to everything in that area. The book describes how this concept of Land helped the author’s CLEAR lab to respect the local indigenous sentiments while conducting their research on fish guts. The book also quotes the lab members feeling a deep connection and reflection while respectfully returning fish guts back to the water. I felt this same energy in the discussion when professor Dulic mentioned about caring for and “celebrating” the salmon in the ceremony at Penticton.

I was surprised to learn how the Waterways project involved generative art to create interactive visualizations of the Okanagan in its pristine, pre-developed state. This is a testament to the interdisciplinary breadth of the project, involving artists, biologists, indigenous historians, 3D designers, and others.

Circling back to care, celebration and love, for nature and for each other, I fully agree with professor Dulic’s opinion that the capitalistic worldview of exploitation is too arid to foster such qualities. It also influenced the sciences, dehumanizing it and leaving no room for emotions. Near the end of the discussions, professor Janmaat highlighted an important connection with the previous presentation, that the dfab robot taking over the creativity and passion of a craftsperson and making the craft akin to assembling legos is an example of such dehumanization. While professor Dulic mentioned that the creative responsibility would shift to the designers rather than the robot, I agree with professor Janmaat that it might not feel the same. For example, I perhaps belong to the final generation of people who wrote traditional letters for regular communication. For the people whom I care about, telling them I love them over mobile texts did not initially feel the same and was a major transition for me, even though texts can be creatively crafted. However, I cannot dispute the importance of cellphone, and over the last decade I have slowly accepted it as a reasonable compromise considering the realities of our hectic modern lifestyle.

Reasonably accommodating emotions into our cold dominant worldview may solve some of the world’s problems, and would surely help in the Brandt’s creek restoration project. Brandt’s creek needs love.

Kevin Auster

Hi Shaiyan. You did a good job describing and connecting to what Aleksandra presented. What resonates the most with me from your reflection is your mention of Aleksandra's opinion on the capitalistic worldview and its dehumanizing factors. Your conclusions from this resemble my own. I talked about the distinction between the industrial age society and the regenerative society and how these worldviews provide the framework or foundation for society's functions. I found it interesting how each of our approaches to this idea in our reflections differed but still arrived at about the same conclusions. We each found that incorporating a regenerative worldview in our dominantly industrial society would help lead to more sustainable outcomes.

Daisy Pullman

Dr Aleksandra Dulic’s presented on the interdisciplinary project Waterways – the Past, Present and Future of the Okanagan Waterscape, of which she was the principal investigator. I found this project extremely interesting and closely related to my own research interests which revolve around the history of the Okanagan bioregion. As an interdisciplinary researcher, I also found the broad scope of the project and the diverse collaborators an inspiring example of what interdisciplinary collaboration can look like. I was also inspired by the public-facing nature of the Waterways project: community-engaged approaches are essential to reorienting our collective worldview to address the sustainability challenges we face. For our research to make real change, it has to leave the academy, and Waterways is a great example of that.

My thesis research will explore cultures of nature in the Okanagan valley, so I resonated with Dr Dulic’s discussion of art as a form of knowledge production. How we imagine and represent a place, whether through stories, art or even advertising, shapes that place. I reflected on the ways in which Kelowna represents itself and its history, and thought of the images that decorate transformer boxes around the city. Many show vintage magazine covers showcasing the natural beauty and outdoor leisure opportunities in the Okanagan, while others have old apple adverts, tapping into Kelowna’s reputation as a fruit producer. How does this nostalgic representation continue to shape the way we imagine Kelowna and the Okanagan?

Vintage apple advertising on a transformer box beside the highway in Kelowna, BC

Vintage magazine cover on a transformer box in Kelowna, BC

Dr Dulic’s discussions of salmon conservation and restoration, and the need for an approach based on care and connection reminded me of the book Underflows: Queer Trans Ecologies and River Justice by Cleo Wölfle Hazard. A core argument of Underflows is the need for ecologists to embrace the emotional aspects of their work, and transcend disciplinary bounds and expectations by writing and speaking about those emotions. While Dr Dulic did not directly discuss queer theory or methodology, I can see significant overlap with many of the ideas raised in her presentation.

Leandra Vanbaelinghem

I strongly agree and appreciate Daisy's wording regarding how it is essential to have community engagement to address sustainability challenges through changing our collective worldview. I interpreted the Waterways project solely at the surface of spreading awareness and knowledge. I did not see the deeper underlying purpose of shifting worldview, so I am very grateful Daisy pointed this out in her reflection. It was fascinating to see Daisy's comparative input of the decorative transformer boxes around the city and its similarity with Dr. Dulic's work. These images helped me understand on a deeper level how art is a form of knowledge production, how it can help shape the way places are viewed, and how that can be used for better and increased community care. Lastly, having also read Underflows: Queer Trans Ecologies and River Justice by Cleo Wölfle Hazard, I understand and see the connection between ideas from this book and Dr. Dulic's presentation, reinforcing my own learning.

Kevin Auster

Aleksandra Dulic presented ideas for regenerative sustainability and applied them to waterways in Kelowna. Aleksandra contrasts the industrial age society against the regenerative society. The industrial age society values dominance over nature, fossil fuels, consumption, global production, income, production, sacrificing sustainability, and a linear system that leads to waste. Conversely, the regenerative society values the partnership with nature, renewable energies, local production, relationality, and sustainability as a positive action and a circular system that recycles and prevents waste. Aleksandra uses waterways in Kelowna to demonstrate the need for regenerative solutions in the area by compiling data to recreate the natural environment before human development in Kelowna. Initially, much of Kelowna was swamp land with tributaries, while today, Kelowna's waterways are restricted to just a few creeks. The current development of Kelowna can be attributed to an industrial-age society because much of the area's waterways have been sacrificed to make space for urban development. Ideally, a regenerative approach should be applied more broadly in Kelowna.

My main takeaway from this presentation was the contrast between the industrial age society and the regenerative society. Understanding these ideologies is essential to sustainable development because the industrial society represents unsustainable practices while the regenerative society represents sustainable practices. Making distinctions between these two ideologies is helpful because ideas and intentions create the foundation for how development is conducted. The implication of these approaches means that If we want to be more sustainable, it will mean adopting a regenerative ideology in society. Without support for regenerative ideas, implementing sustainable policy and development won't be easy.

Industrial and regenerative society are also important concepts because they are processes that involve many different functions of society, which makes them interdisciplinary concepts that require an examination from many different angles to be understood. For example, I see how these ideologies fit into the practice of urban planning. Urban planning aims to build cities that facilitate healthy communities. Healthy communities generally require a sustainable approach to planning that balances economic, social, and environmental needs against each other to provide outcomes that preserve and provide for the community well into the future; this makes sustainability in urban planning an example where ideas from the industrial and regenerative society can be applied to understand and make sustainable decisions.

Anjali Desai:

Hi Kevin, it was very interesting to read how clearly you brought out the theme of the difference between the industrial and regenerative society. In the current capitalistic and profit driven world, Land is seen as a resource which has led to large scale exploitation. I concur with you that it is important to have a regenerative approach especially in your area of study of urban planning which will eventually lead to a balanced and sustainable society.

Hoda Pourpirali

The presentation by Dr. Aleksandra Dulic has brought to light the rich cultural heritage and wisdom of indigenous peoples who have lived in harmony with their environment for centuries. These communities, like the nomadic people in the northwest to southwest Iran, have a deep appreciation and reverence for nature and understand the concept of sustainability at a fundamental level. Their way of life is built upon a relationship of interdependence with their surroundings, and this has allowed them to survive and thrive for generations.

However, the rapid pace of modernization and industrialization has led to a dramatic shift in our relationship with nature. We have been making massive changes to the environment, with a focus on immediate gains and short-term solutions, often at the expense of long-term sustainability. The construction of dams, for instance, may provide immediate benefits to local communities but has devastating impacts on the ecosystems and wildlife that depend on the rivers and streams.

The time has come for us to rethink our approach to nature and the environment. We must move away from a culture of domination and exploitation and embrace a culture of partnership and respect. By doing so, we can work towards a future that is sustainable and equitable for all, not just for a select few. This will require a significant shift in our attitudes and behaviors, as well as a willingness to learn from the wisdom and traditions of indigenous and nomadic communities.

In conclusion, the insights and perspectives shared by Dr. Aleksandra Dulic serve as a reminder of the crucial role that indigenous peoples play in preserving the health and stability of our planet. By embracing their teachings and learning from their experiences, we can build a better future for ourselves and for generations to come.

Shaiyan Siddique

Hi Hoda! It was very interesting to learn about the nomadic people of Iran sharing similar sentiment and relationship with nature as that of the indigenous communities thousands of miles away in North America. This can be considered as a testament to the ideology of respect and connection with their surroundings that people across the world shared before the advent of the capitalistic worldview of exploitation and domination. I also agree with your opinion and professor Dulic’s discussion that modernization has made us severely myopic regarding the long-term sustainability of the environment. We must relearn to respect our surroundings again and stop playing master over nature, and a worldview of compassion and empathy is a way towards that end.