People of different ages, backgrounds, and experiences gathered together for two Sundays to make art and talk about their climate anxiety. Parents, children, students, teachers, artists, retirees, scientists, athletes, writers, and the RAVEN communications team filled the Little Fernwood Gallery, sipped warm beverages, listened to music, and connected with each other. We were all there for RAVEN’s Solastalgia: Addressing Climate Anxiety through Community Building and Art-Making. First, in February, we co-created issue #2 of RAVEN’s community zine around the theme of “Collective Action,” and then in March, we took the ideas we talked about in the first session and turned them into linocut prints.
Collective action: What we can achieve together
For our first session, we co-created a community zine that explored collective action. Weaving in ideas of how we can connect across differences and take action as individuals and as a community, from diverting personal waste to showing up in solidarity with Indigenous rights movements—we discussed a multitude of ways we can all participate in re-imagining the future. We were lucky enough to be guided by two incredible facilitators, Aneri Garg, who is also RAVEN’s Development Coordinator and happens to have years of experience with collective action, and Desiree Wallace, a community organizer, artist, and storyteller who has worked for over a decade within climate and social justice movements.
We talked about what we hope to achieve through collective action to address climate justice, what holds people back from participating in collective action, what makes collective action sustainable, and what role we each play in collective action. It was inspiring to see participants’ willingness to have such open, vulnerable, and passionate conversations. Then we spent a few hours co-creating a zine based on those conversations. Participants also wove together a tapestry and made commitments for actions they are going to take going forward, showing how many actions can create a movement.
RAVEN’s second issue of the community zine has recently gone to print; physical copies are coming soon!
Making a mark: Linocut printing
For our second session, we came together to carve linocut prints. Jamie-Leigh Gonzales, RAVEN’s Communication Director, opened the session with a conversation around collective action and encouraged participants to show up and support local First Nations groups as a concrete way to take climate action.
The rest of the session was led by Cree and Métis artist Coulee Ross, who expertly explained the process for taking our ideas, drawing them, and then carving them into a lino block. Inspired by our first session on collective action, we expressed some of our dreams, ideas, hopes, and fears about climate anxiety and our collective futures through carving into the lino blocks and then doing a few prints together. We also loved all the conversations with folks about what actions they are taking and how they are supporting Indigenous and environmental rights.
We ended the session by putting everyone’s prints together to have a visual of our collective impact.
Creating community creates change
We love getting to connect with everyone in person; it fuels our work and is a reminder that together we can make a difference. Some of the feedback we hear is that people want more of these spaces to come together and connect. We will continue to hold Solastalgia sessions, but we encourage you to create space for community! One way you can do this is by becoming a RAVEN organizer. Bringing people together around a shared passion for Indigenous rights and environmental protection is fun and fulfilling. RAVEN provides all the materials you need to organize an event to bring people together to learn and have fun. If you’re interested in becoming a part of the movement, you can learn more about becoming an organizer here.
