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Merry-Icicle Drainage

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White River study-Merry

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Dirty Face study-Merry

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Writing Sample #1, Excerpt from A Natural History of Gestation and Birth, a Chapter in a Forthcoming Book

Snorkeling surveys taught me how unlike a fish I am. Especially in 2006, when I was four months pregnant.

In order to submerge myself in frigid rivers to count fish for my U.S. Forest Service work, I bundled first in head-to-toe fleece. These layers fit underneath a heavy-duty canvas drysuit whose rubber seals bound my wrists and neck. My belly was not too large yet, but it was beginning to press against the unyielding canvas.

The zipper in the back had to be opened or closed by another crew member, and once inside the drysuit, I felt less human than vehicular. Especially when I added my accoutrements: snorkel, mask, PVC arm cuff and attached pencil for recording fish sightings, and waterproof headlamp. The headlamp both lit my way and illuminated the fish during nighttime surveys. In the darkness, the fish flashed and darted rather than lurking out of sight under and within submerged woody debris.

We entered the water as if receiving a group baptism. But rather than leaning back for an immersion, the four of us spread out across the river, dropped to our knees, kicked the toes of our boots into the gravel, and plunged face first into what was often a powerful onslaught of cold water. We then worked our way slowly upstream, observing fish within our parallel lanes.

Underneath, the water was hazy, almost viscous, and the colors muted. I lumbered against the flow, my gloved fingers making small purchase in the streambed, sometimes sending pebbles tumbling past me. With no smells to distract me and the sound of rushing water an internalized white noise, it was easy to focus on the fish—dark shadows that suddenly glinted in my light. Examining this unfolding world, I barely noticed my face slowly numbing in the icy water.

I had to search the substrate for some of the fish, like the sculpins, which rested on the streambed and blended in, matching the mottled patchwork of tans and grays. To find them, I learned to spot the frilly edges of their fanlike fins. The trout and whitefish, stationed mid-water column, let us creep toward them. Surely, they heard us coming. But they held steady against the flowing water, hovering in place with little apparent effort. They scattered only when I came close enough to touch them.

These beautiful fish, their sleek bodies evolved over millennia, moved with a finesse I lacked. I needed three points of contact—both boot tips digging into the streambed and a gloved hand gripping the substrate—to hold my position. The tiny one inside me, however, was something in between. She was suspended in water, moving tiny limbs and spinning in place. Unable to undulate or dart, she was more like a goldfish trapped in a bowl. But she was in her natural habitat.

We finished snorkeling a section of river and emerged for a break on the bank. And now that I was upright, the small bulk of her pressed on my bladder. I asked for help unzipping my drysuit, then squeezed my head through the neck gasket, peeled the unwieldy suit most of the way off, and reversed the arduous process a few minutes later. I envied my colleagues who went about work without needing double pee breaks or cycling through hunger, eat, heartburn, repeat.

When we returned to the water and I thrust my face below the surface again, the force of the current hit me anew. The full body tug exerted by the river reminded me suddenly of twenty months earlier, when my first baby—a boy—was tugged from my body, and I, under lower-half anesthesia, felt my body resist the doctor’s efforts to wrestle him from my womb. How I got there was closely intertwined with my previous field job, which was as terrestrial as this one was aquatic.

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Hello again. I wish I was in a creative space more often, but I started to think about my other work, and it became clear that it is connected to my creative passions. For my hospital nonprofit day job, my favorite tasks are connecting and collaborating with others for a greater good, like fundraising for a new mobile clinic, working toward suicide prevention training in schools, and sharing COVID vaccine information. This work is like being part of a healthy ecosystem with interconnections and evolving mutualistic relationships.

One of my other passions, coaching kids’ running, for ages 5 to 18, is about sharing the love of being and moving outside. We run often in parks and on trails. Running in the woods when I was young enabled me to grow and learn about myself and my environment. I hope these young runners are encouraged to explore and be astonished by the world again and again.

I write a lot, but mostly for the newspaper, magazines and fundraising appeals. But it’s like I’ve pruned my own branches through the process of editing and tightening my prose, so that now I can see and share my truths with more clarity and less adornment.

I am curious where this residency will take me and all of us. I look forward to really paying attention, to listening and learning from our predecessors and you and the places in our watershed where I find myself.

Estoy trabajando duro en mi espanol ahora. Es dificil. Aprender un nuevo idioma me prepare para escuchar la idioma de la naturaleza.

Emily kindly said she’d share a few highlights of my pieces from my application.

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Hello everyone, I am Amber Zimmerman.  I am a Washington native and grew up in the Leavenworth/Plain area. I studied Environmental Science and Fine Art at the Evergreen State College, graduated in 2000 with a degree in Environmental Art: Sculpture. I also worked for the Wenatchee Okanogan Forest Service on the Botany Crew, fire ecology and fungi studies for a few years.  Still live in the outskirts of Leavenworth and am raising two daughters in connection to this land.

I am part of a family with generations of women artists. My medium is mixed - I work in glass, wood, painting and metal. I create symbolic images inspired by nature and the feminine spirit.  I participate in several gallery shows a year. Additionally, I sell a wholesale line of items, teach adult painting classes, and co-teaching mind/body/spirit workshops.  I also teach k-6 art. I have served on many art boards and am involved in the community.

Looking forward to this residency to see more pieces to the puzzle in understanding the sense of place of where we live and how it has changed. I hope to learn from other artists’ interpretations and insights. I hope to learn more about the Wenatchi that live here and honor their place through history and now. Seeing a place through new eyes offers new connections and new ways to grow. A visual language has the opportunity to connect us all to a sense of place in a deep and profound way. I hope to weave details of the watershed into a large mandala as a finished piece reflecting on this residency.

Instagram and Facebook: @amberzimmermanart

Website: https://www.amberzimmermanart.com/

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Artist Amber Zimmerman teaches art and also sells her paintings and jewelry in a number of different mediums. Learn more about the sacred connection Amber creates with her handcrafted art, lovingly made in the Cascade Mountains of Washington State.

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Hi all, I've been writing poetry about human life as a part of Nature with a capital N for over 40 years. As a child and young person in New Jersey where I grew up, I was always outside prowling around rural landscapes close to my various homes. I need the wind and sun on my face to feel at home in myself.

Moving to the Methow in 2014 after many years as a visitor and then seasonal resident blew open my desire to express the seamlessness of our human lives within and as part of the larger natural world. I'm blessed to live directly above the Twisp River, song of my living, and backed into a bowl of hills that undulate into conservancy land further than I can walk in a day and nearly always without seeing another human being. I am an avid amateur photographer, walking and stopping to look, feel, see and then click pictures of sky, clouds, water, trees, and the remnants of ranching found in water troughs, a burnt out house, a stone foundation, holes full of discarded elements of human life.

As I mentioned when we met, my poetry has begun to delve more into the intersectionality of race, class, gender expression, ability, aging--these are the ways we embody our Selves. As an immigrant to this land with its deep history dating back to indigenous peoples lives, I do my best to walk here "in a sacred manner" never forgetting that the land belongs to itself first.

I've published two books of poetry, Blue Hunger, 2020, and Elegy with a Glass of Whiskey, 2004. I have a new manuscript currently seeking a publisher that catalogs the murders of 44 trans and gender nonconforming people in 2020. You can see my photos on my Facebook page, sometimes on Instagram @ beingsubhaga, and read some of my poems on my website.

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Hi everyone, I wanted to get the ball rolling on introducing ourselves with a bit of background. I have been a naturalist all my life, starting when I was five years old memorizing all the pictures in field guides and deciding this is what I was going to be when I grew up. In fact I dropped out of college so I could travel around the world working on field research projects. When I was 21, I spent a year at a remote research station in Borneo and decided then that I was going to be a writer and that I was going to live and work with the poet Gary Snyder. This is exactly what I did, moving to the Sierra Nevada where I worked with Gary for many years and stuck around to write books, articles, and lead thousands of naturalist programs. Basically what I've done my entire life is spend my days hiking and exploring the natural world, taking notes and asking questions, and spending my evening researching these questions, then sharing what I learn by giving talks, workshops, guided walks, and writing. Because Covid made it impossible to lead workshops and walks, I took up videography as a new way to tell stories and interpret the natural world. I have really enjoyed using videos as a new tool and it is the approach I expect to use for this program.

You might enjoy checking out some of my work. I actively post photos of my explorations and discoveries on Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/lukasguides/ and Facebook https://www.facebook.com/david.lukas.735. I also started a Facebook group called "Methow Nature Notes" that already has over 300 members who post a ton of fantastic photos and questions about the plants and animals of the Methow Valley.

My general website is www.lukasguides.com, but you might also be interested in my most recent book which is a handbook on how to create new words for speaking of the natural world, Language Making Nature.

And check out my YouTube channel to see some of my videos (you might enjoy the one about filming coyote puppies for two weeks!), David Lukas - YouTube.

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Location for documents related to the residency

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Mary Big Bull Lewis Blog: Speaker for Second Event

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Mary Big Bull Lewis Blog: Speaker for Second Event

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Land Acknowledgements As land acknowledgements are becoming more prevalent, it is important to understand & create meaningful recognitions. It is not enough to simply state whose land you are on. It is a start towards honoring, but important to understand it is not just a trend. For hundreds of years, our government has attempted to eliminate Native Americans through genocide, killing our culture, oppression and social injustices. It happened a long time ago, it doesn't effect or pertain to me. Our colonized history has us believe that these parts of history - social injustices, stolen land, oppression happened a long time ago therefore that it doesn't effect us currently. Our history books (not all) that are in our schools are written from a comfort third white-person lens, rather than speaking from first perspective history. That is why you, me and the majority of people do not know about who the original stewards of the land we currently occupy. It is everyones responsibility to continue to learn in order to do better. Many of our Native American parents & grandparents were forced into residential schools where they were forced to stop speaking our Native American languages, practicing our sacred cultural traditions, cut hair, forced into colonization. I have met family (Native Americans call acquaintances family - aunties, uncles, cousins, brothers, sisters) of the Wenatchi Tribe that have recognized our cultural teachings have been lost or a period of time where those important healings were not present in our families. Not only recognize but understand why we were not taught, why our history is non existent but also not blaming our own families for the pain they were forced into. Residential school conversations are difficult and extremely traumatic. However, they are a part of Native American history that is important to understand our culture & how this has effected generations and will continue to do so. You may think, well cutting your hair is not a big deal. Native American cultures have a strong tie to long hair. It is an extension of our soul, it holds memories, connects us to the earth and is & always has been important. Our colonized culture shames boys and men for wearing long hair. Stop that. You may think, languages are not a big deal. Many Native American tribal languages are extinct, because our ancestors were not able to pass along to their children or grandchildren. Our ancestors were punished for speaking traditional languages, practicing cultural teachings - they were abused physically and sexually. There is an estimated 6,000 children that died while in residential schools; however, there is no record or actual number available. Native American, First Nations, Indigenous children were taken from their parents, isolated from blood families to be treated inhumane in order to be assimilated. Our culture and traditions are our identity, we are deeply rooted in the land. We are the land and the land is us. Missing critical history painted with comfort, means we all need to learn in order to grow. Massacres that happened on the stolen land of Leavenworth, WA. Pandemics that decimated thousands of P'squosa villages that occupied the land. Social injustices. Native Americans, the original stewards of our lands who were here long before settlers staked claim to the sacred land, were not even granted citizenship into the colonizers laws until 1924. Until 1957, some states barred Native Americans for voting. This was 37 years after women (not all) were granted the right to vote. These are just a few examples that are necessary to understand in order to begin to comprehend the inequality Native Americans have faced immemorial. We are still here. Now, Native Americans (like myself) who want to learn our ancestors history, languages or culture, we have to go to a museum to learn. We have to read a third perspective stories of our ancestors in history books. Do not speak past tense, recognize Indigenous Peoples are still here. I ask that allies who are willing to help get #landback support the #landprotectors & #waterprotectors to take the time to learn about whose land you are on and do a proper land acknowledgement. It is a fine line between white saviors and allies. The difference is letting Indigenous lead. Listen & learn. Proper land acknowledgements need to include (but not limited to): The name of the tribe(s), learn the traditional names and pronunciations. There are a lot of great resources: Native Land (app for smartphones, and interactive website), Google, books, contact the tribal museum. History of the tribe. Acknowledge the treaties - how tribal land was stolen and where are the tribes now. Original languages spoken, what were the traditional foods, names & spellings of tribal members, respect sacred land. How to support the tribe(s). Find out information about Indigenous lead projects - like land back, or Indigenous youth centers, programs. Not all projects require monetary support, some need the help spreading the word - share, like and comments on social media posts, talk to your friends and family about Native American history. Your organizations can partner with tribes, or Indigenous lead organizations for clothing & food drives. Most importantly - step back, listen & learn.

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Wenatchi Wear is a PNW clothing company. We are passionate about creating awareness & empowering Indigenous communities through authentic threads. Design with a purpose: each of our designs shares local Native American history. We specialize in apparel for men & women: t-shirts, tank tops, hoodies, stickers & more.