Fish as Storytellers: Intangible Knowledge and Lived Practices
With Zoe Todd and Courtney Chetwynd
October 2 - 6, 2025
Drawing inspiration from fish as storytellers in their own right, this workshop will explore storytelling, play, and artistic creation as tools for sense-making. Through interactive dialogue, collective visioning sessions, collaborative art-making, and land-based reflection, participants will explore how diverse relationships in their lives give rise to profound knowledge in storied and tacit ways. This workshop invites a playful approach to art and story-work that embraces the spiritual and metaphysical, guided by what fish have to teach us.
This workshop is open to all levels of creative practice — from ‘amateur’ to ‘professional’. We encourage participants to bring their diverse experiences to this program. The aim of this gathering is to (re)discover the joy and spark of working carefully and thoughtfully with stories and art in a time of collective crises and challenges. Join us for a celebration of our shared connections to fish, water, land, stories, and co-created futures.
Program Highlights
- collaborative art-making
- collective visioning sessions
- land-based reflection
Program Objectives
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To (re)ignite joy and curiosity in working with stories and art as tools for reflection, connection, and resilience during times of crisis and change.
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To inspire ways of thinking, feeling, and creating that honor land and water as living entities, with their own stories, rhythms, and ways of being.
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To cultivate a sense of community and shared learning among participants with diverse backgrounds and experiences.
This program is for you if…
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You are interested in how stories, dreams, and intuitive knowing can help navigate times of crisis, change, and transformation.
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You are looking for a welcoming and inclusive space to experiment with creative ideas, whether or not you consider yourself an artist or
writer.
Daily Schedule
A detailed schedule will be emailed to you about 30 days prior to your program. Click here to view last year’s program schedule.
Presenters
Dr. Zoe Todd (she/they) is an Associate Professor of Indigenous Studies and Canada Research Chair (Tier 2) in Indigenous Governance and Freshwater Fish Futures at Simon Fraser University. They are Red River Métis and a practice-led artist-researcher from Alberta (with family connections to the historic St Paul des Métis Settlement)…
Learn more about Zoe Todd
Dr. Courtney Chetwynd is an artist-researcher and community organizer whose deep roots in the Eastern and Western Arctic of the Northwest Territories, Canada, stem from being raised in these vibrant and remote regions. She holds a Ph.D. in practice-led research and interdisciplinary studies from the University of Dundee’s Duncan of…
Learn more about Courtney Chetwynd