Water acts and poetry

Rita Wong will deliver inaugural UPEI Don Mazer Arts and Science Lecture

Water is a precious necessity that shapes and sustains lives, yet current and potential watershed problems are a serious challenge on P.E.I. as well as globally.

The Island is the only Canadian province to rely solely on groundwater for drinking water. To ensure the continual sustainability and potability of water, provincewide hearings are currently being held for the Water Act.

In a timely visit to P.E.I., Rita Wong, a professor, watershed researcher, activist, poet and multi-media artist, will deliver the inaugural UPEI Don Mazer arts and science lecture Feb. 4 at 7 p.m. in the Alex H. MacKinnon Auditorium, Room 242, of UPEI’s Don and Marion McDougall.

Wong’s talk, entitled Humble Autonomy: Renewing Culture through Participatory Water Ethics, will focus on Vancouver, with ample time afterward for the audience to discuss parallels with P.E.I. A reception with refreshments will follow.

In addition to research presentations on watershed issues, Wong uses poetry to reflect on human relations with water. Her poetry book “Undercurrent” reminds humanity that “we are water bodies,” and that people need to honour this reality.

UPEI is also honoured to host Wong on Feb. 5, 7:30 p.m., for a public reading of her poetry, in the Dawson Lounge (Room 520) in SDU Main Building. The reading is sponsored by the UPEI faculties of Arts and Science with funding from the Canada Council for the Arts.

Wong grew up in Calgary. She is currently an associate professor in critical and cultural studies at Emily Carr University in Vancouver. Living and working in Vancouver, she became interested in water ethics because of the surprising lack of aboveground streams.

In the earlier part of her career, she was known for her work in Asian Canadian studies and her inter-disciplinary research and multi-media art. For this work, Wong received a major research-creation grant from the Social Sciences and Humanity Research Council of Canada. Once she shifted focus to water issues, she received another SSHRC research-creation grant.

She has won the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize and the Asian Canadian Writer’s Workshop Emerging Writer Award and is renowned for examining relationships among contemporary poetics, social justice, ecology, and decolonization.

Wong’s water talk and poetry reading come at a vital time for development of P.E.I.’s understanding of water ethics and sustainability. As many Islanders work to modernize our water laws, those who want to gain new perspectives on water’s value will have the opportunity to listen to one of Canada’s important investigators of participatory water ethics and watershed issues.

The UPEI Don Mazer Arts and Science Lecture is presented by the UPEI faculties of arts and science.