Viewing Party: Changing Course, A River’s Journey of Reconnection

March 21, 2024
7-9 p.m. MST
11527 Alaska Rd. S, Fort St John

BRFN Restoration Staff are hosting a film screening of Changing Course: A River’s Journey of Reconnection. We hope you can join us! This is not a paid event, but we expect to have popcorn and great conversation.

Please register here if you would like to attend remotely.

Description from the organizer:

The 2000-kilometre Columbia River flows through the heart of the Pacific Northwest, beginning its journey in British Columbia’s Rocky Mountains and emptying into the Pacific Ocean in Oregon. This transboundary river is critically important for its cultural, social, economic, and ecological values. Telling the story of this majestic river, Changing Course offers a deep sense of the importance of freshwater management—and the complexities added when a river flows across human-defined borders.

The film explores the degradation of what was once one of the most productive salmon rivers in the world. It looks at the dams and storages that eliminated wild salmon from the main stem of the river in Canada, and how this loss cut the heart out of Indigenous culture throughout the basin. The film also touches on the Columbia River Treaty, which came into force between Canada and the United States in 1964. At the time, it had a very narrow focus on flood control and hydropower. Sixty years later, however, new thinking is needed to ensure a sustainable future for this important river.

In Changing Course, leading voices from Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities eloquently express the need for new approaches to water management and governance that are more connected to nature, account for climate change, and meaningfully include First Nations leadership.

Join us for the premiere of Changing Course: A River’s Journey of Reconnection (2024) to celebrate World Water Day, followed by a conversation with Mark Thomas (Councillor, Shuswap Band and Chair, Columbia River Salmon Reintroduction Initiative Executive Working Group), Larry George (Director of Lulumexun (Lands & Self-Governance), Cowichan Tribes), and Katrina Adams (Senior Aquatic Biologist, Peninsula Streams & Shorelines).

Event presented by the POLIS Water Sustainability Project and Centre for Global Studies with support from Creatively United, University of Victoria Sustainability Project, Watershed Watch Salmon Society, University of Victoria Environmental Law Centre, and the Borders in Globalization Lab.