ICYMI
Keepers of the Water Board Co-Chair will be attending an arts-based research project at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna
Keepers of the Water, Board of Directors Co-chair, Cleo Reece, will be traveling to Vienna, Austria to attend the Reflecting Oil Colloquium from June 9 - 12, 2022 at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. The arts-based research project Reflecting Oil’s international colloquium seeks to further propel the project’s multi-perspective rethinking of crude oil in an effort to shed fresh light on our understanding of the socioeconomic and environmental impacts of contemporary society’s dependence on fossil fuels, and of the urgent need for sustainable transitions to clean energy.
A public event consisting of an oil performance by invited choreographer Kat Válastur and a panel discussion will inaugurate proceedings. The inaugural event will take place at the auditorium/ atrium and be live-streamed from 6:00-8:30 pm.
Opening: 9 June 2022, 6pm (free and open to the general public)
Performance: Kat Válastur (in cooperation with Thomas Grill (AT) and Ernst Logar)
Panel discussion: Jordan Kinder (CA), Ernst Logar (AT), Holger Ott (AT), Cleo Reece (CA), Kat Válastur (DE)
Moderation: Alejandra Rodríguez-Remedi (GB)
“Water is sacred, not a commodity to be bought and sold, we must protect our water for future generations.”
Cleo Reece is Cree and a Fort McMurray #468 First Nation member. She received a Bachelor of General Studies: Education and Environmental Studies from Simon Fraser University (Vancouver). As a film festival organizer and administrator, she has been involved in media and video production in Vancouver during the 90s and early 2000s and was a key figure in the burgeoning indigenous media arts scene on the lower mainland.
Cleo Reece has worked as an adult educator for Keyano College and Northland School Division (Fort McMurray) and has been involved in Cree language revitalization and oral history. In 2011, she was elected as a Councillor for the Fort McMurray First Nation and served for three years. As the Treaty 8 First Nations of Alberta designate, she has been on the Traditional Knowledge Steering Committee for the Mackenzie River Basin Board as the Indigenous member for Alberta from 2013 to 2017. She has also served on the Treaty 8 Education Committee for over five years.
Reece coordinated the Healing Gathering for the Land, Water, and People from 2015 to 2018. For four years, the Healing Gathering focused on cultural, mental, physical, and emotional healing. As the founding director of the Keepers of the Athabasca Watershed Society, which merged with its sister organization, the Keepers of the Water, she is currently the co-chair and involved in their many activities. In addition, she is an elder advisor on the Aramat project which brings together a team on a six-year project with focus on global biodiversity and the health and well-being of Indigenous people led by the University of Alberta and Indigenous partners.
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