Spirit Fish March 22nd, 2009
A perfect way to spend World Water Day
- Spirit of the River goddess and water nymph drift near the origami “Prayers for the water” boats
On March 22nd Still Moon Arts Society hosted a special event to celebrate World Water Day. Spirit Fish is a pilot project we have been developing to make art that helps us connect with our watershed. During Spring break artists Carmen Rosen and Tamara Unroe led workshops at day camps at both Renfrew and Wesburn community centres. Children learned that rain that falls in our neighbourhood flows into Still Creek, on to Burnaby Lake, the Fraser River and finally the ocean. The children made spirit fish boat lanterns to float in Still Creek and were invited to bring them to the Spirit Fish celebration on Sunday March 22nd at Burnaby Lake. The sunny day was perfect. A water nymph and salmon puppet played with the families as they followed their boats down Still Creek into Burnaby Lake. At the Rowing Pavilion we had a wonderful Local Abundance dinner lovingly made by Stephanie Lim and Food Security Institute volunteers. At twilight we put our origami prayer boats into the water and watched as the Giant Spirit of the River Goddess drifted over the lake, candles glowed, and musicians played on the dock. We are very pleased with how Spirit Fish has begun. We plan to develop it into a larger water awareness art event in the future that links many neighbourhoods and watersheds together in celebrating and caring for the water.
