The David Suzuki Foundation is currently seeking requests for participation in creating an Indigenous pollinator plant map for their Butterflyway Project.
About the Butterflyway Project
Wild pollinators such as butterflies and bees are crucial to human survival. Climate change, development and widespread pesticide use are compromising their habitat and food sources. The Butterflyway Project aims to help people step up efforts to help pollinators find food and shelter.
The project is a volunteer-led movement that plants native butterfly-friendly wildflowers in neighbourhoods throughout Canada. Volunteer teams of Butterflyway Rangers support the project in 15 communities. The goal is to create ‘butterflyways’ by planting at least a dozen pollinator patches in each community.
Request for artist participation
The David Suzuki Foundation is working with Musqueam to commission a community artist to create the first Indigenous pollinator plant map (IPPM), based on the 163 plantings of native species by Butterflyway Rangers in Metro Vancouver. It will reflect the 163 plantings shown on the Google map.
The artistic rendition will be a poster-size Musqueam–themed interpretation of Butterflyway Rangers’ plantings across the Lower Mainland.
Musqueam artists can submit their expressions of interest in creating this new map for a budget of $2,500.
Plants include common camas, Oregon grape, nodding onion, goat’s beard, Pacific bleeding heart, western yarrow, Douglas aster, pearly everlasting, salal, hardhack, ocean spray and coastal kinnikinnick. The IPPM will also depict common butterflies that frequent Musqueam traditional territory.
A panel of representatives from the David Suzuki Foundation and the Musqueam Indian Band will select the winning artist.
The David Suzuki Foundation will own the final artist-rendered map as a part of the Butterflyway Project. The Musqueam artist’s IPPM will be shared with Butterflyway Rangers and the public for educational and public engagement purposes, to raise awareness and interest in Indigenous pollinator plants and traditional stories.
READ THE CALL FOR ARTISTS PDF
Deadline for submission is June 11, 2021.
ALL SKILL LEVELS ENCOURAGED TO APPLY!
Please include:
- Your name and age
- Two samples of your work
- A short description (maximum 300 words) of your IPPM idea
Please contact Delaney Beaton [email protected] or Winnie Hwo [email protected] if you have questions about the IPPM submission.
Submissions should be sent to Winnie Hwo [email protected], BC Project Lead, Butterflyway Project.
Physical copies/submissions can be dropped off to:
Musqueam Band Office
6735 Salish Drive
Vancouver, BC.
Attention: Protocol & Communications RE: The Butterflyway Project
Who are Butterflyway Rangers?
The David Suzuki Foundation’s national Butterflyway Project empowers people where they live and builds long-lasting relationships with communities to protect nature. It began recruiting and training volunteer Butterflyway Rangers to plant and preserve natural habitat for butterflies and other wild pollinators — especially in urban areas — in 2017.
There are currently more than 200 Butterflyway Rangers in B.C.’s Lower Mainland. In 2020, they collectively created 163 plots of native pollinator plants in Vancouver, Richmond, the District of North Vancouver, Burnaby, West Vancouver and South Surrey. These appear as the Indigenous pollinator plant map on Google.
What is the Indigenous pollinator plant map?
The IPPM initiative is distinct to B.C. Butterflyway Rangers. It’s guided by a committee (Vancouver Butterflyway Rangers Carol Both, Lori Snyder from Moberly Arts and Cultural Centre and Selina Pope from Riley Park; and Anne-Marie Fenn from Anderson Elementary in Richmond) that helps Rangers plant native species to create habitat for wild pollinators and ensures these plantings help connect Rangers, the public and Indigenous communities. The committee hopes to receive guidance from the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm people on the 2020-21 IPPM.
Butterflyway Maps
In the past, the Butterflyway Project commissioned Toronto artist Sarah Lazarovic to produce city-based Butterflyway maps for Vancouver, Richmond and the District of North Vancouver:
The Musqueam-themed IPPM will be the first Indigneous pollinator plant map. It will also be the first to showcase Butterflyway Rangers’ plantings in all three of the above cities, plus Burnaby, South Surrey and West Vancouver.
