In Review | Open Rivers Journal

Natalie Warren paddling a canoe. Image courtesy of Kelsey Daly.

In ReviewMay 10, 2022

On Rivers, Women, and Canoes

Open Rivers contacted Natalie Warren, author of Hudson Bay Bound: Two Women, One Dog, Two Thousand Miles to the Arctic, to talk about her memoir and the story it chronicles: a river trip by canoe with her best friend, Ann Raiho, from Minneapolis to Hudson Bay.

Lismore Castle from the Blackwater. Image courtesy of Paul McAree, Curator Lismore Castle Arts.

In ReviewFebruary 24, 2022

Light and Language at Lismore Castle Arts

By Ciara Healy Musson The Victorian artist Samuel Palmer (1805–1881) believed that certain points in the day—usually twilight—were the times when visionary and spiritual…

Arts Engagement International

In ReviewNovember 12, 2021

On Water, Equity, and Justice

This fall, I asked these fellows to contribute to this In Review column for Open Rivers by sharing what they are currently reading and why it matters to them. Their responses, like our meetings, offer a robust and varied collection of resources that will, I hope, enrich your own reading lists. Enjoy…

Education Environmental Justice International

From the exhibit, a canoe, paddle, and creation stories from the Asabiikone-zaa'igan (The Bois Forte Band of Chippewa). Image by Laura Mazuch, UMN Printing Services.

In ReviewMay 26, 2021

Why Canoes? An Exhibit at the University of Minnesota’s Northrop Gallery

Minnesotans love boats, and canoes are a particular favorite. The state has the highest per capita rate of recreational boat ownership in the nation, according to the Department of Natural Resources.[1] Consequently, the current exhibit, Why Canoes? Capacious Vessels and Indigenous Future of Minnesota’s Peoples and Places, at the Northrop Gallery should find an interested audience. The exhibit reflects the desire of three Indigenous peoples—Dakota, Anishinaabe, and Micronesian—to revitalize their canoe-building traditions, and to pass them on to the next generation.

Engagement Indigenous Studies Minnesota

Braided sweetgrass, its three strands representing the three interwoven components of the book: scientific knowledge, Indigenous story, and personal narrative. Image courtesy of Jamieson Lawrence.

In ReviewDecember 7, 2020

Woven Ways of Knowing

Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants (2013) is a nonfiction compilation of essays written by Robin Wall Kimmerer, a celebrated botanist, poet, and Indigenous member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. Reprint.

Education Indigenous Perspectives Science United States

The Colorado River is visible in the distance through a light haze under blue sky, at the base of the Grand Canyon's walls in its inner gorge. Foreground shows the high desert terrace.

In ReviewMarch 4, 2020

Time in the Canyon

By David Morrison A bit over half a century ago, Colin Fletcher walked, in two months, from one end of Grand Canyon National Park…

Engagement Geosciences United States

In ReviewNovember 21, 2019

Woven Ways of Knowing

Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants (2013) is a nonfiction compilation of essays written by Robin Wall Kimmerer, a celebrated botanist, poet, and Indigenous member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation.

Education Indigenous Perspectives Science United States

Garry Sibosado, Aalingoon (Rainbow Serpent), 2018, ochre pigment on engraved pearl shell, detail. Courtesy the artist.

In ReviewAugust 1, 2019

Desert River Sea is a Vibrant, Compelling Tour of the Kimberley

For the past century, the curator has been the deciding factor in what is shown by museums and galleries, reassuring audiences of the importance of what they are seeing. While acknowledging other commercial and audience drivers, the centrality of curatorial decision-making has been sacrosanct.

But when the curatorial team from the Art Gallery of Western Australia embarked on an epic quest to document the art of the Kimberley region in the state’s north west, they abandoned this idea of a single authorial voice in favor of a new model of partnership and exchange.

Arts Indigenous Perspectives International

Pinhook Day Embrace, 2015. Image courtesy of David Todd Lawrence.

In ReviewApril 24, 2019

Storying Pinhook: Representing the Community, the Floods, and the Struggle

When They Blew the Levee is a fierce love letter to the power of community, one encoded to Black sociality, the broader American social imaginary, and the mythical power of the Mississippi River. In praxis, it is a political tool—a lyrical baseball bat—for the residents of Pinhook, Missouri to wield in a rally against the sustained structural violence of a biased justice system and racialized world.

Environmental Justice Middle Mississippi River Planning / Policy Policy

"Returning the River" by Molly Van Avery, Dameun Strange, and Michael Hoyt. Image courtesy of Michael Hoyt.

In ReviewNovember 12, 2018

Review of Between the World and Me, by Ta-Nehisi Coates

As the water quality coordinator for the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area (MNRRA) for nine years, I organized and hosted the Mississippi River Forum. A monthly informational and networking series, the River Forum was one of my more visible tasks. A fundamental organizing principle of this ongoing series was to bring together a disciplinarily diverse group of water resource practitioners and decision-makers for conversations with people beyond their typical working relationships.

Arts Environmental Justice

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