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Hello Cool World Intern Julius Booth creates short film from Archival footage

By Julius Booth On August 21, 2013 | 0 Comments

Verifying/Tkwáynai7m - A Short film by Julius Booth

Before packing my things and heading off to Montreal, I interned at Hello Cool World during a remarkably sunny July. The perfect send off from a city I’ve called home for so long. Accentuating the great month was the great time I had in the HCW office. Thanks to Kat and David for making me feel super welcome. Kat and I had quite a few ideas for what I could do at the beginning of the month but it turned out editing was my thing. When comparing the following video with my first its obvious how much I learned in such a short period of time.

I’ve been in Montreal for almost two weeks and I’m writing this only now because of the whirlwind of activity that’s involved in renting and furnishing an apartment. The hard work is behind me and a crazy first week of university awaits. Enjoy this short film on what was easily the most important day of the entire Uts’am/Witness Project.

Editors Note: We've been thrilled to have Julius for part of the summer and we're very proud of the short film he's made. Looking back at the events of 2001 and doing new interviews with Chief Bill, Nancy and myself was a great way to be reminded of what, with the participation of over 10,000 people, the Uts'am project accomplished. We wish Jules all the best at McGill and will miss having him around!

Watch the film after the break...

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Julius Booth is our Hello Cool World summer marketing intern. Every day, he bikes along the sea wall and is fed amazing lunches which make up for his lack of pay. He is heading to McGill in the fall for his first year of University.

Verifying/Tkwáynai7m

By Julius Booth On August 04, 2013 | 0 Comments

Check out our new "digital extension" of the upcoming book! Special pre-sales price until Oct 15!

Defend Our Coast Rally at Legislature

By Katherine Dodds On October 23, 2012 | 0 Comments

Strong Words from Chief Ian Campbell at yesterday's Defend our Coast Rally. Heartening to see so many people come together, and to see ceremony and protocol being "served' to the politicians!

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Katherine Dodds AKA "Kat" is the founder of Good Company Communications and HelloCoolWorld.com. Trained in renegade advertising & branding through her work with Adbusters in the '90s, Kat's early induction into the possibilities of the web-world was inspired by the term hypertext, which she immediately found comforting. She is dedicated to cause-related communication and to the development and use of tools that promote democratic processes.

At long last, the re-written manuscript is with Douglas & McIntyre (D & M)

By Katherine Dodds On July 28, 2012 | 0 Comments

Wow, has it really been over a year that we've been working on this book? We were told it's a long process, and guess what - it is! Exciting though. We just got our second round of re-writes into our publisher, and now, it's really hitting us that in June of next year this book is going to be born! While the camping trips to Sims Creek are now over, and the area has been returned to its ancestral name Nexw-áyantsut, our greatest hope is that the process of making this book can be a way to start up a new phase of the Uts'am/Witness Project, one that concentrates on using media to encourage dialogue. We hope to upgrade this website to make it more interactive and to have a story gathering feature. We also hope to have more 'digital extensions' AKA short videos documenting the ongoing work that has been re-ignited by the book process.

Here's a tiny excerpt from the beginning of the book:

Prologue: Picturing Transformation, Nexw-áyantsut

Uts’am/Witness Stories

Once upon a moment in time immemorial, during a decade from 1997 to 2007, a particular piece of land witnessed a transformation. At first known simply as the “Witness Project,” a community formed around an “invitation to witness” during camping weekends on the sandbar at Sims Creek, deep in the northern part of Squamish Nation’s traditional territory. At the project’s conception there was an urgent feeling over contested logging practices in what was being described as British Columbia’s “war in the woods.”

As a formal project, Uts’am/Witness was co-founded by Squamish Nation Hereditary Chief Bill Williams/telàsemkin-siyam; the late mountaineer and wilderness educator John Clarke; and photographer and artist Nancy Bleck. In 1997 Witness came into being officially when Nancy became the artist-in-residence at the Roundhouse Community Centre during the summer of its inaugural year. Out of this seed, the decade-long project grew—with a few unexpected turns. As Nancy said, “It was supposed to be a feel-good art project. But it became political in its very first breath.”

The Witness project was always evolving, defying definition and a clear beginning, middle and end. More than a project, it was a journey.

For Nancy, the journey began by getting to know the land through the camera. For John, it was in sharing his infectious love and knowledge for the land with others. And for Chief Bill, it was about cultural survival. Drawn together by a passion for the land, their commitment to experiencing it, recording it and sharing its significance culturally and spiritually, the three of them collectively conceived a project that none of them could have imagined or enacted alone. As John recalled, “I met Nancy in the best possible way, around a campfire. But when we met Chief Bill, now that was the magic weekend when everything changed.” The process of coming together that emerged from the project transformed one particular battleground into a place of peace

A sandbar became a longhouse, and a sandbar, as sandbars in the wild are known to do, disappeared. What reappeared was the rich traditional history of this special place. A new space of collaboration was opened up, and the public was invited in to witness.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now that this milesone has been crossed, there is still lots of work to do! Nancy is working on getting the latest final scans into D & M (and working on a new peice) and Chief Bill is working on getting a Squamish language glossary to be added to the book. And of course now we are into the fundraising stage! Read on...

Picturing Transformation, Nexw-áyantsut: The Trailer: version 1

By Katherine Dodds On October 13, 2011 | 0 Comments

We have just released the trailer (version 1)! Book pre-sales to support the project are available on the Hello Cool World webstore.

Please give us your feedback on the book trailer as we plan to create a final version soon. We wanted to get this one up in time for the Bioneers Conference. A few years ago Chief Bill Willams and Nancy Bleck presented on the Uts'am/Witness Project at Bioneers, the conference has a strong indigenous presence — featured this year in their indigeneity Program.

Hello Cool World, who is helping to create the digital extensions, and set up the pre-sales is currently at Bioneers seeking a sponsor/funder to support the printing of the book in Canada (not China!) with eco-friendly materials. In order to keep the cost of buying the book accessible to all, we want to raise this money to subsidize the printing. Anyone who can help contact kdodds@hellocoolworld.com.

Tag(s): Aboriginal, Uts'am Witness

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