issue 05 // volume 42

arts // no. 9

Reflect on the past with ‘Thunder in Our Voices’

» New gallery exhibit commemorates 1970s inquiry

Cheryl Minns
Arts Editor
Marts@theotherpress.ca

Te in our Voices, the
latest exhibit in the Amelia
Douglas Gallery, showcases how
powerful a group of people can
be when they fight for what they
believe in using only their voices.
Curated by Drew Ann Wake, the
exhibit features a collection of

portraits of the participants who
spoke during the Berger Inquiry.

The inquiry, led by Justice
Thomas R. Berger in the 1970s,
was to determine whether or not
to run a proposed natural gas
pipeline from Alaska, through BC
down the Mackenzie Valley, and
to Chicago. After local Aboriginal
youths and elders testified how
they felt the pipeline would affect
the land, the proposal for the
largest pipeline project in North
America was declined. Wake and
MacCannell covered the event as
media, Wake as a journalist with
CBC North, and MacCannell as a
photographer.

“Each Saturday | edited a
radio documentary with the most

: powerful speeches of the week—

: just voices, no commentary,” Wake
: wrote in her curator statement for
: the exhibit. “It was the most joyful
: job of my life.”

: take portraits of some of the

: participants who spoke at those

: historic hearings,” MacCannell

: wrote in her artist’s statement for
: the exhibit. “It was a privilege for
: me to be part of this continuing

. ; : story”

Linda MacCannell’s contemporary :
: gallery held an opening reception

: on October 2, followed by a panel

: discussion titled The Legacy of the
: Berger Inquiry. The talk took place
: in the Laura C. Muir Performance

: Theatre with guest speakers Wake,
: Michael Asch, Glen Coulthard,

: and Peter Stephenson.

: on Thunder in Our Voices,

: check out the Douglas College
: library guide to the exhibit at

: Guides.DouglasCollege.ca/

: ThunderInOurVoices.

: be on display until October 23 at

: the Amelia Douglas Gallery on the
: fourth floor of the Douglas College
: New Westminster campus.

“In 2009, I was invited to

To launch the exhibit, the

For more information

Thunder In Our Voices will

  

Photo by Cheryl Minns

 

Crowded Bookshelf: The colours of Mars

» ‘Mars’ trilogy review

Duncan Fingarson
Contrioutor

OOOO

ith the recent evidence of
water being discovered
on Mars, it seemed like a good
time to turn my attention to
the red planet. I picked up Kim
Stanley Robinson’s Mars trilogy
at a used-book sale because it

my minor fascination with space
travel. I was not disappointed.

The Mars books are hard
sci-fi, meaning a great deal of
research and effort went into
making them sound plausible. A
lot of the science is speculative,
but there’s nothing wholly
unbelievable as far as I can tell.
The story was similarly well-

efforts to colonize, study, and
ultimately tame the planet.

Book one, Red Mars, focuses
on the First Hundred, a select
team of 100 people chosen to lead
the first expedition to Mars, the
majority of whom are Americans
or Russians. A good deal of time
is spent on the ship developing
the relationships between the
characters and introducing
the themes that will carry
throughout the series. As is often
the case, human nature gets in

: the way of noble goals, and the

: First Hundred find themselves

: fracturing into ideological groups
: with very different ideas about

: how best to proceed with life on

: Mars. There are the Reds, who

: believe the planet should be

: preserved in its original state as

: muchas possible, and the Greens,
: who believe that the best course

: of action ends with the Martian

: surface supporting human life

. : : on its own. There are groups that
looked interesting, and because of : want to split from Earth to form
: aself-sufficient and completely

: Martian society, and groups :
: concerned with how to exploit the :
: resources of Mars for the benefits!
: of Earth. The machinations of the

: various groups drive the story, and :
: set things up moving into book
: two.

Green Mars picks up a little

: after the end of Red Mars, and
thought-out, following humanity’s : spends the first few chapters
: introducing a handful of new

: characters, including some of

: the first children to be born,

: and grow up, on Mars itself. The
: book develops the motivations

: of anumber of characters who

: got very little screen time in the
: first book, and deals with the

: fallout of previous events. Mars

: has become industrialized to

: some extent, with corporations

: controlling much of the cities.

: The disconnect between sides

: has grown, and the terraforming

: moves forward, seeding the

: surface with increasing amounts

: of plant life, and thickening the

: atmosphere. Themes of life and

: death are explored as a particular
: medical treatment developed on

: Mars to slow the process of aging
: has resulted in Earth’s population
: exploding, and an expanding

: gap between the class divisions

: of society. The book ends witha

: natural disaster of a grand scale

: on Earth, coupled with political

: revolution on Mars.

The fallout of the

: terraforming efforts, the

: revolution, and the natural

: disaster are the subject of the

: third book, Blue Mars. The

: trials of forming a new society

: are explored at length, and over

: amuch broader range of time

: than was featured in either of the
: previous two books. Blue Mars is

: about consequences, for better

: or worse, as human civilization

: spreads further out into the solar

: system, and steps are made to

: take it beyond. The final few

: chapters are unfortunately a little
: difficult to follow, but overall the

: series wraps up on a hopeful tone,
: and all the characters get proper

 

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: closure to their personal stories.

For fans of hard sci-fi, the

: Mars trilogy delivers. These are

: very intelligent books, and the

: characters and ideas presented

: within are well-developed. I have

: no trouble at all believing that

: things could play out as they

: doin the story, once humanity

: does start to colonize space.

: This is a subject that needs to be

: treated with respect and carefully

: considered, potentially by some of
: the current generation. If you have
: any interest in space, read these

: books. I'm glad I did.