Wildflower/Wildfire Atlas , 2025-2026

This series emerged from multi-season field research at the Monument Creek Wildfire site (cut block R14738E) in Sn̓ʕay̓ckstx/Sinixt territory, BC. A landscape heavily shaped by industrial logging and climate‑driven fire, the site also revealed slow yet steady regeneration as new growth emerged from scorched soil. These paintings underscore the resilience of the site’s ecological communities through continuity and renewal.

Created primarily from a palette of mineral and plant pigments sourced at the vast wildfire site over several seasons, these works are the result of intensive fieldwork, botanical and ethnobotanical learning, and chemical experimentation. Titles incorporate English and Latin plant names to acknowledge traditions of botanical classification. This global naming convention is entangled with histories of British imperialism that shape the landscape’s current condition. Yet the convention has rendered invisible the local: a web of ethnobotanical relationships that go further back and further forward than any exploitative land management could. Thus, each plant’s n̓səl̓xčin̓ (Southern Interior Salish language spoken by the Sinixt) names and associated meanings are also included. These names and their meanings contain knowledge about a specific place and its people, and a lineage of practical, respectful, and essential human-botanical relationships. The fact that these names and translations exist now is a testament to cultural resilience and intensive community language revitalization efforts.

I learned and was given permission to share these names from Christopher Parkin, Principal of the Salish School of Spokane, WA, assisted by Eileen Delehanty Pearkes, author of Geography of Memory: Reclaiming the Cultural, Natural and Spiritual History of the Snayackstx (Sinixt) First People(2022), and reviewed by Sinixt elder Shelly Boyd. I am thankful for the openness and support I received when I reached out with an interest in learning about these plants. A depth of knowledge and connection to the land is imbedded in the language, a depth that I’ve barely scratched the surface of while working on this project. I’m grateful for the opportunity to learn.

The research for Wildflower/Wildfire Atlas has been generously supported by the Canada Council for the Arts.

Images photographed by Kenton Doupe unless stated.