“Birds! Birds! Birds!”
is an ongoing community-engaged art project celebrating our winged neighbours, from the smallest songbirds to the largest birds of prey.
It began with our various Calendario projects learning the birds.
For 18 months it expanded to other communities in B.C., culminating in “Birds On Parade” - a giant parade of stilt-walking birds, bird puppets large and small, and soaring flags, representing regional and migratory birds all along the seawall to the Vancouver Convention Centre to open the 27th International Ornithology Congress and the first Vancouver International Bird Festival, in August 2018.
Birds on Parade took place in Vancouver, on August 18, 2018
A co-production of Runaway Moon Theatre and Still Moon Arts
In partnership with the Vancouver International Bird Festival, The International Ornithological Congress, Vancouver Parks Board, and Coal Harbour and West End Community Centres.
Coordinating team: Paula Jardine, Carmen Rosen, Robi Smith, Cathy Stubington
Director: Paula Jardine
Design Team: Carmen Rosen, Cathy Stubington, Deb Humphries
Nature art facilitator: Robi Smith
Choreographer: Isabelle Kirouac
Stilt Instructors: Levana Prud’homme, Leif Saba, Aidan Sparks, Tamara Unro
Guest artists: Shadowland (from Toronto Island)
Other participating groups include the Allan Brooks Nature Centre, Splatsin Tsm7aksaltn Teaching Centre, Salmon Arm Bay Nature Enhancement Society, Theatre Inconnu (Victoria), Puppets for Peace , Lekwungen, Songhees and Esquimalt Territory (Victoria), All Nations Arts Society (Williams Lake), Yellowknife Dance Society and Bella Dance Studio (Yellowknife), New Horizons Dance (Regina), Shadowland Theatre (Toronto Islands), Stanley Park Ecology Society and Stanley Park Nature House.
With the generous support of BC Arts Council, Vancouver Foundation, Government of BC – Gaming, and the City of Vancouver.
Roots of Bird Parade
“By The River” Community Spectacle (2005)
A flock of Blue Herons “flew” on stilts along the banks of the river.
“Bird of the Week” poster campaign (2012)
posters that featured the characteristics of birds appeared all over Enderby, in time with their arrival for the season.
In the Shade Summer Arts Camp (2012)
We learned about local birds through puppet making, dance, banners of habitat, song, and building nests! Each participant identified with a different bird and went by that name. A final performance presentation gathered all that we had done and learned.
MacKenzie Camp Drama Week
Cathy wrote a play called “Camp is for the Birds” which was set in the woods at MacKenzie Camp. Campers made puppets and used the wings made for “In the Shade”, and went home singing the song of their bird.
Bird Stilt Chorus (2012)
Inspired by what was learned during “In the Shade”, a group of youth stiltwalkers met to develop movement and voicing of their birds in masks made for them. The Bird Stilt Chorus appeared while people gathered to launche their lanterns at the 2012 Floating Lantern Celebration, in both choreographed and random formation. Popoleko Chorus gave voice to the birds.
Raptor Chorus — Allan Brooks Nature Centre (2016-17)
In partnership with Allan Brooks Nature Centre in Vernon and Vernon Community School, we developed a chorus of Raptors (hawks, owls, eagles, etc) that are seen in that specific spot and ecosystem.
Before becoming a part of the Vancouver Bird Week in 2017 and 2018 International Ornithologists' Union to the 27th International Ornithological Congress in Vancouver in 2018 and inspired many other extensions of this work, the foundation of the Bird Parade birds had first appeared in the 2005 Community Spectacle “By The River” where performers, dressed in bird costumes, walked and “flew” on stilts along the banks of the river. They were also a big component of Calendario.
“Calendario” is a cumulative research/artmaking project, encouraging a recognition of time that is based on the sequence of local seasonal events rather than calendar dates, and is the inspiration for the Bird Parade and all surrounding activities, including the Bird Stilt Chorus and bird costume and bird puppet art camps.
The Hatching of BIRDS ON PARADE:
GATHERING INTEREST
One day in 2016, I received a phonecall from my friend and collague in Victoria, Paula Jardine. She had been approached by the committee organizing the International Ornithological Congress (in conjunction with Vancouver Bird Week), which was to be in Vancouver International Bird Week in August 2018. They were looking for someone who might do performances, in Bird Costume. Paula knew we that Runaway Moon was doing Bird Stilt Choruses, and contacted me with the notion that we could expand the idea and have bird choruses from all over the province converge at an inaugural parade before the conference! A fruitful partnership was created, into which we brought Carmen Rosen, Artistic DIrector of Still Moon Arts in Vancouver (with many similarities to Runaway Moon not just the name), and Robi Smith who was Artist-in-Residence in Maple Ridge and a fine naturalist painter. It was a lot more than the organizers dreamed of!
~ Cathy Stubington
Vancouver Bird Week
2017
in collaboration with Still Moon and Vancouver Parks and Recreation
Over a period of 18 months, we established small flocks of parading birds, created through a series of community workshops – combining the insights of community-engaged artists with professional and amateur ecological and ornithological organizations, to creatively emphasize the interconnectedness of humans and the web of ecosystems we share.
Parade elements were developed through small workshops and pop-up parades during the 2017 Vancouver Bird Week, and an invitation to community centres, birding groups, dance and youth groups, community arts councils and others to consider creating their own “flocks” and represent their local birds in the larger parade.
Birds In Residence
In 2018, our team was engaged as Artists-in-Residence in Coal Harbour and West End Community Centre. This was perfect, as the Parade itself was to go past the Coal Harbour Community Centre, and this gave us a drop-in studion for the two weeks leading up to the parade.
Here’s one of the invitations:
“If you live in, or close to, downtown Vancouver, you are also invited to participate in Birds in Residence at the West End and Coal Habour Community Centres. The aim of our residency is to connect people of all ages and abilities who live in the West End and Coal Harbour with the birds we live with. We’ll collectively deepen our relationship with these birds through nature walks and a multitude of art forms including drawing, mapping, listening, movement and song. We’ll combine the insights and talents of community engaged artists with biologists, ornithologists and amateur bird enthusiasts.”
(The residency continued past the Parade.)
Click on images below to enlarge.
BirdSong
Cathy brought along a song that she’d put together with the children at MVBeattie, comprised of birdsongs - as best she could figure out to sing with human voice. We shared this song in lots of places! We really enjoyed singing it at the Carnegie Centre with a group of local seniors and Elders, one of whom joined the parade as Belted Kingfisher!
Here are the “words to the song” - an Enderby version and a Vancouver adaptation with a few different voices!
BIRDSONG
(based on the songs of birds heard in the Shuswap)
Chorus: Cheerio Cheerio Cheerio Pip
Chickadeededee dee Chickadeedee dee dee
Cheerio Cheerio Cheerio Pip
Caw! Caw! Caw!
Ew-weee twittle twittle bzzz WHITE THROATED SPARROW
Ew-weee twittle twittle bzzz
Tzip Tzip tztztz tzeep BUSHTIT
Tzip Tzip tztztz tzeep
Pb pb Pb pb pb pb pb pb Pb Pb Pb BALD EAGLE
Pb pb Pb pb pb pb pb pb Pb Pb Pb
Pik pik hahahahahaha HAIRY WOODPECKER
Pik Pik Hahahahahaha
Repeat Chorus
Si silee perchickoree Sisilee AMERICAN ROBIN
Si silee perchikoree Si silee
Utch Utch Utch doo de dweee tickle tickle tickle tickle bee bee SONG SPARROW
Croak Croak Croak Wof Wof Wof RAVEN
Croak Croak Croak Wof Wof Wof
Keow Keow Keow Keow GLAUCOUS WINGED GULL
Keow Keow Keow Keow
Repeat Chorus
Oooooooo ooooooooooo SANDHILL CRANE rRichmond)
Honk Honk Honk Honk CANADA GOOSE
Ooooooooo oooooooooo
Honk Honk Honk
Kikikikkkkkkkkkkkkk NORTHERN FLICKER
(silence)
Oooo -ooo oooo oooo ooooo GREAT HORNED OWL
Meanwhile, in Runaway Moon’s home territory
we were also gathering interest.
Aidan Sparks was developing a Stilt Chorus in
Salmon Arm, and Deb Humphries was making
costumes in Grindrod and in Vernon.
Stilt Walking Workshops
See more Stilt Building Instructions HERE
In community workshops, in various locations over the years, our artists led the creation of masks and specific wings, to be worn by the stiltwalkers. We worked with ornithologists and movement artists, and created choreographies of both planned formations and the birds in their natural habitat behaviours. Directly inspired by bird songs, choral pieces and call-and-response patterns were created for stiltwalkers, interested folks, and existing choirs to accompany the birds.
Here’s how we advertised our
Stilt Walking Workshops:
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to fly like a bird? Well, now is your chance.
Runaway Moon and SABNES (Salmon Arm Bay Nature Enhancement Society - sabnes.org) are encouraging adults, youth and children accompanied by an adult to find out what may be like to be a bird.
The first step is to learn to walk on stilts (not nearly as hard as it looks.) We also welcome ground birds (i.e. not on stilts!); and, look out for an opportunity to become a kayaking waterfowl!
Then, choose a local bird to embody - learn their habits, movements, and voice. Then, wear a mask and wings (which you can help make).
Birds Out In the Community
Click on images below to enlarge.
Travelling Birds
2018
Concurrent to the Birds in Residence program in Vancouver, Birds! Birds! Birds! took flight.
Workshops were offered through existing and evolving partnerships: Runaway Moon facilitated engagements in Enderby and Vernon Kamloops, Kelowna, Naskusp, and Williams Lake.; Robi Smith in Maple Ridge; Still Moon in Vancouver through their Slocan Field house space and the Vancouver Parks Board residency program; and Paula Jardine coordinated most of the above as well as workshops in Victoria, and the exciting involvement of Shadowland Theatre of Toronto Islands, who brought 4 stilt performers, numerous costumes, puppets, and choreography, as well as ideas and inspiration for the workshops building to “Birds on Parade!” in 2018. Our partnership with the Vancouver Parks Board facilitated the bird stilt workshops in 5 community centres.
Click on images below to enlarge them.
National Indigenous Peoples' Day presentation
The Eagle afterschool group at Splatsin Tsm7aksaltn
Mask & Wings made by Vanessa Cardinal, Erica Thomas, Candace Jack, Lisa Kenoras and Cathy Stubington
Click to enlarge images
Bird Parade
Vancouver,
Aug 18, 2018
The ultimate goal of the project was the culminating “Birds on Parade”, bringing together local, regional and national communities and artists in the opening of the 2018 International Ornithological Congress and Vancouver International Bird Festival. This development and outreach phase gave us an opportunity to reach out to a broad community of people and invite them to participate. Through the workshops we established a deeper connection with the natural world and by parading together in honour and celebration of the birds we live with, we reinforced our connections with each other. It was an overwhelming success, with great friendships developing through the workshops.
Monday's parade was
breath-taking.After nearly two years of conversations, planning, outreach and workshops in communities around BC, it was astonishing to see our magnificent parade come together over the past two weeks.
The costumes, the bird songs, the life and personality that each person brought to their bird, and the interactions between birds and with spectators created a truly magical atmosphere and deep sense of connection between us and our winged neighbours.
Our project is much more than a parade. It's an arts-based community building project that came together because many, many people shared a vision and worked to make it happen—artists, community and arts organizations, funding bodies, and individual champions and participants.
The Gathering & Preparations
Click on images to enlarge
The Parade
Click on images to enlarge.
HUGE Shoutout
to All Our Participants!
IMPACT
Participants learned more about the relationship between the birds and the environment that we share with them; once we started to notice the birds who live here, and the ones who pass through, we began viewing the neighbourhood differently - not just as human habitat but bird habitat. All participants will learn about birds through an embodiment process –from the birds’ point of view. Participants and artists will work closely with ornithologists and naturalists in developing the costumes, movements, and voices. Through observation, local research and exploration we have started to know birds through an embodied experience that has brought us closer to the birds and to each other; becoming, rather than merely representing, the birds. Building parades around the birds we live with reinforces and celebrates our relationship with our natural surroundings. Singing bird songs was the most surprising fun, and a big part of the success of the event.
~ Paula Jardine