Photo by: Liwana Bringelson
Susan is...
poet, mother, grandmother, gardener, dancer, hiker, activist. A former professor of environmental studies at the University of Waterloo, she has worked with colleagues in Indonesia, India and Northern Canada and with students from many places around the world. She walked the Camino Santiago in 2018 and plans to walk the Bruce Trail which passes close to her home, from start to finish in 2022. The pandemic months have been made much more bearable by her ongoing collaboration with Passionate Heart Dance (https://www.facebook.com/groups/1706827082798048/).
After many hesitations and cancellations, we have been able to present Hand Shadows, a program of dance and poetry in Guelph in November of 2022 and March of 2023, with plans for a performance in Clarksburg, near Collingwood in May of 2022. In September 2020, she was delighted to participate in another collaboration with six local poets on Watermarked, with many thanks to the Town of Collingwood and Collingwood’s Digital Service Squad for their patient and invaluable technical and financial support. (https://www.collingwoodartcrawl.com/unmissables/).
I am...
committed to peace, friendship and respect for the land, its waters, the air that we breathe, for trees and plants, animals, people—all beings.
Like many Canadians, my ancestors came here seeking refuge. My mother’s family arrived at Cape Breton from Scotland after the Highland Clearances. My father’s people migrated to the Niagara Peninsula from Pennsylvania at the turn of the 19th century and before that, came from Switzerland.
In the spirit of Treaty 18 and of treaties signed all across Canada, I am accountable for the privileges and responsibilities of living here. My home is on Anishinaabe territory, under the stewardship of the Saugeen Ojibway Nation and the Three Fires Confederacy. This territory is also traditional home to Wendat, Haudenosaunee and other Indigenous peoples who have lived here for thousands of years.
I am grateful to live with two human partners and a very large dog on the southern shore of Georgian Bay in Ontario. I identify as queer, non-binary (she/her).
Photo by: Liwana Bringelson