N.W.T. artists 'create beautiful things' in the year after Yellowknife's wildfire evacuation

Wildfires are often seen as a destructive force.

It's something the N.W.T knows all too well. Fires have the capacity to burn forests, destroy homes and decimate entire communities. But just as they breathe new life into the ecological landscape wildfire has also been a force for creativity in the territory.

Friday marks one year since the evacuation of Yellowknife, Ndil and Dettah was declared. Beadwork, paintings, magazines and music have all been shaped by the collective experience of fleeing from wildfire. To mark the anniversary, we're looking at how that experience has shaped art in the N.W.T. over the past year.

Beaded and tufted earrings by Natasha Cleary

Sitting on top of the cash register at the Mackenzie Cabins in Fort Providence, N.W.T. are a pair of vibrant earrings that, unlike most other jewelry in the shop, aren't for sale.

At first glance, the design appears to be that of a flower. But upon closer inspection, you'll notice the petals are actually flames. The middle petal is made of tufted caribouhair dyed red, orange and yellow, and the outer petals are made of beads. The flaming flower is nestled in green leaves, and dangling from the bottom of it are warm-coloured tassels.

Natasha Cleary made these earrings while living out of the Castaway Cottages in Hay River, N.W.T. The home she shared with her children and husband in Enterprise had recently been destroyed by wildfire.

Her mom gave her the supplies, because her own had been lost.

"The only thing that was on my mind really was the fire and everything that happened. So I kind of just went with it and, I don't know, it just spoke to me I guess. It came out looking like fire," she said.

Cleary has been beading since she was a child, but taught herself how to tuft four or five years ago. She said sewing and making jewelry helps her with her mental health, and in the aftermath of the wildfire making this pair was particularly emotional.

Her original patterns had also been lost.

"I had to redraw it all over again and put my heart and emotions into every piece that I did," she said. "Everything's not going to be exactly the same as it was but you know, I guess in a way it's probably made things more beautiful."

Cleary's mom, who operates the cabins in Fort Providence, claimed the earrings right away.

"It just shows that after something devastating, I guess you can still create beautiful things," said Cleary.

About Last Summer, a zine by Sara Komarnisky and contributors

Sara Komarnisky had the foresight to pack her watercolour paints when she and her family fled Yellowknife last year.

In the weeks that followed, she'd paint what the burned trees along Highway 3 had looked like at the crack of dawn, the places she and her family visited and the houses where they stayed.

She said the activity helped her pay attention to what was going on around her keeping her from endlesslyscrolling on her phone and searching for updates. A fan of collaborative projects, Komarnisky put the call out on Facebook to see if others were turning to art as well.

"I'd like to put it together into a zine," she'd told them.

Komarnisky said creating the zine (typically a short, self-published magazine) was a way of making something positive out of what she'd been through. She called it About Last Summer, and said it also helped her find closure of sorts. She finished the booklet in the winter, had 150 copies printed, and distributed it to little free libraries all over town.

After that, she said, it "kind of just felt like I could put the whole experience to rest."

But the wildfire evacuation has also continued to shape Komarnisky's life and art over the past year. She said it shifted some of her priorities. She started to volunteer with the Yellowknife Women's Society and followed through on artist projects she previously put on theback burner.

Gentle the Heart by Leela Gilday

Leela Gilday, a Dene musician in Yellowknife, often talks about climate change during her performances. She said speaking about humanity's connection to the land has become more "urgent" in the wake of the 2023 wildfire season and the evacuations it triggered.

"I see the need for the dissenting voice and to try to disrupt those structures of power and that kind of extractive relationship that's inherent to capitalism, that extractive relationship with the earth," she said.

Gentle the Heart, performed by Viva Chorale

12 days ago

Duration 8:26

Viva Chorale, a choir based on Salt Spring Island in B.C., commissioned Dene musician Leela Gilday to write them a song. She said the 4-part choral piece she wrote, Gentle the Heart, was directly influenced by Yellowknife's wildfire evacuation in August 2023. This is the first time it was performed.

Gilday also found herself channeling the personal experience of fleeing fire into a piece she composed for Viva Chorale, a choir on Salt Spring Island in B.C., called Gentle the Heart. It begins and ends in a prayer in Dene Kede, asking the ancestors for strength to walk in a good life and in a good way, she explained.

"The piece that I wrote was directly influenced by the evacuation," she explained. "I talk about opening our minds and hearts to that connection, reminding ourselves about that connection to the land and water, how we see our brothers and sisters, you know, all the animals, the birds, the fish, the land, the water, the rocks impacted by this climate crisis and how we are responsible for that in that relationship."

Gilday traveled to the island to hear the piece performed this spring.

"To hear that many voices raised, you know, trying to remember that connection and trying to, I guess, ultimately change the way, the course that we're headed on," she said. "I cry every time I hear it."

Gilday said art is a powerful way to process trauma. She also said her role, as a songwriter, is to reflect the world back on itself so that "people can think about things, people can take that and feel things in a deeper way."

"Change is really the only constant that we all have. And so it might not look like exactly how we're living right now, but I do strongly believe that we can make it through this and come to a better, more symbiotic relationship as we have in the past."

Didn't See This Coming, by Allan Bourque, Dave Kellet, Fran Hurcomb and Rosalind Mercredi

Before wildfire drew close to Fort Smith last year, there was a pair of aluminum binoculars that tourists could use to look out over the Salt Plains.

Rosalind Mercredi, the owner of the Down to Earth art gallery in Yellowknife, said a friend of hers who helped in the firefighting effort found the remains of those binoculars. The intensity of the heat had melted them into blobs of aluminum.

"He picked them up and said he could submit those to the art show," said Mercredi.

The blobs did, indeed, become part of the wildfire-themed art show that Mercredi had been organizing. It took a collaborative effort. Mercredi said she, Dave Kellet and Fran Hurcomb turned Albert Bourque's discovery into a thought-provoking piece calledDidn't See This Coming.

The blobs were imposed on a framed photograph taken from the same lookout where the binoculars had been.

"It got a lot of conversations at the art show," recalled Mercredi.

A year later, Mercredi said the wildfire has had an effect on some of the glass work she makes herself. She's started a line of jewelry made with fire colours, and she finds herself choosing dark glazes that remind her of the silhouettes of burned trees more often.

"It does influence your art, that whole experience," she said. "Every once and a while you look at something differently, or you feel something differently."

Mercredi said the After the Fireart show helped her deal with a "roller-coaster" of emotions brought on by the evacuation, whichincluded worry, enjoyment, and guilt.

"All the pieces in the show were somebody's feelings and somebody's story and somebody's interpretation of things," she said."I think putting that together, just what everybody else was feeling, is a way of sort of helping yourself and helping ... all the artists look at a shared experience in different ways."