The Inside Story: News from The Royal Canadian Geographical Society River art Leading into the future Pine Marten protector Annual General Meeting: Celebrating 75

One of the most difficult things about trying to produce artwork as part of an Arctic expedition isn’t the cold and unruly weather. “The hardest thing was the bugs,” laughs artist Christine Persaud. “If you look closely at the finished piece, you can see them painted over.”

Persaud, who lives in Ottawa, was part of a fourwoman team sponsored by The Royal Canadian Geographical Society that spent a month last summer canoeing Nunavut’s River art Dubawnt River, and capturing the experience on video, film and a giant fiveby- seven-foot canvas.

The expedition aimed to document the trip for both educational and artistic purposes. Persaud’s photographs and film — shot with support from the National Film Board — show the group meeting other travellers along the river and includes interviews with them about their reasons for tackling such challenging northern excursions. “I was trying to show what connects us to the land,” she says.

Persaud, who has a background in fine arts and film studies, says the chance to paint was a nice break from the documentary work of video and photography.

But travelling with such a large canvas wasn’t easy. She kept her artwork rolled up in a plastic plumbing pipe that doubled as a structural support for some of the group’s shelters.

Persaud says the purpose of carrying the large canvas during the entire expedition was to paint on it continually so that the land’s textures and colours could permeate the canvas.

And permeate it did. Since the tight schedule didn’t allow for her to stop regularly to work on it during the day, Persaud painted on the uneven ground only when they were pinned down by weather or when they completed their paddling a bit early.

“Painting distracted me from the logistical part of the trip and had me think about the beauty and the landscape,” she says. “It allowed me to create and think in abstraction.”

- Jacques Krzepkowski

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Photo: David Barbour

As The Royal Canadian Geographical Society (RCGS) marks its 75th anniversary this year, it is also marking another important milestone by appointing Gisèle Jacob as its first female president.

“My greatest challenge will be launching the Society into another 75 years,” says Jacob, a former public servant who has been a Society governor since 1994.

Now retired, Jacob held senior-management positions at the Canadian Human Rights Commission and Environment Canada. She was also vice president of public affairs for The Mining Association of Canada and was appointed chair of the Geographical Names Board of Canada in 1999. Her work at the Society includes a six-year stint as vice-president, along with positions on the awards, lectures and géographica committees, among others.

She says geography is of interest to Canadians who want to know what’s happening both within and outside their borders, and she believes the work of the RCGS in explaining the country to its population is important.

“The Society has a vital role to play in promoting geographic education,” says Jacob, “and in helping Canadians of all ages understand their place in the world.”

- Jacques Krzepkowski

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Analyzing dead and dying trees in Newfoundland’s only remaining old-growth forest wouldn’t be quite as engaging if it didn’t have the potential to save the pine marten.

Lanna Campbell, a geography and environmental studies student at New Brunswick’s Mount Allison University, is one of this year’s recipients of The Royal Canadian Geographical Society’s research grants. She studied forests in the Main River watershed, at the southern part of the northern peninsula, with the marten’s welfare in mind.

The Newfoundland pine marten (Martes americana atrata), a small weasel-like mammal, is considered a threatened species on the island. Although some fall prey to trappers, habitat loss from forestry is primarily to blame for its decline.

Last summer, Campbell analyzed cores from felled trees to determine their age and the time since their death. Martens survive in the area, feeding mostly on voles and mice, which tend to live in decaying trees.

“My research will tell us how long the structures on the forest floor have been there,” says Campbell, a component of the pine marten habitat that is often overlooked but critical to their survival.

Although she collected core samples and wood slices, Campbell hopes her data will help the province develop a method of visual analysis for estimating the age of a forest just by looking at its deadwood. This kind of system, used in the Pacific Northwest of the United States, would be a first for Newfoundland — and potentially help save the Newfoundland pine marten.

- Jacques Krzepkowski

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Photos: David Barbour

The Royal Canadian Geographical Society (RCGS) and Canadian Geographic threw a 75th birthday party in Ottawa in November to honour some of the country’s top researchers, with the help of Governor General Adrienne Clarkson, who is patron of the Society.

“Mackenzie King once stated that while ‘some countries have too much history, we have too much geography,’” said Clarkson. “Do you suppose this had anything to do with Charles Camsell and his associates having just published the first Canadian Geographical Journal?”

Clarkson awarded the Massey Medal to urban geographer Larry Bourne and Gold Medals to biologist and documentary filmmaker Jean Lemire and remote-sensing pioneer Edryd Shaw. At a luncheon the following day, former RCGS president Alex. T. Davidson and former RCGS governor Samuel Arseneault were also recognized with Camsell Awards for their outstanding contributions as volunteers with the Society.

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