UBC Celebrates Earth Day with Suzanne Simard

Celebrate Earth Day with leading voices in ecology, Indigenous stewardship, law, literature, and music, including author and UBC Faculty of Forestry and Environmental Stewardship Professor Suzanne Simard, as she launches her newest book, When the Forest Breathes, the highly anticipated follow-up to her bestselling book, Finding the Mother Tree. Featuring an immersive evening of performance alongside a panel conversation exploring the future of forests and our shared responsibility to the living world, this event asks a vital question: how do we reimagine our relationship with forests—and with one another—in a time of ecological urgency?

The program begins with Métis composer and UBC Professor T. Patrick Carrabré’ s Mother Tree, presented in collaboration with Early Music Vancouver. Performed by the Pacific Baroque Orchestra and sung by soprano Mireille Asselin, the work draws from Simard’s Finding the Mother Tree, bringing her groundbreaking ideas about forest networks to life through music.

Next comes Fungi Kingdom Dance, created by Rande Cook, Kwakwaka’wakw artist and hereditary chief of the Ma’amtagila people, who will also join the onstage conversation later in the evening.

Following the performances, CBC’s What On Earth host Laura Lynch will moderate a live conversation featuring Suzanne Simard; Cree author and Governor General’s Literary Award–winning writer Michelle Good (joining virtually), author of Five Little Indians; Christopher Rusnak, KC, legal scholar and advocate for Rights of Nature; and UBC Faculty of Forestry and Environmental Stewardship scholar Dr. Teresa Ryan.