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Lecture honours Haig-Brown family

The Campbell River Arts Council, the Haig-Brown Institute, the Museum and School District present the Haig-Brown Memorial Lecture
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Acclaimed author Harold Rhenish delivers a memorial lecture on Roderick Haig-Brown Sept. 28.

The Campbell River Arts Council, the Haig-Brown Institute, the Museum at Campbell River and School District 72 are partnering this year to present the 2013 Haig-Brown Memorial Lecture.

The lecture takes place on Saturday evening, Sept.28, from 6:30-8:30 p.m., at the newly renovated Rivercity Stage Theatre, 1080 Hemlock Street. This year’s lecture, entitled “Land For The People: A New Environmental Language for British Columbia”, will be delivered by noted Canadian author Harold Rhenisch.

Rhenisch wrote ‘Motherstone: British Columbia’s Volcanic Plateau’ and edited ‘Spirit in the Grass’ with the photographer Chris Harris. Along with these two large format environmental photographic books about Central British Columbia, he is the author of ‘Winging Home’, an ecological book about British Columbia birds.  Rhenisch has written 25 other books of history, literature and poetry. For 22 months, he has been working on two environmental projects: one about the salmon of the Okanagan and their link to the Manhattan Project, and one about developing new green technologies to harness the power of earth and sun to capture, store and move energy. His research and photographs for those projects are documented on his blog, www.okanaganokanogan.com

From 2007 to 2011 he lived in Campbell River, where he wrote a play about Roderick Haig- Brown, and started the Roderick Haig-Brown Memorial Lectures working with Ken Blackburn of the Arts Council.

The Haig-Brown Memorial Lecture Series was created by the Arts Council in 2009.  The intention is to honour the legacy of both Roderick Haig-Brown and Ann Haig-Brown (nee Elmore).  Roderick Haig-Brown (1908-1976) applied his passion equally to fishing, writing, conservation, and public service and left behind a strong legacy of literary excellence, centered on the rivers of British Columbia. Ann Elmore was a major force for social justice issues in Campbell River, notably around the challenges facing women. The Ann Elmore Transition House is named in her honour. The Haig-Brown Memorial Lectures were created to provide an annual forum for writers to inspire a new generation with their vision for the environment, social issues and literary excellence.

A signed and numbered collectable chapbook of the 2013 lecture will be available at the Rivercity Stage Theatre. Call the Arts Council at 250-923-0213 to reserve a seat for this historic event.