Panel Discussion: How We Share Our Stories

Moderator: James Wallis 

Panelists: Chelsey Luke, Marnie Temple 

Join Chelsey Luke and Marnie Temple in conversation as they explore stories as a way to find common ground and demarcate differences. Unfolding difficult ancestral inheritance and colonial histories requires trust and an open heart to move into areas that have concretized divisions and adversarial tensions. How can stories build community across divides and foster change?

Marnie Temple is a multidisciplinary artist based on the traditional and unceded territory of the Ktunaxa Nation, a.k.a. Creston, BC. Her practice draws from lived experiences and engages the viewer in a process of self-exploration with otherness and attitudes around racism. Temple constantly look at ways to interrupt current thinking and investigate the interconnected ways we harm each other or leave each other behind. Temple received a BFA from the University of Calgary and is a recent MFA graduate of Emily Carr University. Her artistic practice is at times divided with her time as a Residency Director at the Empire of Dirt Residency.

Qaⱡa hun ʔin, kiʔsuk kyukyit, huqakⱡik Chelsey Luke. Chelsey Luke is a Ktunaxa and Nlaka’pamux artist from Yaqan Nukiy whose practice centers around flat stitch beadwork. After being introduced to this cultural knowledge at age seven by her mother, she reconnected through a gift from her late aunt in 2009. Luke situates her work within land-based knowledge and cultural continuity. Her emerging practice explores stewardship, sacred reciprocity, and Indigenous epistemologies, translating personal and ancestral narratives across materials. Through mentorship and interdisciplinary exploration, Luke expands beadwork into contemporary forms, inviting viewers to consider responsibility and interdependence within living landscapes. She honours the earth’s nurturing spirits and invites others to be stewards of their environment.

FREE EVENT—Langham Theatre