ALLIES
MARTIN LEE MUELLER
Martin holds a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Oslo. He has previously helped build teaching centers in rural Mongolia, worked as a kindergarten teacher, been an elementary school librarian, and led a wilderness school in the Norwegian forest. A postdoctoral researcher with the EU-funded research network SEAS - Science Education for Action and Engagement toward Sustainability, he is the co-founder of the Small Earth Institute and of VILLAKS.ORG. He lives in Oslo, where he loves to see salmon return to rivers once wasted.
Foto: Birgitta Eva Hollander - Heia Folk
Tiril is a storyteller from Norway. Her storytelling is inspired by cultural heritage, traditions, indigenous culture and modern science. She investigates the relation between stories and the landscape and how stories are both locally connnected with nature and place and at the same time are universal and have similarities all over the world. She is Cand.Philol from University of Oslo where she worked with comparison between Japanese and Norwegian Fairy Tales.
She works with storytelling perfomances, workshops and different projects with focus on stories as identity.
Torgeir is an Arctic sound-poet who combines progressive Sami Joik and modern strings. His music gives new visions of the animistic vocal art of the Sami of Northern Europe and updates vocal and percussion rituals for the 21st century. Torgeir also takes part in activities for the arts and rights of indigenous people worldwide.
Georgiana is one of the pioneers for storytelling in the UK and Norway and she likes adventures. Each year she takes a thousand teenagers up the Norwegian Pilgrims way. By the Viking mound in the South of Norway she leads a botanical story adventure, prompting 12-year-olds to spontaneously hug trees and learn which species surround them. In the remote Lofoten Islands, collecting stories by day and sleeping in a hammock by night, she discovered that every single stranger had a tale of connection between nature and humans. Georgiana founded ‘Fortellerhuset’ (The Storytelling House) with storytellers from four continents and The Norwegian Storytelling Festival. She has told at festivals worldwide and recently published ‘The Natural Storyteller’, which won 1st prize on the Purple Dragonfly children's book awards as best green book.
Charlie is a USA-based filmmaker who began his work as a videographer and video editor while filming in a medium-security prison. Since then, he's been drawn towards hard-to-tell stories regarding environmental and social justice causes. If it has to do with helping people connect to nature in a new way, then it's a story he's interested in telling. Charlie was working on how to get to Vancouver Island from the east coast of the USA to capture a story about the fish farms endangering wild salmon populations there when he came across Martin's book. After reading that book, Charlie realized that the book should really be the beginning of a movement. Now he is working to incorporate the ideas and feelings of the book into his filmmaking as he travels to meet with Salmon Folk, wherever they may be..
JUSTINA BRAZAITE
Justina holds a BA degree in Cultural History and Anthropology from Vilnius University. Her thesis was grounded in oral history. She has also been studying business administration and management at UiT- The Arctic University of Norway. Since 2012 Justina has been working as a project manager and administrator within arts and culture in both Norway and Lithuania. She also teaches contact improvisation and contemporary dance-based practices.
Justina lives in Oslo and loves movement, people, and nature.
PAUL BAINES
Paul was the Canadian coordinator for the 2020 Great Lakes performance tour. Paul comes to water reconciliation work with a background in environmental and cultural studies. He is at home in the Great Lakes watershed, specifically the Otonabee river in Michi Saagiig (Anishinabek) territory near Peterborough. He often travels the Great Lakes by bike or van connecting people, issues, and perspectives. Paul is the Coordinator of the Blue Communities project for the Federation of Sisters of St. Joseph. He is also the Outreach and Education coordinator for the Great Lakes Commons initiative. In 2019 he discovered that his Celtic Zodiac sign was Salmon. The river he now lives by was once pulsing with salmon, and this Being Salmon work is a step into a larger recovery.
https://www.bluecommunitycsj.org/
https://www.greatlakescommons.org/
ELISHA MACMILLAN
Elisha is a Canadian dancer, sociologist, filmmaker and storyteller. For over 10 years she's taught students in schools & universities across Canada how to express personal stories and challenges through the arts. Elisha has studied rhythm & movement in West Africa, Ethiopia, Brazil and Canada. Before her work with youth, she had a full-time career performing drum, dance and theatre alongside established artists from across the African continent, touring nationally and internationally. Elisha is passionate about creating spaces for marginalized, oppressed and silenced voices to be heard.