Leela Stoede: Summer 2022 Reflection
About half way through June, halfway through our time together, I was asked to interview the participants about what they thought our program was really about, and how they felt it was impacting them.
I have been part of Bird's Eye View for two years now, and within the community since its founding 3 years ago. In the summer of 2021 I was a participant myself, creating bird costumes and observing barn swallows. That summer no one really knew how to describe what we were doing, we all simply called it “the bird thing” and while I couldn’t have pinpointed it then, we came together to create a space in which we could love, observe and interact with the nature around us.
I was nervous then, when I was asked to interview the participants - ages 9 to 16 - this past summer (2022) on our project; I was still simply calling it “the bird thing.”
But when I started to ask them the questions I had prepared - what do you think an expanded idea of STEM is? How do you feel connected to the natural world? Do you? What do you feel like this community advocates for? How do you feel being a part of this community? - I was stunned by their answers….
"To expand STEM we need more women's voices especially because it has been such a male dominated field." - Lisa
"I feel like an expanded version of STEM is adding art to science because science is structured and art is all over the place and I feel like it would be a good balance if they are together." - Lucia
"Doing the costume really made me feel like I was becoming my bird because I just love the way my costume turned out and it looks really nice." Danshi
"I see this community as a place where people can be heard even though they are different from other people; just based on their personalities, or how they act or how they look." - Ceder
"I think (this community) advocates for the rights of people who just want to be accepted for who they are and want to enjoy art and science and just explore the world around them." - Ceder
"(This community) advocates for more people to be able to be a part of STEM no matter who they are and add their views to STEM instead of just cis white men." - Ash
Not only did they understand the community and outlook we were building together, in words that I couldn't even really pinpoint myself, but they found real affinity with the birds they chose to study. "My bird is a Great Blue Heron" said Lucia to me, following with "it has the same personality to me, I think Becca really chose a good bird for me." When I asked to elaborate she said this: "It is my favourite color. It likes to eat most of the same things I do and it's a really sneaky bird and I love being sneaky."
When I started out this summer, I still couldn't particularly bullet point exactly what we were doing, but my real hope was that by the end the young people would move forward in their lives with more love, care, and connection to the nature that surrounds them. In interviewing the young folk I learned that not only did they bring forward with them that love but moreover they shared with me, in words I couldn't find myself, what exactly the future we were working to create.
I still do not have a better name to describe "the bird thing," but to be honest I don't really think I want one. It is a silly, and simple, and unassuming label carrying with it the understanding that we all have more to learn from one another - from organisers to participants, people to the natural world.