Barkat – Nature Art Workshop Series

Immigrant Services Guelph-Wellington is pleased to present this series of nature art workshops in collaboration with local artist Nimra Bandukwala. Over the course of the 6-workshop series, participants will connect with and explore nature around us using a variety of techniques such as: journaling, creative writing, storytelling, dance, photography, painting and sketching. Artist facilitators will lead participants in learning new art and craft skills that will develop connections to the local environment as well as encourage sharing our connection to nature from the perspective of world cultures. A culminating exhibition (date to be determined) will be planned for participants to share their writing, art, and reflections with friends, family and the community.

See below for a full description of each workshop and artist biographies.

MARCH 6
Pressed Wildflower Art and Floral Folklore – with visual artist Nimra Bandukwala

Flowers have been part of our lineages for millennia. They are a sensory feast that have been and continue to be used during times of spiritual and social significance such as birth, death, marriage, celebration, and reverence of our ancestors.

In this workshop visual artist Nimra Bandukwala will invite us to consider our visceral connection to flowers through poetry and floral folklore from cultures around the world. You will learn about names and stories of local wildflowers and foliage that have been pressed by the artist. You will explore various methods of pressing and storing flowers. We will learn about various ways to create art with pressed flowers and will create our own compositions and designs to create pressed flower art pieces.

Artist Bio: Nimra Bandukwala is a community-engaged visual artist and maker of crafts. She grew up in Karachi and currently lives on the traditional territory of the Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee, and Attawandaron peoples, in Cambridge Ontario. She comes from a lineage of women who crafted with what they had, appreciated and grew plants, and valued the lives and stories of materials. She creates paints, dyes, and sculptural pieces with plants, rocks, and shells while exploring our complex relationships with these materials.

Nimra is the recipient of multiple grants through Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, City of Mississauga, and others. She co-led Reth aur Reghistan with her sister Manahil, a multidisciplinary arts project that engages with folklore from Sindh through art making and storytelling (sculpturalstorytelling.com). She co-published Women Wide Awake: Sculptures, Stories and Poems from Sindhi Folklore in 2023 with Mawenzi House Publishers, a multi-genre book featuring art, poetry, and stories. Find more of her work at nimrabandukwala.com or follow her on Instagram @nimrabandukwala.art.

APRIL 3
Birds of Our Homeland: Storytelling, Movement & Photography Workshop – with film and theatre director Zehra Nawab

Film and theatre director Zehra Nawab will speak to us about theatre, movement, and dance. Our workshop takes us to explore dance forms from various corners of the globe, each one intricately weaving together the essence of nature and the mesmerizing movements of animals and birds. These graceful art forms become a source of inspiration as we delve deeper into the realm of storytelling.

We will reflect on the beauty of the graceful flight of birds in our homelands through writing and short poems. We will weave together these writings in a story circle. We will then use the inspiration of birds to blend movement, photography, and storytelling using props such as fabric and dried flowers. We will use photography to capture the essence of our movement and stories.

Artist Bio: Zehra Nawab is a film and theatre director and actor. She was nominated in the Best Artist category at the Arts Award Waterloo Region 2024. Zehra is the director of documentary ‘Niswan Nama’ which is a grant recipient from Academy Award winner Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy (SOC) Films. She presented her in-development feature film at the Big Pitch at Toronto International Film Festival 2024. Notable for her women-centered storytelling, her direction work has earned her the National AGAHI Award for Journalism in Culture.

MAY 1
Plant Alchemies: Natural Ink Making Workshop – with visual artist Nimra Bandukwala

Natural ink-making has been mastered across many writing traditions including the Islamic calligraphy tradition that combined aesthetics with text. In this workshop we will dive into stories and folklore around colour, the labour-intensive ways that colour was derived, and the ephemerality of some natural colours. We will gather plants from our bioregion and use food waste to create a rich palette of plant-based inks. We will paint colour swatches, and intuitive paintings to collaborate with the plants and honour the many gifts they give us.

(See artist bio above – March 6 workshop)

JUNE 5
Introduction to Nature Journaling and Local Plants – with Tamil-Canadian artist, botanist, certified arborist, and forester-in-training Hashveenah Manoharan

Nature journaling can be a powerful, meditative, and informative way to develop a sense of place in our neighbourhoods. In this workshop, Artist and Botanist Hashveenah Manoharan will teach us about using nature journaling to connect with our local environment. Attendees will be introduced to common plants and their uses for food, medicine, and crafting. Participants will have the opportunity to make their own field journals and learn the basics of nature journaling and sketching. Participants will also learn how to use digital tools to confidently identify plants on their own. No skills or prior experience with plants is required to participate.

Artist Bio: Hashveenah Manoharan is a Tamil-Canadian artist, botanist, Certified Arborist, and forester-in-training residing in the City of Toronto. Her artwork is informed by her work as a naturalist and is used as an exercise in attentiveness to the natural world, while creating nontraditional spaces to explore how immigration informs one’s perception of the natural landscape. She is currently an artist-in-residence at the Guild Park and Gardens in Toronto. Her work has been featured by Parks Canada, the David Suzuki Foundation, and the Canadian Museum of Nature.

JULY 3
Plant Alchemies: Introduction to Naturally Dyeing Cotton – with visual artist Nimra Bandukwala

Plant dyes have long been used by our ancestors as adornment, as medicine that is absorbed through the skin, and as social and cultural signifiers. This workshop will share stories of the deep spiritual significance of plant dyes on turtle island, South-Asia, Central America[ and other parts of the world with plants such as marigold, cochineal, logwood and cotton. We will consider cloth, colour and the environment in our current global context, and how reclaiming natural dye knowledge can lead to more seasonal and cyclical textile systems embedded in our local ecology.

You will learn about the ancient magic and alchemy of plant dyeing on cellulose and protein-based fibres. Bundle dyeing is a simple, and versatile technique to create texture and imprints of colour on cloth. You will learn about the processes of mordanting cloth, preparing dye materials, and way to fix colour to cloth. We will play with flowers grown in gardens, plants gathered from the land, and food waste collected from our kitchens to bundle dye a cotton bandana. All materials are provided, however you are welcome to bring flowers or plant materials that you’d like to experiment with!

(See artist bio above – March 6 workshop)

AUGUST 7
Creative Harvest: Introduction to Poetry & Creative Writing – with poet, artist educator and nature artist Sheniz Janmohamed

“August is the slow, gentle month that stretches out the longest across the span of a year. It yawns and lingers on with the light in its palms.”
— Victoria Erickson

As we turn our hearts and minds to autumn, we hold on to the last light of the summer. What have we learned about ourselves and each other? What creative blossoming has taken place, and what has yet to be harvested? This gentle session will provide us with the time to reflect on our creative journeys and time spent together. We’ll engage in multilingual poetry-writing and journal prompts, recollect our learnings and summer joys, and create our own word & nature mandalas using found and foraged materials.

Artist Bio: Sheniz Janmohamed was born and raised in Tkaronto with ancestral ties to Kenya and India. A poet, artist educator and nature artist, Sheniz is a graduate of the MFA in Creative Writing program at the University of Guelph.

In the last 15 years, Sheniz has presented her poetry internationally, including the Jaipur Literature Festival, Aga Khan Museum and TEDXYouth Toronto. She has three poetry collections published by Mawenzi House: Bleeding Light (2010), Firesmoke (2014) and Reminders on the Path (2021). Her nature art has been featured across Turtle Island, including the National Arts Centre and MOCA.

A recipient of the Lois Birkenshaw-Fleming Creative Teaching Scholarship, Sheniz holds an Artist Educator Mentor certificate from the Royal Conservatory of Ontario. With 14 years of teaching experience, she visits dozens of organizations and schools each year.

In 2022, Sheniz served as the Writer-in-Residence at the University of Toronto Scarborough Campus, the first writer of South Asian descent to serve in this position. Sheniz currently holds a position as a creative writing instructor at U of T’s School of Continuing Studies. You can find her at www.shenizjanmohamed.com or on Instagram @shenizpoetics.