Insight Speaker Series 2011

Camosun College proudly presents the 9th annual Insight Speaker Series featuring three world-renowned experts offering insights to a variety of global topics for our community. This year we welcome:

2011 Insight Speaker Series

Fabien Cousteau – One Water, One People
Oceans expert & environmental advocate bio
Date: Tuesday, March 15
Alanis Obomsawin – About Love
Aboriginal filmmaker bio
Date: Wednesday, April 6
Wayson Choy - Beyond Multiculturalism
Canadian author of "The Jade Peony" bio
Date: Wednesday, May 18

Showtimes: 7:30pm with Q&A and reception to follow.

Tickets on sale now

Adults: $22.25 (plus service fees)
Students: $14.50 (plus service fees)

For tickets: McPherson box office or phone 250-386-6121.

Program

Doors open at 7pm and speakers present from 7:30 to 8:30pm with a half hour question and answer period at the end. Following the formal part of the program, Camosun College invites guests to meet the speaker and enjoy refreshments in the McPherson foyer.

Speaker bios

Fabien Cousteau

Oceans explorer, environmental activist

One Water, One People

Growing up on the salt-stained decks of his famous grandfather's ships, Calypso and Alcyone, Fabien Cousteau was destined to follow in the family footsteps of exploring and tirelessly working to protect our planet's immense and endangered marine habitats.

Diving since age four, Cousteau has an unwavering appreciation for the wonder, beauty, and importance of our aquatic ecosystems to sustaining life on Earth.

From his vast field experience, coupled with his degree in environmental economics from Boston University, he has a deeply-rooted belief that "environmental discipline" can lead to solutions creating a balance between environmental problems and the realities of the business world. He says a perfect example of this "restrained enthusiasm" can be found in South Africa's eco-tourism industry. Great White sharks there are now revered and appreciated largely due to the fact that the Indigenous population has found greater economic interest in preserving these magnificent fish rather than slaughtering them for diminishing returns.

While Cousteau continues to work with corporations and students on many issues and projects relating to water innovation and environmental wealth, he has also created a new foundation committed to restoring marine habitats. The Plant-a-Fish Initiative provides public education programs and guidance to large, environmentally sensitive corporations who have a genuine commitment to making the world a healthier place.

In conjunction with his father, Jean-Michel Cousteau, and sister, Céline Cousteau, Fabien Cousteau is also the star of PBS' acclaimed series, Ocean Adventures, which brings the beauty of the oceans directly into viewers' homes. An active writer, he is also currently working on a children's book trilogy and has appeared frequently on the Oprah Winfrey Show and the Today Show.

Alanis Obomsawin

Canadian storyteller, First Nations filmmaker

About Love

Alanis Obomsawin, a member of the Abenaki Nation, is one of Canada's most distinguished documentary filmmakers.

For over 40 years, Obomsawin has written, produced and/or directed more than 30 uncompromising documentaries at the National Film Board (NFB) on issues affecting Aboriginal people in Canada. Her stories express strong social content, inspired by the desire to let the voices of her people be heard.

Obomsawin began her career as a singer, writer and storyteller, but dove into filmmaking in 1967 with Christmas at Moose Factory, which she wrote and directed. Her best known documentary is Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance, a feature-length film documenting the 1990 Mohawk uprising in Kanehsatake and Oka, which has won 18 international awards. Her latest work is the 2009 documentary about a controversial professor at McGill University whose contract was not renewed: "Since when do we divorce the right answer from an honest answer?": Professor Norman Cornett.

Past films include: Incident at Restigouche (1984), a powerful depiction of the Quebec police raid of a Micmac reserve; Richard Cardinal: Cry from a Diary of a Métis Child (1986), the disturbing examination of an adolescent suicide; and, No Address (1988), a look at Montreal's homeless.

Obomsawin has served on countless advisory boards including the Canada Council's First People's Advisory Board, the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network Board, and the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) Board for Vermont and National Geographic International.

A member of the Order of Canada, her many other honours include: the Luminaria Tribute for Lifetime Achievement from the Santa Fe Film Festival; the International Documentary Association's Pioneer Award; the Toronto Women in Film and Television's (TWIFT) Outstanding Achievement Award in Direction; the Canadian Native Arts Foundation National Aboriginal Achievement Award; the Outstanding Contributions Award from the Canadian Sociology and Anthropology Association (CSAA); and an Honourary Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Western Ontario. She has an Honorary Doctor of Literature from Carleton University and has taught at the Summer Institute of Film and Television in Ottawa.

Wayson Choy

Canadian author of The Jade Peony

Beyond Multiculturalism

Award-winning Canadian author and educator Wayson Choy presents a thoughtful discussion on Beyond Multiculturalism, May 18.

Born in 1939, Choy grew up in Vancouver's Chinatown. He studied creative writing at the University of British Columbia and after moving to Toronto, he taught at Humber College for over 30 years from 1967 to 2004.

The Jade Peony (1995), Choy's first novel of Vancouver's Chinatown, won the Trillium Book Award, the City of Vancouver Book Award, and was cited by the Literary Review of Canada as "one of the 100 most important books in Canadian history."

His 1999 memoir Paper Shadows: A Chinatown Childhood won the Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction and was nominated for a Governor General's Award. His next novel, All That Matters (2004), was nominated for the Scotiabank Giller Prize.

In 2005, he received the Order of Canada and since then has received numerous awards including the Calliope Award (2005) for outstanding achievement in writing and mentoring; the Writer-in-Residence Award (2007) from Guelph University; the Harbourfront Festival Prize (2008) from the International Festival of Authors; and, the Millennium Lifetime Achievement Award from Humber College.

Wayson Choy's latest book, Not Yet (2009), a memoir of living and almost dying, was selected as a "Best Book" by the Globe & Mail. Today, Choy continues to teach at the Humber School for Writers and is presently working on his third novel.