TRU’s Environmental Research &Teaching Collaboration
Fostering inclusive and impactful environmental education through collaborative land-based learning.
Mulc and Symphoricarpos by Madelaine McMillan (2024) is under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.
Project Mission
Thompson Rivers University, in the southern interior of British Columbia, is home to a rich and growing array of “environmental” offerings and expertise. This website supports the aims of a new initiative: TRU’s Environmental Research & Teaching Collaboration, aka EnviroCollab. It is our virtual gathering place for environmental/wholistic/sustainability research and academic programming at TRU. It is where you can find a program of study, learn who is doing what, make connections, develop partnerships, and explore new ideas.
Land Acknowledgment
Thompson Rivers University (TRU) campuses are situated on the ancestral lands of the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc and the T’exelc within Secwepemcúl’ecw, the ancestral and unceded territory of the Secwépemc. The rich tapestry of this land also encompasses the territories of the St’át’imc, Nlaka’pamux, Tŝilhqot’in, Nuxalk, and Dakelh. Recognizing the deep histories and ongoing presence of these Indigenous peoples, we express gratitude for the wisdom held by this land. TRU is dedicated to fostering an inclusive and respectful environment, valuing education as a shared journey. TRU Open Press, inspired by collaborative learning on this land, upholds open principles and accessible education, nurturing respectful, reciprocal relationships through the shared exchange of knowledge across generations and communities.
‘Ecosystem’ of Environmental Research and Engagement
This modern era of complex environmental and social challenges requires solutions that can only arise from creative thinking across traditional disciplines and approaches.
Click on the icons below to discover the ‘ecosystem’ of environmental research and engagement happening across the inter-connected community of people at TRU.
Reach out, connect, engage. Together we can change the world!
Artwork Description
Mulc and Symphoricarpos ventures onto a path between the familiar and unfamiliar, where local features, flora, and fauna are drawn together into an imagined vista. Sun-washed memories throughout Secwepemcúl̓ecw might locate the observer on any number of trails, guiding recognition toward a closer look and new discoveries. Views may differ and language may change, but the Land knows our meaning — and invites us to continue learning, together.
Artist Bio
Madelaine McMillan is a Two-Spirit artist and writer from Simpcw First Nation roots, gratefully working and creating in Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc territory where she was born and raised. They began their studies with Thompson Rivers University as a psychology major student while writing in her spare time. They decided to pursue writing more closely and graduated from the University of British Columbia Okanagan with a Bachelor of Arts in creative writing with a psychology minor. With a lifelong, self-made curriculum in artistic practice, Madelaine explores imagery and language to plot a course between dualities in their lived experience — urban and natural, digital and traditional, independence and community, healing and grief, etc. The trails — sometimes ambling, sometimes geodesic — chart a web across which each line resonates with the whole of it when struck. It is a journey full of poetic diversions and metaphoric rabbit holes, but one well worth wandering.
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