From clearing the prairies with fire to planting elm trees along our streets, humans have been shaping the land in the Edmonton area for millennia. And it’s been shaping us right back.

This year, we’re embarking on a new season of Let’s Find Out, exploring these ideas. We kicked things off with a live show at The Almanac this February. It featured short talks about humans and natural history in the Edmonton area, and games for audience members to play. At the end of the event, participants submitted questions to our story garden for this season of Let’s Find Out.

In this episode, you’ll first hear from Marlena Wyman – archivist, activist, and Edmonton’s Historian Laureate.

She speaks about how our green spaces haven’t always been so green, and about early Edmontonians like Gladys Reeves who worked to beautify our city through volunteer citizen efforts.

Next, you’ll hear from Miranda Lucas, a University of Lethbridge PhD student with a concentration in Evolution and Human Behaviour (she works with the Lichen Lab there).

For her master’s work, Miranda studied the behaviour of wild vervet monkeys in South Africa. She’s expanding that work now through her PhD looking at human behaviour in Canadian art galleries. Here she talks about how the environment shapes our behaviour.

Finally, you’ll hear from Jacquelyn and Hunter Cardinal, co-owners of Naheyawin (and creators of the recent play Lake of the Strangers).

They focus on using Indigenous principles to help Canadians take steps towards respectful diversity and inclusion. In their talk, they explore how Indigenous concepts of connection have helped them better understand their connection to themselves and their surroundings.

We have a bajillion more pictures online on the Let’s Find Out Facebook page.

Support for this episode and live show comes from Taproot Edmonton and the Edmonton Historical Board.

Further Reading:

• The City Beautiful Movement (1893 – 1899) [ThoughtCo]
• Chief Papaschase [Fort Edmonton Park]
• History of the Edmonton Horticultural Society
• Root for Trees [City of Edmonton]
• Behaviour Settings [Wikipedia]
• Wilfred Buck on misewa and Atchakosuk: Ininewuk Stories of the Stars [Manitoba First Nations Education Resource Centre]