Yarrow Collective

A series of creative acts of public gardening.

Co-Founded by Laurel Green & Sammie Gough

Yarrow Collective is a collaboration with an extended constellation of artists, backyard gardeners, activists, naturalists, and a certified bee steward. We were formed on lək̓ʷəŋən territory (colonially known as Victoria, BC) and from 2021 - 2024 partnered with, and developed site-responsive participatory projects for festivals, community events, and city-wide environmental movements.

Weaving together multidisciplinary artistic practices in an ongoing relationship with the life cycles of native plants and pollinators, our work challenged colonial gardening and artistic practices while raising awareness of Indigenous pollinator plants and wild bees. We playfully provoked urban humans to explore our shared role in stewarding ecosystems, address the climate emergency, and imagine the joyful possibilities of what a garden can be.

By moving gardening from 'expert' labour to a shared creative journey, Yarrow Collective’s installations became meeting places for intergenerational temporary communities that offer ecological resources, held space for uncomfortable truths, and yielded opportunities for ongoing stewardship as both collective journeys and site-responsive living artworks.

"I have big adoration for what these wonderful humans do. They ask us to consider with our hearts—as all great art does—life’s pressing questions. How can we be our best selves? How can we live well with other beings? Yarrow Collective gives us a framework and tools to help us answer these questions for ourselves.”

—The Backyard Project

Fernwood Pollinator Garden

Yarrow Collective and 30 community members on Camosun Street in Fernwood, Victoria converted a grass boulevard to a pollinator garden. This fun, creative process unfolded as together we dreamt up ideas for what the space could be, layered cardboard and mulch and soil, and planted a diverse ecosystem of pollinator plants inspired by everyone's vision.
Big thanks to the group that contributed their hearts, hands, big ideas, and garden materials to make this happen and gratitude to Suz, and Marianne who invited us to be part of Play Streets. Gratitude to Pollinator Partnership Canada and Satinflower Nurseries, whose MeadowMakers grant program funded the plants for this project. You can wander by to check it out on the corner of Camosun and Grant streets as it continues to grow into the future.

Phase 1: Dreaming (July 2022)

Phase 2: Layering (August 2022)

Phase 3: Planting (September 2022)

Phase 4: Caretaking (May 2023)

Garden of Stories

Created by: Sammie Gough, Laurel Green, and Elder Johnny Aitken

Every plant has a story to tell... if we can slow down and listen. Garden of Stories unsettles inherited notions of what belongs and what is out of place, and considers the role you play in an ecosystem. Featuring the voices of gardeners, artists, land stewards, naturalists, and community members on SḴŦAḴ / Mayne Island and lək̓ʷəŋən territory / Victoria, this interactive journey explores our relationships with invasive plants and asks: what does healing the land mean to you?

June 16 - 26, 2023—Pacific Opera Victoria’s Voices in Nature

October 20 - 22, 2023—SḴŦAḴ / Mayne Island

Yarrow Collective · Garden of Stories

Created by: Sammie Gough, Laurel Green, and Elder Johnny Aitken
Installation Activators: Sammie Gough, Laurel Green, Elder Johnny Aitken, Missie Peters and Jeni Luther (Government House).
Audio Editing: Nancy Tam and Charlie Cooper
Composition and Vocals: Simon Chalifoux
Field Recordings and Dramaturgy: Laurel Green
Photographs & Text: Elder Johnny Aitken
Plant Card Text: Myriam Parent, Laurel Green, and Sammie Gough
Plant Illustrations & Signage Design: Sophie Fuldauer
Waste Reduction Consultant: Sadie Fox, The Sustainable Fox
Garden of Stories features the voices and stories of: Jess, Jody, Michael, Jean-Daniel, Sean, Bill, Johnny, Myriam and Sarah. These interviews were conducted on SḴŦAḴ Mayne Island and the unceded territories of the lək̓ʷəŋən and W̱SÁNEĆ nations in Victoria, BC.
Special thanks to: Rebecca Hass, Lee Cookson, Isaac Thomas, Marianne Unger, Bill Jamieson Emma Sky Warner-Dilts, W̱SÍ¸ḴEM Ivy Project.
A portion of the artist fees from this project were donated to PEPAKEṈ HÁUTW̱ FOUNDATION to support Indigenous-led land based education and restoration work.
Supported by an Arts Impact Grant from the BC Arts Council

Seeding the Future

Created by Laurel Green, Sammie Gough, Simon Chalifoux

Part of Pacific Opera Victoria's Voices in Nature. Yarrow Collective was paired with Bass Simon Chalifoux to create a new participatory garden installation that toured to parks across Victoria in June, 2022.

We invited participants to make a Indigenous flower seed ball, ‘plant’ it in a bee sculpture, and, accompanied by song, consider: what are you seeding for the future?

Voices in Nature was performed at Outerbridge Park, Government House, Beacon Hill / Meeqan, Saxe Point, and the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria (AGGV).

June 1 - 19, 2022—Pacific Opera Victoria’s Voices in Nature

POLLINATORS

A participatory gardening installation series that playfully invites urban humans to build an ecosystem: participate in seed selection, decide where to plant, learn to weather disruption, and ensure plants thrive through acts of caretaking. Shaped by those who tend them, four interactive gardens were found at locations across downtown Victoria: SEEDING on the coastal edge of Songhees Point p’álәc’әs, DISRUPTING under the Bay Street Bridge, CARETAKING in the Wharf Street Parking Lot, and PLANTING on the Gorge side of the Selkirk Trestle.

Featured at Theatre SKAM's SKAMpede Performance Festival July 17 & 18, 2021

LEAD GARDENER & CO-PRODUCER:

Sammie Gough (she/her)

DRAMATURG & CO-PRODUCER:

Laurel Green (she/her)

CERTIFIED BEE STEWARD & LEAD GARDENER: Myriam Parent (she/they)

INSTALLATION & TEXTILE ARTIST:

Emma-Sky Warner-Dilts (she/her)

DESIGNER & ILLUSTRATOR:

Sophie Fuldauer (she/her)

ACTIVATOR: Zoe-Blue Coates (she/her)

Hych’ka Siem to artist Johnny Aitken.