Tag Archives: Mina Kerr-Lazenby

Rivers & Oceans

Ships to use AI to protect whales from underwater noise pollution

By Mina Kerr-Lazenby, North Shore News, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Marine researchers are diving into the world of artificial intelligence to help solve an invisible problem: noise pollution, and the effect it has on local marine life.

Non-profit organization Clear Seas is researching how machine learning can help reduce the noise emitted from ships, with the goal of creating an underwater vessel that will tune and adjust its noise to adapt to whatever marine mammal, especially in regards to whales, is nearby.

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Animals, History, Indigenous Nations History

A Breed Apart: What was the Coast Salish woolly dog, and can we bring it back?

Editor’s note:  Salish Woolly dogs are believed to have been common throughout Coast Salish territories, so were most likely kept by the ancestors of the Homalco, Klahoose and Tla’amin First Nations. The oldest remains of this breed date back 4,000 years and were found in Puget Sound and the Salish Sea. Sheep wool is believed to have replaced dog wool in Indigenous communities after 1862.

By Mina Kerr-Lazenby, North Shore News, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

If you had been wandering the Coast Salish territories of British Columbia some 4,000 years ago, rambling dense woodland and visiting village longhouses, you would likely have spotted a number of small, white, flocculent pooches.

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Indigenous Nations

Ceremony in West Vancouver marks formal arrival of canoe season

By Mina Kerr-Lazenby, North Shore News, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The crowd that congregated on West Vancouver’s Ambleside Beach on Saturday afternoon would have been forgiven for thinking it was peak summertime, if the July-like temperatures hadn’t been outshone by the quintessentially spring activity they were all there for.

Members of both the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish Nation) and Tsleil-Waututh Nation joined the police forces of both West and North Vancouver to welcome the return of spring, and with it, the Sema7maka and Ch’ich’iyuy canoes.

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Arts, Health, Indigenous Nations

Squamish Nation ethnobotanist touts medicinal benefits of native plants

By Mina Kerr-Lazenby, North Shore News, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

When headaches plague Leigh Joseph, she doesn’t immediately reach for the Tylenol bottle. When winter’s flu strikes, cough medicines and throat soothers are acquired, but not from the pharmacy or the drug store aisle of her local supermarket.

Instead, Joseph, a Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish Nation) ethnobotanist, looks to the great outdoors for remedy.

The natural world, she attests, can be a great source of healing and nourishment.

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Arts, Community, Health

West Van director raises autism awareness with ‘When Time Got Louder’

By Mina Kerr-Lazenby, North Shore News, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

It can be a double edged sword, inclusivity in film. The two steps forward taken by the industry when representing otherwise marginalized or excluded communities are often followed by a step back when that community isn’t represented as accurately as it could be.

It is the driving force behind much of Connie Cocchia’s work. The LGBTQ+ writer and producer, originally from West Vancouver, has made creating accurate representation in film her raison d’être. Now, for her directorial debut, she’ll be releasing a film that has a character with autism at its centre – but not in a way that you’ll likely have seen before.

Unlike films like Rain Man and Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, which depict those with autism spectrum disorder as savants or hyper-logical detective types, Cocchia’s character bears a relationship to neurodiverse people who live regular lives.

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