Julia Christensen
Interview & Photography / Catherine Bernier
There’s a quiet wisdom in the gaze of geography professor, writer, and artist Julia Christensen—an ease that speaks of deep listening, of someone attuned to the subtle work of healing both land and community. Through her emotional intelligence, innate curiosity, and a profound desire to reconcile fractured pasts and forgotten places, Julia invites reflection and cultivates a deeper sense of care—for people, for the land, and for the stories that connect them.
Her work centers on deepening both individual (including her own) and collective relationships with the Land, weaving together stories of memory, identity, and belonging.
Julia Christensen grew up in Yellowknife, which is situated on the ancestral homelands of the Yellowknives Dene and part of Chief Drygeese Territory. The city grew on what was, since time immemorial, a seasonal meeting place and harvesting ground for Dene in the area. Her appreciation for the beauty and solace of the natural world, and the reflections that can be prompted by the changing seasons, was something borne of her childhood in Yellowknife.
As an adult, she has dedicated her career as a geographer to the study of home, particularly in the North--these preoccupations with land-based connection and homemaking inspire her explorations in nature-based art. Walking, foraging, paying attention to her surroundings, and considering the stories of that place are central to the explorations Julia engages in through her art.
Her work with foraged dyes and inks and creating collages using natural, foraged materials are as much about creating visually appealing arrangements as they are about nurturing her relationship and examining her own roles and responsibilities as a settler living on Indigenous homelands.
Looking to nature for the materials to create visual art, and to tell a different kind of story about a place through these pieces, is also motivated by her desire to deepen individual (including her own) and collective relationships to Land.
Julia’s contribution to The Parcelles is a thoughtful reminder of temporality, respect for the land, and our deep-rooted connection to it. As I follow her through a seaweed harvest—gathered to create handmade inks and paints—we talk about her intentions for this residency and her vision for what lies ahead.
What were your intentions for the residency, and how did it go?
My intentions were to allow myself to be fully inspired by the place, its stories, and to develop a set of pieces that combine natural inks/paints with foraged materials from the sea and the forest. Each piece was to be paired with a poem or piece of writing that explored aspects of Indigenous-Settler relations (specifically, exploring the notion of Truth in relation to colonial impacts on the environment and our connections to it) in that place and more broadly across Turtle Island.
My aim for my time at The Pracelles was inspired by a 2020 article in Briarpatch by Metis-Cree writer Mike Gouldhawke on Land as a Social Relationship. I wanted to examine what honouring Land "as the terrain through which all our relations play out" meant as an univited guest on Mi'kma'ki and how creating entirely in-situ arrangements to explore its beauty and sacredness might further inform my own relational responsibilities to disrupting the ongoing dispossession of Indigenous lands.
I would use no props or materials brought from elsewhere, and instead assemble and photograph my pieces where they were made —on the beach, in the forest, on the deck of the cabin at The Parcelles. The intention here was to really embrace the notion of place-based art, and also to highlight the temporality of the pieces I make. They last only in photograph, to be washed away by the tide or blown away by the wind. They last only a moment in time but are composed of elements that have been there forever.
I was also inspired by a course I taught recently on the Geographies of Indigenous-Settler Relations at Queen's University. I wanted to use the residency to really immerse myself in listening to and learning from the lands of Mi'kma'ki. This included spending time studying the Peace and Friendship Treaties, and considering how my relationship to these sacred agreements as a guest on Mi'kma'ki might be deepened through attentiveness to Land, as well as engaging with Mi'kmaq song and poetry.
My art is primarily an expression of my relationship to Land, what it teaches me about reciprocity and paying attention, and the healing it continues to bring me.
My art is primarily an expression of my relationship to Land, what it teaches me about reciprocity and paying attention, and the healing it continues to bring me.
- Julia Christensen
Would you recommend this art residency to other artists and why?
It is difficult to put into words what this art residency meant to me. The location was exactly what I needed. I wanted to push myself creatively through dedicated, uninterrupted time, and the beauty and solitude brought by the natural surroundings was beyond what I could have hoped for. The cabin, the beach, the quiet —all were as healing and restorative as they were inspiring.
Follow Julia Christensen / @juliachristensen_
Portraits by Catherine Bernier / @cath.be
