Soundscapes

The Walking-with Wellness Podcast is a series created by UVic Anthropology graduate student, Lydia Toorenburgh (she/they), and 6 Indigenous research partners as part of Lydia's Masters research. In these walking visits, we meet at a location on Lekwungen lands in Victoria, BC that the research partner has identified as important to their health. Together, we talk about how literacy struggles impact quality of healthcare as well as other related factors such as colonial violence, discrimination, and differing worldviews.

Walking-With Wellness Podcast: Indigenous Health and Literacy

In this episode of the Walking-with Wellness podcast, UVic Anthropology graduate student, Lydia Toorenburgh (she/they) walks with their supervisor, Dr. Alex Boudreault-Fourner (she/her), and research partner, Abigail Claydon (she/her), along Dallas Road in Lekwungen territory, Victoria BC. Together they share stories about accessing health care and how those experiences are impacted by literacy and colonialism as well as visions for better care. 

Find the transcript here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KqqKmMTWAXFFPaEBBtObXMj9Y2a3DAfoD17zTk0jKVc/edit?usp=sharing

Healing Song

"The system was not made for us" Walking-With Abigail

In this episode of the Walking-with Wellness podcast, UVic Anthropology graduate student, Lydia Toorenburgh (she/they) walks with their supervisor, Dr. Alex Boudreault-Fourner (she/her), and research partner, Arie Smallwolf (she/they), through the downtown core in Lekwungen territory, Victoria BC. Together they share stories about accessing health care and how those experiences are impacted by literacy and colonialism as well as visions for better care. 

Find the transcript here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ObaDFCJAjL6bGFHW9U9L3mQs-e2FicwI1C4ZecTIVDY/edit?usp=sharing

August 15, 2022

To get “proper care you really need to fight” Walking-With Arie

In this episode of the Walking-with Wellness podcast, UVic Anthropology graduate student, Lydia Toorenburgh (she/they) walks with their supervisor, Dr. Alex Boudreault-Fourner (she/her), and research partner, Daniel Sands (they/them), through Meegan (Beacon Hill Park) in Lekwungen territory, Victoria BC. Together they share stories about accessing health care and how those experiences are impacted by literacy and colonialism as well as visions for better care. 

Find the transcript here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-BExE3VKFCIZGVbsW5uKOYF09dBo9fxON6fA_vVLKhY/edit?usp=sharing

The “care” is missing in “healthcare” Walking-With Daniel

In this episode of the Walking-with Wellness podcast, UVic Anthropology graduate student, Lydia Toorenburgh (she/they) walks with their supervisor, Dr. Alex Boudreault-Fournier (she/her), and research partner, Laura Manson(she/they), at the Ross Bay Cemetery in Lekwungen territory, Victoria BC. Together they share stories about accessing health care and how those experiences are impacted by literacy and colonialism as well as visions for better care. 

Find the transcript here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vXbJ4I23BsRSsCrU1lsn2cCCq2oIH_6LhS_OYTj03Hc/edit?usp=sharing

No “faith or trust in any colonial, Canadian system” Walking-With Laura

In this episode of the Walking-with Wellness podcast, UVic Anthropology graduate student, Lydia Toorenburgh (she/they) walks with their supervisor, Dr. Alex Boudreault-Fournier (she/her), research partner, Liz Thomas(she/her), and her husband, Joseph, along Dallas Road in Lekwungen territory, Victoria BC. Together they share stories about accessing health care and how those experiences are impacted by literacy and colonialism as well as visions for better care. 

Find the transcript here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1q_6xAyeoMjxw4Gjs7xvznovQmZ99Ywr2rdn3yvW6JTw/edit?usp=sharing

"I am a survivor" Walking-With Liz and Joseph Thomas

This soundscape is Sedona's first venture into soundscape production. The intention was to inspire a change in listeners from a state of irritation and anxiety into absolute calm. Her inspiration was the process of grounding, or how each person reconnects with the present in times of heightened anxiety and stress. Put on a pair of headphones, hug an animal, go lie down, enjoy.

Grounding

I made this musique concrete piece for my Computer Music course. Using sounds found around campus to construct this piece, using only techniques available at the birth of this genre. I named it Sertraline as being on this medication sometimes causes my brain to be a bit foggy and sometimes, to me, the world  is not as it seems...

Rain (dry sticks being rustled)
Wind/thunder (a rolling suitcase on asphalt)
The ocean (claps, played in reverse, at a slower rate, with the pulse climax cut out, fading in and out like waves)
The fog horn (clarinet, slowed down)
The ship horn (an elevator tone, slowed down and spliced)
The geese, the squeak of a hinge (varying rates for varying pitches and delay)
The passing boaters (people walking past)
The rain on their tin boat (a water fountain)
The bird (a humming bird)
The clock like ticking noise (bike spokes played forward and backward)

Sertraline

Using the rare analogue synthesizer, Buchla, I creates this song. During the process, I noticed quite a few imperfections in the recordings and through this I became more and more interested in the idea of clipping, distortion degradation, radio waves and interference, quantification, broken transmissions, and decay. Keeping this in mind, I tried to create the sense of drifting in and out of different radio broadcasts/transmissions. The sound of the piece began to remind me of what it would sound like if sounds decayed as material objects do, from that idea, I named the piece “Rust”

Rust

This song was made using Max. This piece, inspired by Samba Uma Nota by Antonio Carlos Jobim, is made of three frequencies: 260, 261, and 262 Hz, each only excited once but transforming through time. My intention was to create a meditative, trance like atmosphere and to use beating to simulate binaural beats. Comment, share, download, enjoy :)

MaxMeditation

I made this piece as my final project in the Acoustic Ethnography course taught by Jennifer Shine and Alexandrine Boudreault-Fournier at BMSC. This piece asks the question, what does it mean to exist? What can we understand to be existing? How do beings make their existence known through sound? Can an air-conditioning unit be understood as the breath of a building just as the breach of a whale is understood as the breath of the whale? Using sounds from living and nonliving things, I create a sonic experience, blurring the line between living and nonliving and exploring the act of being.

Being

INGH Soundwalk  Walking And Healing With My Mother

Lydia (she/they) is a  Two-Spirit Bungi-Metis musician, anthropologist, and beadworker.

Lydia Toorenburgh

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