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Spellbound by Nature

Record #: ACO0049
Last Modified: 28 Jul 2021
Last Full Update: 28 Jul 2021

Location

Located In Antigonish County
Areas Served Antigonish County

Description & Services

Information Check out this magical online resource Here
 
Get outside, expand your knowledge and recognition of organisms in the natural world. This is a springboard to explore nature. Capture nature through art, using art forms that don’t disturb the natural world. Discover and observe only. 
 
These spells are for you, the youth and children of Nova Scotia, to encourage you to get outside and explore nature, to discover and name plants, insects, animals, in your backyards and communities. This ‘Spell-kit’ has been concocted by Nova Scotia writers and artists, to conjure some of the common nature words of Nova Scotia, in order to help with their identification. Artists and writers have used their own creative ways to help others imagine these plants, animals and insects. Biology students and instructors from StFX University have also contributed, explaining more about each organism, linking birds to their calls to help you find them by their songs, suggesting where they may be found, what they look like, what they eat, and even examples of how they have informed biomimicry, the study of learning from, or mimicking nature. 
 
Spellbound by Nature has been inspired by the book, The Lost Words, by Robert MacFarlane, illustrated by Jackie Morris, that conjured 20 nature words which were no longer in the Junior Oxford Dictionary, so children would learn and bring those words back into common use. Spellbound by Nature was developed and funded by Arts Health Antigonish (AHA!), with funding contributions from the NS Dept. of Communities, Culture and Heritage and Sustainable Antigonish. 
 
We would love for you to share your own creative ‘spells’: poems, drawings, paintings, photographs, videos….to help others discover these words too! Happy ‘nature word’ conjuring!