“Living and being well in relation”: feature film screening at RRU
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You are heartily invited to a screening of the feature film, Shih [Interconnectedness], February 25 from 1:30 to 3 p.m. at Royal Roads University Colwood Campus, Sherman Jen Building Room 117. The screening is free and everyone is welcome. Register to attend. For more information on the film, read Geo Takach’s blog.
Seven years in the making, Shih [Interconnectedness] is a feature film that explores intersections of environmental communication, arts-based creation and Indigenous ways of knowing that was co-created by Geo Takach with a dazzling array of primarily Indigenous artists, teachers and researchers. Geo is a professor in the School of Communication and Culture, also teaching in the School of Environment and Sustainability and the School of Business. Shih is rooted strongly in place: much of it was filmed at Sneq’wa e’lun and among the spectacular vistas surrounding RRU here in Lekwungen-speaking territory.
The film explores a central question: How can we bring environmental, Indigenous and arts-based approaches into dialogue to improve relationships with the Earth and Her First Peoples?
“I found a very natural alliance there that is not only called for but, I think, absolutely essential among environmentalist ways of thinking and Indigenous ways of knowing,” Geo says. “And the flip side of both — despoiling the planet, colonizing Indigenous people by imperialist forces — to me, they’re also two sides of the same dark coin. They’re both colonization in that you’re taking more than you need from the Earth at a rate faster than the Earth can sustain, or you are taking away the land and the children and the lives of people who have been here since time immemorial.”
Takach says of the seven-year odyssey of Shih, “It took a long time, but the learning is taking a long time, too.” In that process, he explores a path to environmental and social justice and healing, something Indigenous peoples in so-called Canada have known in their cultures for generations.
He highlights the contributions to the film of Indigenous artists including Butch Dick and Damian John, the latter of whom painted his answer to the project’s central question in a major work that’s revealed in the film. Meanwhile, visual recorder Mo Dawson captures essences of the conversations in a mural that also takes shape as the story unfolds.
“The arts are a wonderful vehicle for expression and sharing, and for inspiring engagement, conversation and — hopefully, ultimately — action,” says Geo.
Takach, who grew up in Alberta, says when he moved to Lekwungen-speaking peoples’ territory in what’s sometimes called Victoria, he noticed there was more recognition of Indigeneity, Indigenous peoples and their lands than he had experienced. This called him to educate himself through research, conversations and a lot of listening. From those relationships grew this 85-minute film, funded by a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.
“By putting things under a microscope and siloing them so we can understand them better, we learn a lot of great stuff. But a real danger in doing that is we lose sight of the totality. We miss the bigger picture, that everything is connected and related.” He smiles. “But in my heart, I believe we can reclaim our interconnectedness.”
Geo Takach also brings together his last seven years of learning in a book titled Environmental Communication and Conciliation: Exploring Arts-Based and Indigenous Approaches, published by Bloomsbury worldwide on February 19, 2026. It’s also available as an e-book from the RRU Library.