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Building collective organising and social change through emotional empowerment since 2022

emotion, heart, and human centered.


photo courtesy Danielle Campani

We are an emotions-centered community engagement organization focused on bridging the gaps between arts, culture and climate action.

We believe in mobilising collective climate knowledge in a hopeful and compassionate way.

sword fern collective aims to advance climate justice by sparking dialogue and providing people with the tools to discuss climate issues and ideate climate solutions in their own communities.

The climate crisis and the responses to it are emotionally loaded. How often is climate grief or climate anxiety acknowledged in our environmental policies? How often are our responses to climate change tied to our egos and social status?

The climate crisis is not just a technical problem with a technical solution—fundamentally it’s a person-problem. And people-problems require personal solutions. We believe this starts with empowering individuals, who in turn strengthen communities.

We will not solve climate change with one solution. We will navigate together with a sail woven together by thousands of collective community-sized projects.

what we’re working on


Art of Change – Chapter 2, photo courtesy Danielle Campani

Ongoing and upcoming

The Art of Change
The Art of Change series invites you to tap into your own emotional responses to climate change and climate action. Through different art mediums, these community events allow you to explore your emotions with others. They are participative, which means you’re not just sitting in an audience—get ready to sing, write, dance, and create with us!

Understories
Understories is our creative laboratory for community innovation, focused on testing smaller-scale ideas and events. These events are scrappy, experimental, and quickly deployed. Follow us on our socials in order to find out about the next one!

Rerooting, Rerouting
Rerooting, Rerouting is our online publication where we post articles, think pieces, poetry, and other media related to climate and emotional literacy. Our goal is to spark dialogue and deeper reflection. We’re not going to shy away from talking about weird or controversial topics.
We want to establish new understandings (re-root), and then use that to collectively shift our societal values (re-route). The best thing about Rerooting, Rerouting is that you can also subscribe to it like a newsletter—so every time we post, you’ll get our writing right there in your inbox! Click here.

Completed

Collaborations

  • 2025/04/12 – Common Horizon Montréal, Climate Art Workshop (Montréal)
  • 2025/02/24 – Interview for McGill FSCI198 (Montréal, Victor)
  • 2025/02/11 – UBC ESSA, Climate Collage Night (Vancouver)
  • 2024/02/24 – Youth Perspectives Panel, Green Party (Zoom, Victor)

we’re on a mission.


Art of Change – Chapter 3, photo courtesy Danielle Campani

To establish a baseline of climate knowledge and a baseline of our own selves (in boundaries, empathy, compassion, justice, and emotional literacy) in order to address wicked problems.

To give people the capacity to do things themselves and self-organize.

To help people talk about climate change in a hopeful way.

our core team.

Paige Hunter (she/her) is a musician and climate organizer passionate about arts advocacy and climate emotions from Langley, BC.

Victor Yin (he/they) is a writer, poet, human geographer, and climate educator from Burnaby, BC. Victor currently lives in Montréal. 

Erica Binder (she/her) is a musician and arts management professional based in Vancouver, BC. 

Become a fern!

the values that guide our work.

Being engaged
we love what we’re doing

We feel passionate about our work. And if not, how can we get back in there? If we’re not inspired by this work, we need to re-evaluate. If we don’t feel capable, we shouldn’t do something. Are we taking on too much? Are we being asked too much? Are we asking for help?

Community
we share and cooperate generously

We recognize our position in a global interconnected web of relationships. We are active in a community of climate education, we avoid silos, and we participate in information and knowledge sharing. Whatever we do should feel cooperative and collective. We share what we’ve learned, and opportunities that come our way.

Balance
we give ourselves permission to step away

We allow ourselves time to process and think. We gives ourselves time to exhale and inhale, and time for living. We recognize the capitalist pressures to spread ourselves thin, so we make rest a priority. We avoid burnout. This shouldn’t feel like an office but rather a passionate purpose.

Boldness in vulnerability
we allow for mistakes

We encourage failure and use it as a learning opportunity. We must fail to grow, and if we’re not failing we’re not moving the dial and still keeping ourselves sheltered. We need to challenge big hegemonic systems that need to be challenged, and that requires vulnerability. We need to move forward and act, not just pop in and educate. Vulnerability involves risk and uncertainty, and making mistakes and failing is a part of that.

Patience through abundance
we are compassionate

We are doing this for the first time. We are also going to experience people who are doing work for the first time, so we need to allow us and them space to grow and the time to do it well. We are not in a rush to get things done or be right, we are intentionally coming from an abundance of time in order to do things right. 

Joy and hope
we make space for vulnerability

Joy and hope are the emotions that will drive our messaging, our personal motivation, and all that we do. Joy is rarely accomplished without hardship, vulnerability, and struggle. Hope is necessary to drive action.