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The Footprint Press is pleased to accept submissions of articles, photographs and artwork for possible inclusion in the magazine. All submissions are reviewed by our editorial committee in terms of relevance and appropriateness for upcoming issues. The decision of the editorial committee is final. Please note we do not accept advertising or promotional material. We do not provide financial compensation for submissions. It is advisable to contact the Footprint Press editor prior to making a submission here.

Articles should be submitted in digital format. Please limit the article to 700 words or less and include the name of the author, place of residence, and any affiliation(s), or contact info (e.g., Facebook). Photographs and photos of artwork need to be in a high resolution digital format for printing purposes.

Vanessa Serroul is an artist from the Xwísten community, located within the St’át’imc Nation between the Bridge River and the Fraser River. Xwísten means “the Smiling People” in the St’át’imc language.

Since 2001, Vanessa has lived within the Máthxwi community where she raises her family. Máthxwi is also located along the Fraser River and is where she calls home.

Vanessa’s artistic style uses a variety of mediums in an innovative and modern take on Indigenous art, and gains inspiration from her surroundings in nature as well as her culture and traditions.

Her goal as an Artist is to raise awareness for the conservation of the lands and animals through the visual interpretations of her artworks.
www.vanessaserroul.com

Jack Emberly is a retired special education teacher and award-winning journalist (North Vancouver Citizen Newspaper) and former columnist with the Maple Ridge News (Along the Fraser) who lives in Maple Ridge. He is the author of three books for children and adults dealing with conflict resolution – The King of Anger Mountain, Cars I’ve Known and Loved Before (good cars know how to listen to their drivers), and the King of Anger Mountain, edition 2. Jack has collaborated with Chris Clevette of Iron Horse Media to produce several videos – on YouTube- including Alouette Lake, Fairy Creek As I See It, and Worth Creek. A 7-part podcast – The 100 Years War on Alouette Salmon, features in-depth interviews with local salmon historian, Geoff Clayton, past president of the Alouette River Management Society. Jack is now completing a new book entitled Goodbye Chums and Other Tales from My Schoolhouse Days. It’s about the fascinating world of an elementary school teacher.

Nicole Marie Giesbrecht, a Metis-Mennonite multimedia artist and poet from the Fraser Valley, specializes in blending Poetry with Acrylic painting. She has also excelled in wire art, felting, weaving and other mediums as an outlet for her creativity, expression, and healing. 

Her Spiritual Journey has greatly influenced her poetry and art, deep diving into the Interconnection of Nature, Spirit, Consciousness and Self. Her heritage and upbringing reflects in her message, giving voice to the importance and reverence of the Natural World to which we are innately connected. 

Inspired by the beauty and awe she feels for this universe, she hopes to convey that magic and brilliance by using bold and radiant colours and a vibrant energy in her paintings. 

Although Nicole is an emerging artist in acrylic painting, with her first Duo Gallery Exhibition, ‘Growing Roots’ debuting at the Mission Arts Council’s Rock Family Gallery in July 2024, she has been Creative her
whole life. Her works have been published in the Footprint Press as well as displayed and sold at many Art Markets, Music Festivals, and stores throughout B.C. 

“My people will sleep for one hundred years, but when they awake, it will be the artists who give them their spirit back.” Louis Riel 1885.

Ellen Sereda is a Mission, BC based painter and mixed media artist. Her work focuses on portraiture and wildlife, primarily birds, though both are often found in a single piece. She is inspired by the natural world and by stories and myth. “Some of my pieces are straight portraits of the birds I encounter walking through the forests and wetlands around me, other times I use elements of the natural world to tell a story.” Her work can be found in collections throughout Canada, the US, the UK and Australia.

Ronnie Dean Harris aka Ostwelve, is a Stó:lō/St’át’imc/Nlaka’pamux multimedia artist based in New Westminster, BC. He got his start with professional graphic design at the age of 14 and in the same year, he began co-hosting the “When Spirits Whisper” radio show along side Gunargie O’Sullivan on CO-OP Radio 100.5 FM (formerly 102.7 FM).

Over the years, Ronnie has worked on various projects, as an actor, composer and performer.

He  has also been very active in creating and facilitating workshop programs for youth in media arts and hip-hop. Currently he is working as the Program Director for Reframing Relations with the Community Arts Council of Vancouver delivering programming for indigenous and non-indigenous artists to interface with students and youth in schools and communities around the concept of reconciliation. 

As an organizer, Ronnie has contributed to various organizations over recent years including the Working Group For Indigenous Food Sovereignty, Wild Salmon Caravan, Wild Salmon Defenders Alliance, Indigenous Climate Action and other related organizations and actions.

For more information about Ronnie’s work as an artist and performer please visit ostwelvemusic.com/

Angela has written fiction, non-fiction, and poetry since she was able to compose words on the page. She studied creative writing at York University in Toronto, and then completed her studies – turning to journalism – in the Langara Journalism program.  As a child she spent a great deal of her time in the natural world, hiking, canoeing, and riding her horse. She was, and is, happiest in the company of non-human animals and the natural world. Our Mother Earth and the rights of all beings have always been her passion and have driven her to join countless marches, rallies, and acts of civil disobedience. In 2019 she and her husband, Eric Chong, founded Extinction Rebellion Fraser Valley which worked with many other Fraser Valley Environmental Groups including Bellingham Extinction Rebellion.

Dr. Claudette Bethune is a practicing clinical scientist in the USA. Claudette was trained at the University of Washington in Seattle, has a doctorate in drug metabolism and clinical pharmacokinetics, and is qualified to characterize the safety of medicine as well as food nutrients and toxins by the US FDA and international regulatory bodies. She has worked for the Norwegian National Institute for Nutrition and Seafood Safety (NIFES) providing health authorities with risk assessments for consuming farmed fish. Dr. Bethune writes extensively about the health problems of farmed salmon due to the accumulation of toxins such as PCBs from feeds and the promotion of antibiotic resistance by salmon farms.

Dr. Marvin Rosenau is an instructor in the Fish Wildlife and Recreation Program (FWR) at the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) where he teaches Fish Ecology and Management as well as Environmental Monitoring at the second-year level in addition to year-long Projects course.  Marvin has a 35-year history of working in freshwater fisheries in the province of British Columbia. This includes stints as a consultant, in academia, with the International Pacific Salmon Fisheries Commission, and with the provincial Ministry of Environment. Much of his work, within and outside of government, has focused on stream and lake habitat-protection and restoration, including issues relating to gravel-removal from streams, lake fertilization and flow-augmentation for fluvial fishes. Marvin worked extensively on lower Fraser River white sturgeon during the 1990’s as a BC fisheries program biologist and as a Director and member of the Science Committee within the Fraser River Sturgeon Conservation Society. In the 1990’s he also worked on Water Use Planning flow agreements, which modified stream discharges in a number of hydro-electric projects in southwestern B.C. to great success in increasing fish numbers. Species that he has, in particular, worked on over the years include sturgeon, kokanee, Salish suckers, Coho and Chinook salmon. He has a BSc (Honours) and an MSc from the Department of Zoology, University of British Columbia, and a DPhil from the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Waikato in Hamilton, New Zealand. In addition, he has won a number of aquatic conservation awards including the: Murray A. Newman Award for Significant Achievement in Aquatic Conservation (1999), the B.C. Wildlife Federation Ted Barsby Trophy Conservationist of the Year (2008), the Canadian Wildlife Federation Roland Michener Conservation Award (2010), and the Totem Fly Fishers Roderick Haig-Brown Conservation Award (2012).

Rebecca McMurray is a lifelong resident of Mission, a local naturalist, and environmental educator. She graduated from the Bachelor of Science in Ecological Restoration Program at BCIT in 2015. Focussing her efforts on inspiring an interest in nature in others, she has worked and volunteered with Metro Vancouver Regional Parks, WildSafeBC, Surrey Nature Centre, Mt Seymour Resorts, Abbotsford-Mission Nature Club and is currently working as a fisheries technician on the Coquitlam River.