Big River—Nelson Launch Event
at the Nelson Museum, Archives, & Gallery
On June 1 at the Nelson Museum, Archives, & Gallery in Nelson, BC, experience a multimedia journey along the Columbia River from source to sea with photographer David Moskowitz, author Eileen Delehanty Pearkes, and former Sinixt/Arrow Lakes Territorial Land Advisor Shelly Boyd.
In Big River: Resilience and Renewal in the Columbia Basin, (new June 2024 from Braided River) award-winning photographer David Moskowitz and writer Eileen Delehanty Pearkes illuminate the natural history, hydrogeology, beauty, and human activity on the Columbia River, while also highlighting the challenges facing the region and the people working on sustainable solutions.
This event is part of a series of international book events celebrating the book launch of Big River throughout the Pacific Northwest. Big River explores the Columbia River watershed as one living, interdependent entity that embraces a broad cultural and ecological perspective.
Through rich and comprehensive images of the land, river, and people and micro-interviews from diverse voices across the region, Big River explores the Columbia River Basin as a single living, interdependent entity.
The culmination of Moskowitz’s many years of photographing the river and exploring its watershed and Eileen’s decades of research, Big River seeks a path forward for the Columbia River watershed, balancing the demands around water, salmon, agriculture, energy, and climate with the fundamental need for a sustainable living river.
About the Authors and Speakers
SHELLY BOYD
Big River COntributor | speaker
Shelly Boyd is a former Sinixt/Arrow Lakes Territorial Land Advisor and a passionate advocate for preserving the cultural heritage and traditions of her people.
DAVID MOSKOWITZ
Big River photographer and author | speaker
Photographer, author, wildlife biologist, and tracker David Moskowitz is the author of Caribou Rainforest, Wildlife of the Pacific Northwest, and Wolves in the Land of Salmon, and coauthor of Peterson’s Field Guide to North American Bird Nests. His work has been featured in the New York Times, Sierra, High Country News, and Audubon Magazine, as well as by organizations such as the National Wildlife Federation, Endangered Species Coalition, and Nature Conservancy of Canada.
EILEEN DELEHANTY PEARKES
Big River author | speaker
Eileen Delehanty Pearkes explores landscape, history, and the human imagination through
writing, maps, and visual notebooks, focusing on Indigenous culture and the power of water. She has researched the international Columbia River basin for more than two decades. Pearkes is the author of The Geography of Memory, A River Captured: The Columbia River and Catastrophic Change, and The Heart of a River.