Axis Mundi unveils speakers including Severn Cullis-Suzuki, Jamie Andrew, Greg Hill

The Axis Mundi Harvest festival is building on its mandate to be a total package ‘experiential’ festival that engages on subjects like sustainability, mountain culture, the arts and outdoor life.

Over the weekend, they confirmed more speakers for the festival, who will be appearing at different venues at the Sept. 18–20 inaugural festival.

Severn Cullis-Suzuki

Severn Cullis-Suzuki seized the international stage in 1992 when, at age 12, she travelled to the Rio Earth Summit with friends from her DIY Enviromental Children’s Organization, where she delivered a speech that captured international attention, and continues to have an impact today.

Severn Cullis-Suzuki. Photo: Severn Cullis-Suzuki Facebook page

Severn continues with her life work as an advocate for intergenerational justice, travelling the world as a writer and speaker who advocates for human action with the future in mind, and the interconnection between culture and the environment.

Severn has been involved with many notable initiatives since 1992. In 2000, she participated in a cross-Canada cycling campaign called Powershift to highlight air pollution issues. While a student at Yale, she helped develop the Recognition of Responsibility that she brought to the 2002 UN World Summit on Sustainable Development, where she appeared on the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan’s Special Advisory Panel. She co-hosted the TV series Suzuki’s NatureQuest,

Severn Cullis-Suzuki with her father David Suzuki. Photo: Severn Cullis-Suzuki Facebook

and is an author of the book Notes from Canada’s Young Activists. She is on the Earth Charter Commission and sits on the Earth Charter International Council. Currently, she is hosting the third season of the APTN series Samaqan — Water Stories that explores Indigenous Peoples’ water issues.

Cullis-Suzuki trained as a biologist at Yale, where she received her Bachelor of Science in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and the University of Victoria, where she attained a Masters of Science in Ethnobotany while studying  with Kwakwaka’wakw elders on the Pacific Northwest coast.

She lives on Haida Gwaii with her husband and sons.

Jamie Andrew

Prepare to be inspired by Scottish mountaineer Jamie Andrew. At the height of his climbing career in 1999, Jamie and his climbing partner Jamie Fisher were caught in a storm after completing the North Face of Led Droites in the French Alps. Jaime Fisher perished in the incident and Jamie Andrew was saved in a harrowing helicopter rescue.

Severe frostbite forced the amputation of his hands and feet.

Mountaineer Jamie Andrew inspires with his story of perseverance and triumph. Photo: contributed by Jamie Andrew

Andrew persevered through the adversity, working through years of challenging rehabilitation and back into an impressive lifestyle that continues with more remarkable accomplishments. He is active in swimming, running, skiing, snowboarding, paragliding, caving, orienteering and sailing.

He’s continued on as a mountaineer, conquering Ben Nevis in Britain before moving up increasingly difficult ascents. He participated in an all-disabled ascent of Mount Kilimanjaro, while raising funds for charity along the way.

Jowi Taylor

Jowi Taylor is an Ontario-based radio personalty who hosted the CBC’s Global Village program for a decade until 2007, while hosting and producing numerous series exploring music and the human experience, winning numerous prestigious awards along the way.

Jowi Taylor created the Six String Nation initiative and will bring the famous Voyageur guitar to Revelstoke. Photo: Jowi Taylor

He is the creator of Six String Nation, a project to create a guitar made up of pieces of historical and cultural material from across Canada. The guitar, dubbed Voyageur, is known as Canada’s guitar, and features 64 pieces of bone, metal, wood, stone and fabric representing all Canadian provinces. Some examples include wood from the deck of the Bluenose II, a piece from Paul Henderson’s hockey stick, Nancy Greene’s childhood skis, a bit of Pierre Trudeau’s canoe paddle, a 300-year-old golden spruce from Haida Gwaii and a bit of a sideboard that belonged to Sir John A. Macdonald.

The guitar travels with an official photographer who has captured tens of thousands of official portraits with the guitar.

Greg Hill

Mountain athlete and Revelstoke resident Greg Hill needs little introduction here. His exploits in the mountains around Revelstoke and around the world have been subject to numerous stories in the local media and beyond.

Revelstoke mountaineering athlete Greg Hill is known for incredible acts of endurance in the mountains. Photo: Via www.arcteryx.com

The mountain guide and mountaineer is known for epic adventures in the mountains, including a million-foot season on skis in 2004–2005 that earned him a nod in the National Geographic Adventure Magazine 14 amazing adventures in 2006. He’s won many competitions and races in the mountains, bagging ascent records and winning endurance titles.

Hill is most well known for his 2010 adventure to climb and ski two million feet in one year, when he averaged over 5,500 feet a day all year long, climbing 71 mountains in four countries as he chased the snow across both hemispheres.

In March of last year he completed a month-long challenge to climb and ski 100 vertical kilometres.

Greg has engaged as a film-maker and speaker.

Ian Colin James

Fly fishing expert Ian Colin James reeled in his first fish on a fly at the age of six in his native Scotland, and hasn’t looked back.

Based in Ontario, James is a fly fishing guide and casting instructor who’s earned the title ‘the Carpfather’ for his mastery of the secrets and techniques of that fish.

Learn from one of the best in flyfisher and fishing guide Ian Colin James. Photo: Ian James website

An advocate of a simple and pared-down style, and his no frills approach to fly fishing. James competes professionally and has represented Canada at international competitive fly fishing events.

James’s flies are sought after around the world, where his original patterns and creations are studied and promoted. He has won a design award from the Ontario Arts Council for his efforts.

He is a television host and fly-tying expert on the TV show The New Fly Fisher, and has been featured on ESPN’s prestigious fishing show Legends of Rod and Reel.

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See the Axis Mundi Harvest website to buy tickets for the Sept. 18—20 festival.

This sponsored post is part of an ongoing series highlighting the Axis Mundi Harvest festival.