Marcie Callewaert is a place based educator, marine naturalist and photographer living off grid in Clayoquot Sound, BC on the traditional lands of Keltsmaht and Ahousaht First Nations. She works with Cedar Coast Field Station on Vargas Island, providing education programming for Indigenous youth and visiting school groups. Marcie and her husband Skookum, from Ahousaht First Nation, co-operate a water taxi and ecotourism company out of Tofino. Indigenous traditional ecological knowledge is incorporated into all her work.
Living off grid has placed her in the centre of Nature, not just as a witness to all the cycles of the seasons and wildlife, but as a part of it. Coexisting with the mega fauna, especially coastal wolves, in her area was a major component of the planning that went into the cabin she shares with Skookum, four dogs and a cat! Coexistence requires sacrifice and discomfort on the humans part in order to protect wildlife by preventing conflicts before they happen. Whether that's through fencing, motion lights, hazing, or restricting our own movements to keep appropriate distance between humans and wildlife and prevent habituation.
For Marcie, conservation photography and the coexistence she aims for every day are an obvious fit for each other.
