Queer Ecology Hike: Land, Story, and Belonging

Art Not Shame’s fourth workshop as part of the Art for Social Change Workshop series, is “Queer Ecology Hike: Land, Story, and Belonging” led by facilitator Zwena Gray. On Sunday, August 10th, participants will meet at the Boathouse sign in (116 Gordon St, Guelph) to embark on a two-hour guided hike of the Eramosa River Trail.

Hikers meet at the Boathouse sign (116 Gordon St, Guelph) at 1pm

FREE, Spaces limited – Register/RSVP at this link!

Registration is open to all community members. No outdoor experience is required.

Zwena Gray’s guided hike will weave together land connection, storytelling, and queer ecology. This is not just a walk in the woods, it’s an invitation to slow down, listen deeply, and reflect on what it means to belong: to ourselves, to each other, and to the land.

Rooted in Black and queer ways of knowing, this hike creates space for reflection, rest, and quiet joy. Along the trail, we’ll pause for grounding practices, storytelling prompts, and gentle conversation. Together, we’ll explore how land holds memory, how our bodies carry story, and how nature can be a place of both healing and resistance.

Zwena Gray (she/they) is a storyteller, facilitator, and land-based dreamer. Born in Detroit and rooted in many places, Zwena’s work lives at the intersections of ecology, identity, and collective memory.

Through Queer Ecology Hikes, Zwena creates reflective spaces where folks can return to land and to themselves. Her practice weaves together storytelling, movement, and ancestral listening, reminding us that healing is possible in community, and that land holds our histories as much as our futures.

Zwena became the first Black woman to thru-hike the 900km Bruce Trail, not as a performance, but as a love letter to presence, grief, and Black joy in nature. Zwena carries a commitment to justice, wonder, and reimagining public space as a site of care, rest, and resistance.

Home is not always a place, it’s people, plants, stories, and stillness. Zwena builds toward futures where we can all belong more deeply.