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e216 roundtable – in memoriam tracey friesen
Season 6 Episode 216
Hey there faithful and brave conscient listeners,
Welcome to the second conscient roundtable conversation. This one was recorded on Sunday, March 16, 2025 in Vancouver. In a minute you’ll hear an acknowledgement about the original stewards of these lands followed by a minute of silent contemplation.
Normally, conscient roundtables feature a group of artists and cultural workers talking about their passions, fears and dreams and, in fact, we did do this, but this was a special episode of the conscient podcast : e216 in memoriam tracey friesen. Tracey left us on January 6, 2025 at age 58.
Who was Tracey Friesen, you ask? It’s a good question. Many of you have not had the pleasure.
Tracey was many things, including a media producer and media strategist, most recently Managing Vice President of the BC Branch of the Canadian Media Producers Association but I knew her as climate champion with the SCALE-LeSAUT and as a trusted friend. I had a conversation in 2021 on this podcast, e85, where she said:
- What's starting to interest me is stories of resilience for a post-carbon world. What are we going to need for our emotional well-being? It's going to be a different world, not long from now. If we do this, and we must do this, this transition has to happen and there's going to be a sense of loss and sacrifice and challenge, not just with what's happening externally from a climate point of view, but in how we're going to have to make changes to our lives and reorient our energies in terms of our advocacy. I feel like there's an opportunity for artists - I'm more connected to the film and television sector and the documentary community - but throughout the system, to be able to provide realistic and yet reassuring narratives about what the upside of all this might be.
You can also check out an amazing celebration of life that took place on February 22nd, 2025 in Vancouver, see Livestream of Tracey Friesen Celebration of Life - Live at 12:45pm Feb 22nd, 2025.
So I turned to my friend Jai Djwa help me bring together some of Tracey’s closest friends in Vancouver friends and we talked for 70-minutes about everything. You’ll hear Jai, of course, also Amir Niroumand, Liz Shorten, Sue Biely and Lucia Dekleer. Sadly a few others were not able to attend but I think there will be other opportunities.
You’ll hear us talk about how Tracey was an exceptional person and how she influenced our lives: anecdotes, stories, funny moments, sad moments. Tracey really believed in storytelling, as witnessed by her book: Story Money Impact.
So I think kind of public mourning and celebration is a topic of interest to us all: how do we deal the untimely loss of a friend or family member? How do honour the memory of a loved one? How can we carry their work forward?
I want to thank this group of friends for their generosity, courage and wisdom.
If you want to comment on what you hear please go to conscient.ca and use any of the conscient podcast social media to share your thoughts.
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Published on 8 months, 2 weeks ago