Canada’s first feminine astronaut brings pictures exhibit to UCN The Pas Campus

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It’s not every single day an astronaut lands in The Pas. But then, Dr. Roberta Bondar was by no means the sort of astronaut who stayed put as soon as gravity reclaimed her.

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She’s bringing along with her a cargo not of moon rocks or meteor mud, however of birds frozen in flight. Her exhibition, Patterns & Parallels: The Great Imperative to Survive, opens November 27 on the University College of the North, and it could be essentially the most lovely argument for humility you’ll ever stand in entrance of.

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The photographs are huge and small all of sudden — high-resolution pictures taken from house, the air, and the bottom, tracing the delicate, unattainable routes of birds that dwell on the sting of extinction. Their migration paths, when seen from orbit, appear to be brushstrokes throughout a planet that’s each miraculous and detached.

Bondar, the primary Canadian girl to slide the bonds of Earth, has at all times photographed with the attention of somebody who’s seen the entire thing directly. “When we recognize avian behaviours that resemble ours,” she says, “we relate better to their lives and fragility.”

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The public is invited to the grand opening and particular in-person presentation by Dr. Bondar on November 27 at 6 p.m. at UCN’s The Pas Campus. The exhibition will stay open to the general public till March 14, 2026.

UCN President and Vice Chancellor Doug Lauvstad mentioned the college is honoured to host the exhibit.

“We are excited to welcome the accomplished Dr. Roberta Bondar to The Pas Campus, along with her artwork,” Lauvstad mentioned. “It’s a unique opportunity for our community and one that carries an important message about our shared responsibility to the planet.”

In a landmark initiative, Patterns & Parallels has additionally been translated into three Indigenous languages spoken all through northern Manitoba — Cree, Dene, and Anisinimowin — marking the primary time the exhibit has been offered in a number of Indigenous tongues.

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The translation work was accomplished in collaboration with UCN’s Indigenous Initiatives and Reconciliation Division, The Pas Guest List, and The Roberta Bondar Foundation. The mission acknowledges the deep connection between Indigenous Knowledge Keepers and the pure world, notably via generations of teachings about hen migrations and ecological stability.

“For generations, the migratory patterns of birds have held deep meaning within Indigenous oral histories and teachings,” reads a joint assertion from the companions. “This collaboration celebrates and revitalizes Indigenous languages and cultures that have endured despite efforts to erase them.”

Bondar’s basis is globally acknowledged for combining scientific exploration with environmental training. Her newest exhibit consists of photographs of threatened and endangered species such because the Whooping Crane, Lesser Flamingo, and Piping Plover.

Patterns & Parallels: The Great Imperative to Survive will likely be open for public viewing at UCN’s The Pas Campus Art Gallery from November 27, 2025, via March 14, 2026.

— Steven Sukkau is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter who works out of the Winnipeg Sun. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.

Have ideas on what’s happening in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, or the world over? Send us a letter to the editor at wpgsun.letters@kleinmedia.ca.

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