Each year, Dr. Laurie Brinklow’s intrepid students from her Islandness: Culture, Change and Identity class take a “walk on the edge,” then document their experience – through words and images – of what it’s like being out on the edge of the Island. And because our class is in the winter semester, the experience isn’t of the usual sun, sand, and sea…

Here are the assignments from the 2023 cohort. Enjoy!

Mah Ara Ahmadi: Island From a Raven’s Eye View

Flying my drone by the shore, I started thinking about the ravens that were flying above the snow-covered beach. Lucky ravens! They have this opportunity to fly above the island and see this eye-catching view all the time. This bird’s-eye view reminds me of the first image that I captured when I flew to the island for the first time. Months ago, after flying for hours above the ocean, I finally saw the edge of the island. The welcoming red shore of PEI seemed like a warm hug in the middle of the cold blue ocean. Continue reading…

Akinbinu Akinkunle Akintan: A Walk through the Island: Nature Wonders

A vacation experience I cannot forget was walking along the entire length of an island seashore in Lagos, Nigeria, one of West Africa’s megacities, in the company of family and friends. This is one of such rare leisure activities I engage in to unwind from the week-long hustle and bustle of city life. As one of Africa’s busiest metropolises, life and work schedules can be pretty confining, with little or no space for physical as well as mental rejuvenation. Except for the few wealthy islanders, housing and urban planning leave restraining stretchmarks on the psyches of most middle-class dwellers—a situation that is completely different when compared with what obtains in the countryside. Continue reading…

Andrew MacPherson: A Long Run Along the Edge

I’ve decided to take this assignment in a slightly different direction. I strongly believe in the power of liminal spaces. I live in one in Calgary, less than 200 metres from the Bow River. This is mostly fine and I enjoy walking and running along the river often, including almost daily visits to two nearby river islands, Prince’s Island which was man-made for the logging industry over a century ago and St. Patrick’s Island which is home to the Calgary Zoo. Continue reading…

Rabab Hussein: Walks on Different Edges

On the 7th of February at 14:30, I took a walk on the boardwalk at Victoria Park in Charlottetown. So many thoughts crossed my mind while walking on the edge on that cold day. The water was frozen and the snow covered everything;, however, the scenery was still spectacular as shown in the picture above. Throughout my life, I have been enjoying walking on sea shores, riversides, lakes and ponds where I get to do nothing but meditate through looking at the water and the horizon. I always preferred beautiful views of open seas and oceans, where the water is endless and it meets the sky on the other end. I believe that urbanization and human intervention around beautiful sceneries kill the natural beauty of it. 
Continue reading…

Mariesze Geraldine Ebert: A Walk on The Edge

Taking a walk around Victoria Park In the winter may not be ideal but it made me reflect on the edges I’ve walked on in my life thus far.  Walking on the edge has so many meanings to me, being an Islander, it gives me a sense of freedom and also a sense of pride that I didn’t know I had, until now! 
Moving half way across the world to Prince Edward Island was my most recent walk on the edge. Although I’ve walked on many edges in my life, I’ve always played it safe but this…this seems the most daring by far, away from my family and friends and yet this Island has been so welcoming that I immediately felt at home as soon as I arrived. This beautiful Island is completely different from what I left behind. For starters I’ve never seen so much snow in my life! (this is apparently a mild winter!) and now a couple of months since I’ve arrived, walking around in -6-degree weather is bearable…its literally a walk in the park!  Continue reading…

Barbara Rousseau: A Walk on the Edge

I have been privileged to walk on the edge of Prince Edward Island regularly for five years now, and year-round for the last three. My choice is not the stereotypical, eroding red cliffs of “Anne’s Land” and the North Cape, nor the sheltered Northumberland Strait, but the windswept and ever-changing boundary between the sand dunes of the north shore and the churning Gulf of St. Lawrence. Winter walks here can be a risky business, whether it’s in getting to the edge, after days of rain have turned the earth turns to rivers of mud that swallow boots and car tires alike, or in colder weather when the ice pack seamlessly blends sand and water, leaving the actual edge unclear. Let me paint a picture of a typical January walk on this edge… Continue reading…

Isabel MacDougall: Flashbacks from the Edge

For many Islanders, walking the shore is a way to connect with nature – the smells, the sounds, the unobstructed sense of space. For me, the shore is a place of refuge, a place where I can be alone with my thoughts, a place where I can meet with friends and family to walk and chat and laugh. Continue reading…

D. Bailey Clark: The Edge, Found

It’s 9:45 A.M. After entering Indian River, I turn off Route 20 into a narrow driveway, just wide enough for my car. On the left, a forest. On the right, I see my parents’ house and yard through what’s left of the line of spruce and pine trees that blocked this view until September 2022. My tires crunch through the snow. Continue reading…