Surfacing, Voicing and Signalling Freedom in Relational Performance: Cheryl L’Hirondelle and Camille Turner’s Freedom Tours

The marking of colonial narratives mapped as histories onto Canada are reinforced on almost every boat, train, or rail tour in Canada. In Freedom Tours (2017) for LandMarks2017/Répéres2017, by artists Cheryl L’Hirondelle and Camille Turner the artists disrupted these entrenched histories hosting two sailings with tour narration. Thes narrated tours featured narratives that stemmed from Cree worldview and Caribbean diasporic perspectives. In L’Hirondelle and Turner’s work they built an architecture of songs unsung and stories untold in a temporal space- a boat tour in the waters in and around the Thousand Islands National Park. In this text I revisit the process of working with these artists to reveal the ways in which their work while being joyous also signaled the ways in which colonial histories drown out Indigenous, Black and People of Colour narratives in Canada. The historic settler alteration of waterways and borders within the Thousand Islands National Park has meant that some islands, previously visited by Indigenous people to harvest maple sap, are no longer above water. In this paper I want to be that island resurfacing sweet syrup, rising in these unstable waters to offer truths to Canada’s colonial narrative.

Ingestion of maple-based and other carbohydrate sports drinks: effect on sensory perceptions during prolonged exercise

Background Taste and appreciation of sports drinks can affect perceived exertion during exercise. Anecdotal evidence shows that maple products are regularly consumed by recreational and professional athletes but very few studies have reported on their effects during exercise. The purpose of the current study is to report the taste, appreciation and perceived exertion following the ingestion of maple-based sports drinks and other carbohydrate drinks during prolonged exercise. Methods Recreationally and competitively active male subjects (n = 76, mass = 73.7 ± 10.3 kg, maximum oxygen consumption (VO2max) = 4.4 ± 0.5 L/min, maximal aerobic power (MAP) = 309 ± 42 W) ingested one of four carbohydrate solutions (all at 60 g CHO/L): concentrated maple sap (MW), diluted maple syrup (MS), glucose (G), a commercial sports drink (CSD), or a placebo (P; water sweetened with stevia) at every 30 min during 120 min of steady-state exercise (SSE) on a cycle ergometer at 66% MAP. Ratings of perceived exertion (RPE, Borg CR-10) were recorded at each 30 min throughout SSE. A questionnaire was administered to assess sensory characteristics (sweetness, acidity, refreshing, and overall taste on a visual analogue scale, converted to decimals from 0 to 1) and appreciation (sweet, acid and overall on a 9-point hedonic scale) 30 min before (immediately after the first ingestion) and immediately after SSE. Results Sweetness was perceived to be higher for MW than G and P (pre: 0.60 ± 0.19, 0.51 ± 0.17 and 0.50 ± 0.17 and post: 0.69 ± 0.19, 0.34 ± 0.18 and 0.48 ± 0.22; p < 0.05, respectively) and MS was rated higher than MW for the appreciation of the sweet taste (pre: 6.5 ± 1.5 vs. 4.6 ± 1.8 and post: 6.8 ± 1.8 and 4.1 ± 1.8; p < 0.05, respectively). Furthermore, subjects that had ingested MW, reported a significantly lower RPE than those with P at 120 min (14.1 ± 2.2 vs. 16.0 ± 2.0, respectively). Conclusions A sports drink containing maple syrup is well appreciated during prolonged exercise and appears to be a viable alternatives to more common sources of carbohydrates. Trial registration NCT02880124. Registered on 26 August 2016.

A systems biology approach to explore the impact of maple tree dormancy release on sap variation and maple syrup quality

Maple sap is a complex nutrient matrix collected during Spring to produce maple syrup. The characteristics of sap change over the production period and its composition directly impacts syrup quality. This variability could in part be attributed to changes in tree metabolism following dormancy release, but little is known about these changes in deciduous trees. Therefore, understanding the variation in sap composition associated with dormancy release could help pinpoint the causes of some defects in maple syrup. In particular, a defect known as “buddy”, is an increasing concern for the industry. This off-flavor appears around the time of bud burst, hence its name. To investigate sap variation related to bud burst and the buddy defect, we monitored sap variation with respect to a dormancy release index (Sbb) and syrup quality. First, we looked at variation in amino acid content during this period. We observed a shift in amino acid relative proportions associated with dormancy release and found that most of them increase rapidly near the point of bud burst, correlating with changes in syrup quality. Second, we identified biological processes that respond to variation in maple sap by performing a competition assay using the barcodedSaccharomyces cerevisiaeprototroph deletion collection. This untargeted approach revealed that the organic sulfur content may be responsible for the development of the buddy off-flavor, and that dormancy release is necessary for the appearance of the defect, but other factors such as microbial activity may also be contributing.