INTRODUCTION
The tide goes out. The tide comes in again.It is not the end of the world.
- Terry Glavin
Twelve thousand years ago (give or take) the ice began to recede. The sea rose, the land settled, and from their ice-age refugia in Haida Gwaii came salmon, that pioneering species which would once again populate every possible stream and river, bringing the incredible richness of ocean to a land in the process of rebuilding.
And from the fastness of interior Siberia came a people, moving east and then south, on both sides of the Pacific Rim, a people who knew that to survive they must live in sustainable community. By 10,000 years ago they had reached Gwaii Hanaas and Namu.
Finally, as the climate warmed, from the south--mile by mile migrating northward--came cedar. When these three met: salmon—fresh, dried, smoked—the staff of life; cedar, with its rich, weather-resistant oils and its inner bark that could be twisted into twine and woven into cloth, easily split, easily shaped; and a people who knew that to survive they must live in sustainable community. When these three met, the Northwest Coast culture was born.
Salmon, cedar and First Nations people are representative species. Salmon represent all the life of ocean. Cedar represents all the life of land. The First Nations people represent all who are blessed by life on this Coast.
Even more, they are indicator species. To the extent that salmon are threatened, all life in the ocean is threatened. To the extent that cedar is threatened, all life on land is threatened. To the extent that the First Nations are threatened, all human community on the Coast is threatened.
And, of course, this is exactly what has happened. All three species have been, or are very close to being, threatened.
Others have written of the decimation of fish stocks and the wanton slaughter of sea creatures; of the stripping of minerals, the mining of forests and the degradation of once life-giving waterways; of the decimation of the First Nations peoples, the destruction of their culture and the subsequent depopulation of the Coast. Others have written of the bad news. But is there not any good news? Are there no signs of new life? Is there no hope?
The Sustainable Coast Project seeks the good news, the signs of new life. Here and there, often only in minor and partial ways, new life is happening. And often, as we are discovering, it is new/old life. It is the insights and sometimes even the technology of the old ways that are giving birth to the new.
In judging the sustainability of this new life, we have used a three-fold criterion. The new life must be
- sustainable ecologically,
- viable economically, if only in a very modest way (people, after all, have to make a living),
- and supportive of continuing community.
The Sustainable Coast Project is a beginning exploration into some of these new/old possibilities. We offer, in story and description, these possibilities as hope models.
Those who lived through the ferment of the 1960s and 70s, a time in Canada when many believed we could build a just society, will remember the importance of hope models. Hope models demonstrate that it can be done. They keep alive the dream. As social activists are only too aware, hope is the one absolutely essential ingredient of social change.
So this is a modest book about a mighty hope. And perhaps there will be a second volume….
The tide goes out. The tide comes in again.
It is not the end of the world.
Sources: Terry Glavin, The Last Great Sea (Greystone, 2000).
To contact us send an email to elizabeale@yahoo.ca. To find out about La Sonrisa sailing charters see the April 30 post, Welcome to La Sonrisa.
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