This is a difficult episode of my column because of where the idea takes us: the governments of Canada were racist in foundation.
I want to reflect on where we are as a very successful species in our survival thus far. Our civilization has for the most part adopted the idea of continuous growth in the size of the economic output of our efforts.
This growth has been at the expense of the diversity of other species living in our garden laid before us by then forces of creation.
Most people will agree that we can continue to grow the economy as long as we do it in a sustainable way, that is , if we don’t deplete resources needed for life and respect the need for complexity and diversity of habitat and life forms.
The Brundtland Report by the World Commission on the Environment and Development of 1987 set the world thinking about the idea of “sustainability.” It also spoke about the need for cultural diversity as well as biological diversity for there to be the cross pollination of the ideas and values of different cultural groups.
The values of different cultures play out on the land and the life on it. If we don’t preserve the “habitats” of different cultures, then the distinctive human aspects won’t survive. One might think about the Sami people who herd reindeer over huge tracts of the arctic. Will their culture survive they can’t continue to practice their nomadic herding of reindeer?
Languages of the world, especially indigenous, presuppose life connected to the land.
A recent book about the Shuswap culture delves into the many, many place names that identify traditional use and travel throughout their territory. Names for the different landforms think about the many various grassy hills on the way to Kamloops from Cache Creek and the fact they have names).
If our attitude is that we can alter the landforms, and the life sustained by them without regard for allowing those life forms which evolved on it to continue to exist then we are losing something precious and unique to that place.
To embrace the idea of sustainability is to respect the bounty that creation caused to exist there in the first place. If we extend respect to cultures that evolved there, then we have a more wholesome view, one that should allow us to think about working out the differences that various cultures have and work out commonalities and resolve differences.
If we are to live sustainably, then we need to plan the future by reconciling different approaches and values.
We are this point now in our history on the land. We must be careful not to let any one of our cultural groups dominate to the extent of extinguishing others. To do so would be racist on the part of the dominating culture. Wars can be brought on by habitat (water and food growing areas). Different races are fighting over land and resources propelled by the attitude of extreme superiority race or religion.
My reading of our history tells me that explorers, settlers and religious immigrants thought they were the superior culture and had the right to impose their views on the existing cultures. The British Government in a Proclamation in 1763 mandated the explorers, traders and settlers to respect the self- governing nature of the indigenous cultures in what we now call Canada.
The rubber has finally hit the road and we have to respectfully recognize this historical fact if we wish to live peacefully on the land. Governments must move forward, not backwards on this front.
