Post on 12-Jan-2016
Before we begin…
Integrating Historical Secwepemc Integrating Historical Secwepemc Knowledge with Contemporary Knowledge with Contemporary
ScienceScience
Meeting our aboriginal neighbours again Meeting our aboriginal neighbours again
– – for the first timefor the first time
First United Church, Salmon Arm, BCFirst United Church, Salmon Arm, BC
Sept. 22, 2012Sept. 22, 2012
Warren BellWarren Bell
Past Founding PresidentPast Founding President
WA:TER – Wetland Alliance: The Ecological ResponseWA:TER – Wetland Alliance: The Ecological Response
Thesis:
Western industrial science has lost its way.
Aboriginal wisdom can show us the way home.
The European explorers who first visited the Northwest Coast of North America assumed that the entire region was virtually untouched wilderness whose occupants used the land only minimally, hunting and gathering shoots, roots, and berries that were peripheral to a diet and culture focused on salmon. Colonizers who followed the explorers used these claims to justify the displacement of Native groups from their lands. Scholars now understand, however, that Northwest Coast peoples were actively cultivating plants well before their first contact with Europeans.
In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue….
How do we use knowledge?
Purposes for gathering knowledgePurposes for gathering knowledge
Aboriginal (50,000 years)Aboriginal (50,000 years): : • SurvivalSurvival• Sustaining resourcesSustaining resources• Respect/reverence for natural worldRespect/reverence for natural world
Western industrial society (260 years)Western industrial society (260 years): : • Production of “goods” or “products” (GDP)Production of “goods” or “products” (GDP)• Monetary gain Monetary gain • Curiosity about the worldCuriosity about the world
How does the industrial world
rate knowledge?
1901
Nobel Prizes = Nobel Prizes = the “pinnacle” of the “pinnacle” of Western scientific knowledgeWestern scientific knowledge
• PhysicsPhysics• ChemistryChemistry• MedicineMedicine• LiteratureLiterature• PeacePeace• Economic sciencesEconomic sciences
What’s not recognized?
No award for knowledge of the natural No award for knowledge of the natural world, or of the human-environmental world, or of the human-environmental
interfaceinterface
All Biological sciencesAll Biological sciences• Environmental scienceEnvironmental science• Food and agricultural scienceFood and agricultural science• ForestryForestry• ClimatologyClimatology• Atmospheric, water, soil sciences Atmospheric, water, soil sciences • Ecosystem valuationEcosystem valuation
•Ethnobotany!Ethnobotany!
No award for knowledge of human No award for knowledge of human conduct or behaviourconduct or behaviour
All social or psychological sciencesAll social or psychological sciences• PsychologyPsychology• SociologySociology• AnthropologyAnthropology• HistoryHistory• Political sciencePolitical science• LinguisticsLinguistics
•Ethnobotany!Ethnobotany!
No award for knowledge of ethics, No award for knowledge of ethics, moral judgement or valuesmoral judgement or values
BioethicsBioethics EthicsEthics
• ““Honesty” studiesHonesty” studies• ““Objectivity” studiesObjectivity” studies• ““Integrity” studiesIntegrity” studies• ““Carefulness” studiesCarefulness” studies• ““Openness” or “transparency” studiesOpenness” or “transparency” studies
Somebody noticed this a few years ago….
1980
“The Right Livelihood Award evolved from Jakob von Uexküll's opinion that the Nobel Prizes were relatively narrow in scope and usually recognised the work of citizens in industrialized countries.
Uexküll first approached the Nobel Foundation with the suggestion that it establish two new awards, one for ecology and one relevant to the lives of the poor majority of the world's population.
He offered to contribute financially but his proposal was turned down.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_Livelihood_Award
Percy and Louise Schmeiser Maude Barlow
David Suzuki
"...for exemplary courage and perseverance in asserting the rights of indigenous people to their land."
1993 – sisters Mary and Carrie Dann of the Western Shoshone people
“Western Shoshone land - our Mother Earth - is not for sale”
But now there’s a new player…But now there’s a new player…
The modern (multinational) corporation
““Global Inc. – An atlas of the multinational corporation” Global Inc. – An atlas of the multinational corporation” Gabel/BrunerGabel/Bruner
The New Press 2003The New Press 2003
Corporations (100 years) use knowledge to:Corporations (100 years) use knowledge to:• Argue the case for their exploitative actionsArgue the case for their exploitative actions• Defeat critics Defeat critics • Satisfy government regulations Satisfy government regulations • Make money for shareholdersMake money for shareholders
How corporations use knowledge
“There are no base files for this project as it is a Greenfield project.”
Translation: “We have no real clue how this will actually work because we’re building this in untouched wilderness.”
How “civil society” uses knowledge to address corporate actions
Ecosystem valuation
$$$$$$$$
Ecological FootprintEcological Footprint(Wackernagel and Rees)(Wackernagel and Rees)
“ “The amount of biologically The amount of biologically productive land and sea area productive land and sea area necessary to supply the resources a necessary to supply the resources a human human populationpopulation consumes, and to consumes, and to assimilate associated waste.” assimilate associated waste.”
http://www.footprintnetwork.org/en/index.php/GFN/
We can no longer afford
careless development!
Closer to home…
“No archaeological sites were identified within the proposed development area…”
The back story…The back story…
No artifacts on the lower south side of the No artifacts on the lower south side of the river because First Nations would not have river because First Nations would not have built or stayed where it flooded regularlybuilt or stayed where it flooded regularly
There There waswas evidence of FN presence (40-50 evidence of FN presence (40-50 year old culturally modified trees) but this year old culturally modified trees) but this didn’t have to be described, by statute, as didn’t have to be described, by statute, as “archeological evidence”“archeological evidence”
Proponent unwilling at first to work with Proponent unwilling at first to work with FN, and unwilling to disseminate the study FN, and unwilling to disseminate the study to any other parties (eventually agreed to to any other parties (eventually agreed to do so)do so)
Getting closer to using knowledge Getting closer to using knowledge in a new wayin a new way
Water Survey Canada Station # 08LE021 Salmon River near Salmon Arm - Maximum Daily Discharge (M3/Second) 1963 - 2009
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Timing by Year of Shuswap Lake Peak Water Levels and Salmon River Peak Water Flows Water Survey Canada Station Data - 1963-2008
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Water Survey Canada Station # 08LE021 Salmon River near Salmon Arm - Maximum Daily Discharge (M3/Second) 1963 - 2008
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And dozens of photos….
But now it’s time
for a truly new way of using knowledge
Integrating all knowledge into one seamless whole
20032003
Two perspectives, light years apart….
“Skirted round the great bay into which Salmon R. flows [Salmon Arm] & which is low & swampy along shore, everywhere, but may, with the lower part of the Salmon R. valley, which seems quite flat, contain a Considerable area of land eventually arable, - now thickly timbered. If cleared would need no irrigation. Some of the benches would probably answer for agriculture, & the low undulating country about White Lake Creek [White Creek]. Examined & sounded the entrance of Salmon River, & find it too shallow even at this stage of the water, for anything large to go up, being about 4’ on the bar, but deeper within. The river itself is also narrow & tortuous & does not look as if it could be navigated under any circumstances”
George Dawson, 1877
“Well…we used to just crave for fresh edibles. It was just something we lookedforward to. And it wasn’t just my grandmother. There was a lot of little old ladiesat the time. The neighbours. They’d go down and pack lunch and we’d go downwith them as children. And when they’d pop the wapato out of the mud we wouldgrab them and throw them in the baskets….And then of course we always had tohelp. And it was like a real picnic. Anything we did was picnic with ourgrandparents. I have so many happy memories of them. And it was so plentiful. Idon’t think they could put a dent in it. You know, by digging. It was just all over,right around the bay [of Shuswap Lake], past the wharf in town. It was allwapato and water parsnip along with the bulrush. It was just like a real bigpicnic. And they’d come home with great big huge baskets full of both root edibles.”
Mary Thomas – personal communication to Nancy Turner and Ann Garibaldi 2-15- 01
The “The “new”new” use of knowledge use of knowledge
HolisticHolistic – all known variables considered – all known variables considered togethertogether
Includes human development and culture in Includes human development and culture in the local and planetary landscapethe local and planetary landscape
Changes human behaviour – cultural, Changes human behaviour – cultural, economic, recreational, employment, economic, recreational, employment, housing, and social – to fit the “housing, and social – to fit the “eco-scape”eco-scape” – – not the not the eco-scapeeco-scape to fit the behaviour to fit the behaviour
““Eco-scapeEco-scape””
Combines “landscape” and “ecosystem”Combines “landscape” and “ecosystem” Includes the life forms and the land forms Includes the life forms and the land forms
– water, air, soil, plants, animals, and – water, air, soil, plants, animals, and humanshumans
Also includes cosmic factors such as solar Also includes cosmic factors such as solar activity and lunar and planetary influencesactivity and lunar and planetary influences
Places humans in the scene, but as part of Places humans in the scene, but as part of a grander process in which we are locally a grander process in which we are locally important, but globally inconsequentialimportant, but globally inconsequential
Elements of eco-scape knowledgeElements of eco-scape knowledge
Deep ecological scienceDeep ecological science Deep psychological scienceDeep psychological science All cultural knowledge All cultural knowledge Historical study (up to the planetary Historical study (up to the planetary
level)level) Biomimicry (imitating Mother Nature)Biomimicry (imitating Mother Nature) Equal emphasis on different sources Equal emphasis on different sources
of knowledge –traditional wisdom of knowledge –traditional wisdom and Western scienceand Western science
Albert Einstein
"Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind…. Veneration for this force beyond anything that we can comprehend is my religion "
"Technological progress is like an axe in the hands of a pathological criminal."
"Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding.”
Chief Seattle
"A human being is a part of a whole, called by us “universe”, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself … as something separated from the rest... a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. …Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty."
“Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect.”
Chief Seattle, 1854
Albert Einstein
The The newestnewest development development
Mary Thomas Mary Thomas Heritage Sanctuary Heritage Sanctuary and Cultural Centreand Cultural Centre
The The newestnewest development development
Ecologically soundEcologically sound Psychologically sound Psychologically sound Economically secureEconomically secure Able to endure for the foreseeable Able to endure for the foreseeable
futurefuture Culturally diverse and sensitiveCulturally diverse and sensitive Just and fairJust and fair Enjoyable and enrichingEnjoyable and enriching Constantly changing and adaptingConstantly changing and adapting
Who are we working for?
Our new employers
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