Native Lands and Bioregionalism

In a social geography module during my degree, we were encouraged to think about the 'bioregion'. A bioregion is defined by certain geographical characteristics, generally a watershed. In the case of the bioregion of the Pacific Northwest, we were considering this fact that all precipitation that falls within the bioregion runs down in the same direction and ends up in the Pacific Ocean. All precipitation falling outside of that land area ends up in different bodies of water. This watershed area defines a "bioregion." I won't go into all the ways in which we considered the significance of the bioregion, but instead focus on what this could potentially mean in a more green political world.

In a sense, this way of understanding a region gives new meaning to the rest of our boundary-drawing activities, our territories, our countries with their borders... While we fight over territory, beneath this surface of politics something very fundamental and natural is occurring, and if only we paid attention to it we could perhaps reconceptualize our senses of belonging and attachment to adhere to something more fundamental, more natural, than the political boundaries and identities that we subscribe to. Seeing ourselves as belonging to the watershed area in which we live connects our sense of belonging, our citizenship even, with the non-human as well as the human environment in a new way. This concept seems so new to us, with our Western, rationalist ways of thinking, but from what I've heard at least, that sense of interconnectedness with natural systems and processes is much more inherent to what we call 'Native' or 'First Nations' cultures, for whom people are just one species amongst others and the land is home in a way that most of us city dwellers would struggle to understand. It seems to me that we're missing a trick, and that it's this other way of looking at our selves and how we fit into the systems that will ultimately save us from our own destruction, creating a more livable land for us all in the mean time.

Home, and Native Land

While Canada is home, it is not my native land. My native land(s) are Wales, UK, and Tehran, Iran. An odd variety of places to have lived and been part of perhaps. I certainly feel like a rubber band stretched across the globe. And one that is stretched tight at the moment.
I have been reading articles about President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his defiant speeches, and I have to say, it's made me nostalgic about Iran in a good way. When I thought about the crowds chanting about their right to nuclear energy it made me think with warmth about people who are willing to stand up for what they believe in and not bow down before the ridiculous king of largeland. I'm ready to start chanting with them. They deserve the right to do whatever they want. It's tyranical for the US to try to govern them and beat them into submission. And I certainly don't feel that the US is a country governing in the best interests of the world. In fact, I'm doubtful about the fact that the US is intent on governing for the good of anyone, including their own sorry, incoherently righteous fool selves.
What's that cartoon where there's the red faced bounty hunter who just shows up yelling incoherently at everyone and firing guns into the air? That, my friends, is symbolic of the United States in the world political arena.
Oh but it's worse than that even. The bully in the playground has found out how manipulate people through fear as well, and when that doesn't work, through a multitude of other subversive methods. So if you're one of the lucky countries who has something this bully wants, you have left to wonder... how exactly will this rape and pillage take place?
Will they grab you by your embargoed balls, will they install an underground militia in your gut to make you keel over?, will they stab you in the back or will they stab you in the eye, will they cozy up in your belly with their own special government presented to you so generously to help out your own tragically unstable and obviously insane leadership body?
I have to raise my wine glass to Iran. Without any irony in that. The great Persian Pride. They say: "We, peaceably, will do as we please. And if you, forcefully, wish to try to stop us, we shall continue- to do as we please. Because we are free, and we are independent, and we have as much a right to say that as you do. You want to talk about countries being stifled by mis-used and mis-interpreted religious references? Why don't you hold up a mirror?
It takes some guts to stand up before a country led by a bully who wants to steal your lunch money and then take you outside and beat you up. Especially when that same bully just virtually obliterated a few of your neighbors ruthlessly and clumsily like a fat kid stomping on daisies.
So Cheers! Here's to people who are willing to stand up and face the FIRE for what they believe in. HallelujahAMEN!