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.
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.
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