3. People and Their Connection to the Land: Livelihood, Culture and Education

My previous two posts have investigated the people and place of Canada and how my education at UBC connects to the area around me.  In this post I want to explore these ideas further and introduce my overarching blog theme: connections between land and people. I want to examine and compare the nature and strength of these connections for different communities in Canada and the UK, with a specific focus on the following three groups of people:

1. The indigenous First Nations communities of British Columbia (BC)
2. The Westernized non-indigenous citizens of BC (particularly those living in Vancouver)
3. The Westernized citizens in the UK (particularly those living in London).

The idea of a single stranded connection between people and place is somewhat simplistic. Therefore, I have broken down the term ‘people’ into three key aspects: livelihood, culture and education. All of which connect to land in different ways and to different extents, whilst simultaneously being connected to each other.

I have tried to illustrate how I envisage these connections in the diagram below.

I have arranged the three community groups along a scale according to how I perceive the strength of these connections. I discuss my reasoning behind where I have placed each one below.    

Indigenous vs Non-indigenous

My knowledge of BC First Nations people comes entirely from the university courses I have taken this term. However, even without this knowledge, I reckon most people would intuitively place indigenous communities at the stronger end of this spectrum. Why?

In terms of livelihood, indigenous communities are generally more directly dependent on the land around them for their nutritional, medicinal and material needs than those living in westernized societies. They obtain, process and use local resources themselves and thus understand exactly where these commodities are coming from and how they are affected by different activities. In western societies a lengthy supply chain tends to be involved in obtaining and processing resources, which disconnects the consumer from the origin of the products they are consuming.  For example, in 2013 the British Nutrition Foundation (BNF) surveyed 27,500 primary school children (age 4-11) across the UK. Their results were genuinely shocking - 30% thought that cheese comes from plants, 18% thought that fish fingers come from chicken and 10% thought that tomatoes grow under the ground!

Traditional method of cooking fish over a fire: 
the salmon has been caught, processed and will 
be eaten by the same group of people. 
In this way, livelihood is directly connected to the
land.

Aisle in a western supermarket:
the acquisition and processing of this produce has been carried out by a supply chain separate to the consumer. In this way, livelihood is disconnected from the land    

Indigenous communities also tend to have a stronger cultural link to the land than Western society.  This is in part due to the type of religion/ worldview that they live by. Indigenous communities generally adopt ‘earth-based’ religions, while western societies tend to adopt ‘being-based’ religions. Being-based religions envisage a hierarchical structure for all living things with human beings at the top. The world was created and is controlled by a human-like god/gods, emphasising the superiority of human form.  Conversely, earth-based religions, envisage humans as equal to all other living things. They do not worship 'gods' but believe that every living thing has a spirit that needs to be respected, and that every living thing has something to teach us. For example, in some tribes in BC each person is assigned a ‘spirit animal’ that best matches their personality. By observing and learning about their spirit animal it is believed that they will learn more about themselves. 

Below are illustrations of these two different religion types. On the left is the being-based hierarchical structure of living organisms with human beings at the top. On the right is the earth-based, circle of equality for all living organisms.

Illustrations of the two main types of religion discussed. 

The left hand illustration demonstrates the being-based hierarchical structure of living things. 

The right hand illustration demonstrates the earth-based circular, egalitarian structure of living things.

For one of my Community Forestry lectures an Indigenous First Nations member come in to talk to us. He likened humans to individual dust grains in a giant dust storm. The dust particles are tiny and no particle is significantly larger than any other, yet the sheer quantity of these particles coexisting and moving together creates a large and powerful system (the Earth's ecosystem).

A dust storm representing the Earth’s ecosystem. Human beings represent just some of the millions of tiny individual grains within the storm. 

In terms of education, for most indigenous peoples the land directly defines their livelihood and their culture. Therefore, how to use, respect and enjoy it is central to indigenous knowledge and thus education. Whereas, in western societies it no longer defines our livelihood and culture in the same way and so this type of knowledge is not integrated into our education system. Never once at school did I learn how to make a fire, which mushrooms to pick, or when the fish will be spawning. Furthermore, in indigenous communities education about the land is not separated from the land: children not only learn about it, they learn whilst in it and experiencing it. Whereas in western societies we often learn remotely about places we have never visited and practices we have never practiced. For example, in Indigenous societies you might learn about different types of berries, by picking and tasting them, whereas in Western societies you are more likely to learn about them through photographs and diagrams on a PowerPoint slide or in a book, as illustrated by the two photos I chose to compare below.

Indigenous First Nations woman explaining
the differences between different types of berries,
whilst outside in the forest holding 
the berry plant in question.

A typical UBC lecture taking place inside in a lecture hall and centred on a powerpoint presentation displayed on a screen at the front.

Non-indigenous BC citizens vs Non-indigenous UK citizens

However, since coming to Vancouver I have discovered that the connection between people and land is not the same for all non-idigenous, developed ‘western’ societies.  In my opinion there seems to be a stronger connection between people and land in BC than back at home. This connection is particularly apparent in the culture in Vancouver and is demonstrated by the prevalence of environmental awareness, sustainability initiatives and regular outdoor pursuits.

Why?

I am not entirely sure why this is the case, but my two main theories are:

1. The continued existence of indigenous people in BC, inspires citizens to be more ‘at one with nature’. 

First Nations man wearing a traditional headdress

2. The greater expanse of proximate, wild and dramatic landscapes in BC continually impresses and inspires the local citizens. To exemplify this I have compared the Vancouver and London Skylines in the two pictures below.  In Vancouver, the awe-inspiring North shore mountains tower over the city, somewhat dwarfing the sky scrapers and humbling man-made construction. Whereas in London, the most impressive aspects of the skyline are the buildings themselves, there is no mountainous backdrop .

Vancouver skyline: with an impressive mountainous backdrop dwarfing even the largest skyscrapers

The London Skyline: the buildings are the most impressive and dramatic aspects of this view

Despite having lived my entire life in the UK, and spent the last 4 years living in London I feel less connected to the land that surrounds me at home than I do here. Here, I feel a greater sense of awe at the natural environment, a greater desire to protect it and strangely a stronger sense of personal attachment to it. 

View from the top of Mount Galiano, Galiano Island (one of the Gulf Islands) during one of my weekend getaways!