I want to share what I learned as I prepared a keynote speech to a United Church regional council AGM, and also share a link to it so you can see the images. I became even more convinced that the trauma of displacement and dispossession that my forebears experienced...
Heather Menzies’ Blog postings on
Environment
Decolonizing the environmental movement? Review of “Decolonizing Prehistory”
The how of seeing reality fundamentally conditions the reality we work with. So to me, seeing nature solely through the lens of Western science is part of the problem. This book, reviewed here, reminds environmentalists (and others) of another, more deeply historical...
Renewing our relations with the earth
Renewing a lived relationship with the earth is essential to renewing our responsibility to sustain it as a habitat hospitable to human habitation. This is the implicit message of a book by Jerry Fontaine I just reviewed for the environmental magazine, Watershed...
Lindsay Keegitah Borrows’ “Otter’s Journey”
I want to amplify the voice of this clear-thinking and generous-hearted Anishinaabe-kwe linguist and lawyer by sharing a review I did of her book about Indigenous langugage and law revitalization, published in the Literary Review of Canada, June, 2019. When I headed...
Honouring the Peace
printed in the Watershed Sentinelon Sept 14, 2017. The river, the beauty of the valley, the treaties With the drums and chants of “Makh Chi” (by Ulali) blasting on the car stereo, we descend into the Peace River Valley – we being Rita Wong and Valeen Jules with Poets...
Land and Power
Two books – Is Racism an Environmental Threat by Ghassan Hage and As We Have Always Done by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson – explore the personal in the political.
We have a historic opportunity to consider alternatives to Site C
If this coalition and the beginnings of its locally determined vision are given a chance, they could set an example of reconciliation between Canada’s Indigenous and settler populations. Their dialogue and what emerges from it could also help point the way toward a post-150 re-conception of Canada.
Living the Limits to Growth with Heather Menzies
On March 9, 2016, Heather Menzies spoke to the Canadian Association of Clubs of Rome in Ottawa, Canada, where she spoke on the theme "Living the Limits to Growth." Have a listen and let us know what you think in the comments. So sorry to miss it in person! It is...
Ancestral Relations with the Land
If we are to heal the earth, we must also heal ourselves, individually and as communities. Moreover, the two are inter-connected. It’s all about relations -- relations of mutual recognition and respect and mutual support and sustainability. It’s also about the daily...
Doing Development Differently
I recommend that Rachel Notley bring together not a blue-ribbon commission, but one with a green ribbon and a yellow, black, red and white one to represent the equal voice that will be given to Aboriginal understandings of ‘development’. The election of Rachel Notley...