Seriously. Here’s an image of the Grey Canal trail in the Okanagan Valley, the syilx homeland that Canada claimed as its own in 1871. Every single plant you see in this image, with one exception, is a weed. And it’s a weed, too. This is ethics in action.

The Settler Cultural Process at Work

The plant is the cattail reed growing from the ditch. The telling thing is that among all these weeds, it’s the cattail, that drifts in as seed on the wind and grows where the water is, that is considered the weed, although it is native to this place, working as all life does here, to stop water in its tracks and to conserve it. The others are not considered weeds. They are considered nature. Thus, a walk along this trail is a walk in nature, with cattail weeds — the one plant following syilx principles of conservation and community building. The nature is invasive.