I have been discussing what it might look like to leave Settler culture’s uses of land and person. Today, the price of this excursion. First, the background: Becoming the Flow The Local […]
Getting Our Land Back 7:
The Colonial Back Country
What is “behind”? What is the “back country”? What is it back of? What is it behind? “Behind the valley” perhaps? The View from Central on the Keremeous River But that doesn’t […]
Human Cartography
Because the mountains recede in waves… … in the Similkameen… … when they don’t, they stand out, even when they are within this language of bodies. Note the cultural markings on this […]
Every Sentence is a Map of the World
The plum in blossom… … becomes music in the wind. The Síya? in blossom … … is the music of bushes cast across a scree slope. West of Olalla The break in […]
The Role of a Post Colonial Literature in Canada
It is possible to have a stream that is dry, that is nonetheless still a stream. The land teaches that. It teaches that “streaming” is not a function of water but that, […]
Valley Energy: the Similkameen Story
In the Similkameen, the mountains are rounded around Cawston, at least to the East. Look how hard they fight to remain horizontal. This is flat country. Note the sharp peaks at the […]
Meaning, Memory, Minding, Mind
Last week, I spoke about Wide Energy. At the end, I showed this image of it from the Similkameen: At the time, I noted: These are the energies that shape us and […]
The Glory That is Paul Terbasket’s Apricot Tree
In 1915, Paul Terbasket of the Lower Similkameen Indian Band was jailed for disobeying a foolish court order and watering his orchard. One apricot tree remains. His land is leased out to […]
Rising With the Trees
On the grasslands of the Similkameen, where the mountains are the sky, one forgets, at times, to pay attention to distance, but here is a reminder. Notice the remnants of a lakebed […]
The Exquisite Choreography of Natural Intelligence
Ah, the patterns of the snow and water in the grass as they blow around in the winds of the sun. Exquisite! The view south down the Similkameen But there’s something else […]
