Subscribe!
Comment on this Story
Shaunna Morgan: Imagine
by Bev Geddes
Shaunna Morgan holds a formidable portfolio; trained as a biologist, she completed her Master of Science degree and has worked for over ten years with environmental and ecological issues. Her present position with the Centre for Indigenous Environmental Resources (CIER )has taken her across the country and the world working as a researcher, instructor and workshop facilitator on First Nations issues related to climate change, energy efficiency and renewable energy programs.
Yet, in spite of this impressive knowledge base and experience, she is approachable and genuine. And, I discovered as the interview progressed, very pragmatically spiritual. During her interview she told me of an experience she had visiting Weaver Lake, Manitoba. She recounted a feeling of returning to a place she had never been before, of kinship with the land, where things become clear and the soul finds ease. This article attempts to capture some of the essence of that experience.
Imagine.
The air is soft on your skin as you make your way through the balsam and black spruce forest toward the lake. Pine scent mingles with the rich smell of earth damp from the previous night rain. The sun is lifting slowly into the reddening sky, and the chill of morning tingles against your cheek. Mist skims the lake, tender spirals of damp hovering above dark water. A warbler trills overhead and deep in the bush there is the rustle of some night creature making its way home to sleep.
Imagine.
This is sacred ground. It has been here long before you were born and will be here long after you are dead. You have come here to reclaim a piece of yourself lost in the bustle and busy of your modern life. There is no place for phones here. No place for computers or blackberries or televisions. There is only room for silence.
Imagine.
Stillness settles on your soul. You can hear, for once, the sound of your own heart. It beats in time with all around you. There is a place for you here. A belonging. You are no longer an outsider. You are home.
Imagine.
Such a place exists for each of us. Each in our own way, something beyond claims us and we become whole. So it was for Shaunna Morgan at Weaver Lake. She found there a place of returning, a moment when the rush of the world faded away. She found a sacred place.
Imagine.
Imagine now that there is someone who has never known this place of refuge and solitude. Someone who decides to cut a swath through the forest for logging or erects structures of metal and electricity and money.
Imagine.
The hum of the current as it passes down the lines, the metal footprint of massive constructions that tower above even the jack pines. Will the chickadees and sparrows find a place to build their homes in the arms of the hydroelectric power towers instead of trees? Will the magic in this place seep slowly away with the intrusion of technology?
Imagine.
How you would feel returning to such a place? Seeing the desecration of the forest and the damage done to the earth. It is not as it was. Parts remain, enough so that if you close your eyes or avert your gaze, just so, the landscape is whole again and the life force remains.
As the boreal forest protects us by giving us clean water and air, we, in turn, must protect its integrity.
There are places of power on our earth. Places that heal and harbour us. Some of these places are safe from industrial development, like Weaver Lake, Grand Island, Goose Island, Pemmican Island, Pelican Island, Kinwow Bay and Sturgeon Bay. Designated within park reserves, these places have been nominated for protection by First Nations.
We, as a people, are just beginning to understand, again, that we have a duty to guard those things which sustain our lives. As the boreal forest protects us by giving us clean water and air, we, in turn, must protect its integrity.
Everyone of us has the power to help. Encourage the government to work with First Nations to permanently protect the park reserves they have established. Go to the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society webpage for more information and a way to help.
Make a difference.
Imagine.
March 3rd, 2008 at 5:37 pm
This story is so encouraging!!!
We have to take care of the Earth so she can take care of us - it’s simple logic.
JB
March 6th, 2008 at 3:07 pm
Thank you for this story.
This place you speak of is my home.
It has awakened me of who I am as an
anishinabe person, here is who I am,
and I am willingly to do wantever I
can to carry on protecting my home
from loggers, hydro men, and from
any highways from being built on our
sacred ground. This is the life of our
people, our people take care of this land
by respecting the natural resources and
the animals within in.
So I’ll say again
Meegwech
“Thank you”
Jordan Hudson
May 8th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
There are so many of our younger genaration who needs this kind of experience to setforth on a jounoury to continue our leaders work by sharing the sacared knoledge of the beautiful gifts our mother earth shares with us.
BEAUTY,PEACE,LOVE,RESPECT,AND SO MUCH MORE!!!!
MEEGWECH