Grassy Narrows

I thought our presenters and the guest lecturer really provided an interesting seminar. I found it very interesting to listen to Alex speak and to hear of his time spent at Grassy Narrows. Some of the people who live there had spent the majority of their lives speaking out against the logging industry that was destroying their land. Even when the road blockade began the logging companies just found a new path to exploit their land.

Another interesting point that was raised was the relationship that those people at Grassy had with the land itself. Nature and the forest was the mother, they viewed the land much differently that a person living in a city or of a different culture might. This relationship is unique and somthing that i think everyone could learn from. One of the main principles was to maintain the land for 7 generations in the future. The reasoning behind this that nobody will be alive to know anyone 7 generations in the future, basically saying that we need to build for future generations that we will never get to meet.

One of the children that Alex met was not exposed to television, and preferred to spend time playing in the woods, and with nature. I think all children enjoy spending time outside, but its a matter that is based upon their parents activity. Parents now plop their children in front of television sets to act as a supervising power. Others are afraid to let their children go play outside in the woods and restrict their access to whenever it is convient for them. I think this was even apparent in Grassy when new generations of children had lost interest in playing outdoors in the forest.

Overall i think we have a lot to learn from these different cultures and if we adopt some of the principles that they preach we could create positive change in our own backyards.