The Ontology Of Abundance (September 1, 2024)

Good Sunday Morning and Happy long Weekend!

A happier thought than happy first day of September and end of summer.

I want to start with a Sunday morning surprise for one of my regular readers on Pender Island. At the Saanich Fall Fair yesterday, our next MLA for Saanich North and the Islands, Rob Botterell told me that he and his wife have a Sunday ritual starting with reading this letter, and then he makes her pancakes. In case anyone doubted if he was the best Green kind of candidate, this seals the deal for me! As they both used to practice law, the pancake promise was included by contract when they got married. I have never gotten John to sign a contract to make me cappuccinos in the morning, but it was nearly in our vows!

We had a fabulous time on Haida Gwaii and even managed to get to two of the islands within the Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve boundaries (Lyle Island and Windy Bay—the first place I ever set foot on Haida Gwaii in July 1987—and to Hotsprings Island). It might seem like a busman’s holiday for any Vancouver Island dweller to choose a vacation on BC Ferries, as most weeks I feel that I live on the ferries, or worse luck, in BC Ferries parking lots, in the “several sailings’ wait” line up.

I am so very glad I booked a package holiday through BC Ferries Vacations. They have some kinks to work out, like remembering to tell vacationers they will arrive at 6am at accommodation that is closed until 3pm, but it was all minor stuff. You really cannot beat a day-long trip up the inside passage from Port Hardy to Prince Rupert with humpback whales announced from the bridge. We had four full days on Haida Gwaii with an equivalent amount of time getting there and back.

Beyond the scenery and the experience of “glamping” at Tlell, with ocean swimming and hikes, the trip dovetailed with campaigning with Jessica Wegg, our North Island Powell River candidate for the 2025 federal election. The sense of full immersion in Indigenous culture and ceremony was made possible by serendipity. That we had a full day in Alert Bay in ʼNa̱mǥis territory for Green campaigning was layered with the huge luck of being on Haida Gwaii for the launch of a traditional 55-foot war canoe on the northern end of Haida Gwaii in Old Masset. The traditional potlatch to celebrate the launching of the canoe was an extraordinarily powerful experience. The generosity of the potlatch and its central place in culture, ritual and identity formed a big part of the time with Jessica’s campaign, with a significant education in Alert Bay at the Umista Cultural Centre. Again, serendipity, we were there as the last touches were put on a new pole to be raised over the weekend.

The notion of wealth in these traditional Indigenous world views was that those who could and did give everything away were the wealthiest. In Western culture those who want to be wealthy tend to keep and hoard all they have. For the first time I realized the clash of colonial oppression and Indigenous identity was wrapped up in the banning of the potlatch. Our European settler ancestors must have been threatened by such a world view. Indian agents sneaked into long houses to arrest Haida or ‘Namgis or Kwakwaka’wakw peoples for the crime of giving away what they had. What was perhaps the most horrible new information for me was how recently an entire village had been destroyed, families forcibly relocated, and all their homes burned so they could not return. There is a powerful black and white photo of the hereditary chief of Baas – Blunden Harbour. I found it online.

He wears all his regalia and carries his coppers. All he can carry became all that was left. This village, immortalized by Emily Carr, was burned to the ground, all possessions left in the homes to burn, all families uprooted. In 1964. NINETEEN SIXTY FOUR… Then again, on the other coast of Turtle Island Joey Smallwood uprooted the fishing families of coastal Newfoundland and put them into a barren mining Labrador City between 1954-75. And Canada placed Japanese Canadians in internment camps. We layer imperial and colonial cruelty on cruelty and destroy ecosystems, cultures. The resilience of peoples to persist, to learn and recover language, to continue ceremonies and rituals and giving it all away is inspirational. Refusing to disappear is a victory. As the ʼNa̱mǥis artist who led us on the tour of the cultural genocide of his people in and around Alert Bay told us, over and over, “but, we’re still here.”

Years ago my friend and environmental studies prof Peter Timmerman wrote an essay on the ontology of abundance and the ontology of scarcity. This is the closest article I could find online of Peter’s analysis on these key observations. Those in western cultures (with an ontology of scarcity) believe resources and wealth are scarce and must be hoarded, and create scarcity. Those with an Indigenous world view of sharing and abundance, (an ontology of abundance) actually create abundance.

Great good news from the ʼNa̱mǥis nation has been that their valiant efforts in getting rid of the toxic fish factories in their area are already—after two years only—allowing a huge recovery of the pink salmon to their rivers. Tragically the Port Hardy Indigenous governments have signed deals that continue to contaminate wild salmon. Salmon and river guardian of the ʼNa̱mǥis, Robert Mountain, made it clear how urgently nature, and all of us, need year round guardian programmes.

It was such an honour to meet with chief and council and leadership in Alert Bay.

On Friday we were reunited with my deputy leader Rainbow Eyes and Elder of Fairy Creek, Grandma Lhosa. The fight to save old growth continues. Deferred areas are still being logged as these alerts from Stand Earth attest.

Please do join me for one of my upcoming community meetings—they are non-partisan and everyone is welcome!

Community Meeting — Pender Islands
September 4 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm
Pender Island Community Hall 4418 Bedwell Harbour Road, Pender Island, BC, Canada

Community Meeting — Central Saanich
September 5 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm
Brentwood Bay Resort 849 Verdier Avenue, Brentwood Bay, British Columbia, Canada

Community Meeting — Sidney
September 6 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm
Mary Winspear Centre 2243 Beacon Avenue, Sidney, British Columbia, Canada

Fall Fair — Salt Spring Island Farmer’s Institute
September 7 – September 8
351 Rainbow Road 351 Rainbow Road, Salt Spring Island, BC, Canada

September 8 @ 2:30 pm – 4:00 pm
On September 7-8, please join Elizabeth as she attends the annual Salt Spring Island Farmer’s Institute Fall Fair!

Community Meeting — Cordova Bay
September 10 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm
Cordova Bay 55+ Association 1-5238 Cordova Bay Road, Cordova Bay, British Columbia, Canada

Community Meeting — Mayne Island
September 11 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm
Mayne Island Community Centre 493 Felix Jack Road, Mayne Island, BC, Canada

Community Meeting — Galiano Island
September 11 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm
Galiano Island Community Hall 141 Sturdies Bay Road, Galiano Island, British Columbia, Canada

We hope you consider joining a community discussion on Wednesday, September 11th, taking place from 7-8:30pm PST! For further questions or comments, please email: Elizabeth.May.C1@parl.gc.ca

Community Meeting — Gordon Head
September 12 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm
Sngequ House, University of Victoria 3800 Finnerty Road, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

Pender Community Conversations
September 13 @ 9:30 am – 12:30 pm
Pender Island Community Hall 4418 Bedwell Harbour Road, Pender Island, BC, Canada

Community Meeting — Salt Spring Island
September 13 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm
Gulf Islands Secondary School 232 Rainbow Road, Salt Spring Island, British Colombia, Canada

Community Meeting — Saturna Island
September 14 @ 2:00 pm – 3:30 pm
Saturna Recreation and Culture Centre 104 Harris Road, Saturna Island, BC, Canada

And if you are near the Saanich fall Fair I will be at the Green booth from 10am—4pm today and tomorrow.

Much love and happy to be back in your in-box this Sunday morning!
Elizabeth