“We are walking to Victoria to save wild fish today.”
It's a catchy tune, for a noble cause. Saving wild salmon … who wouldn't want to get behind a mission like that?!!
Then I read the press release: “The celebration begins at 2pm with wild salmon on the grill.” Salmon are so sacred they're going to cook them up?
Yesterday I saw a big sign in Victoria that said: “Want Wild Salmon?” and invited people to the legislature May 8th. It reads like a restaurant ad.
I know the salmon will forgive me when I say, with all due respect to Alexandra Morton and her supporters who have done an incredible thing in raising this issue to the mass consciousness …. this movement is missing a vital component. The message I've heard isn't about saving wild fish for their own sake, it's about saving wild fish so people can eat them. Some are even promoting land based fish farms.
I realize and acknowledge the importance and significance of salmon to First Nations communities, though I also appreciate I can never fully comprehend it. I've also studied the science of evolution. Five million years of human evolution and change. Our collective history reveals that we, the human species, adapt to the environmental changes around us.
Everything on earth, right now, is endangered because of climate change. How will indigenous communities define their relationship to the salmon when they no longer exist?
Imagine the powerful message a vegan native person could send. S/He might say “Yes, I'm connected to a vital and lengthy history of sacred relationship with the salmon, with all life. But we are all Creators, collectively designing our future. The Creation, of which I am an integral component, the science of evolution proving that connection, is not the same Creation that my ancestors knew. At this moment we must stop being colonialists. We must stop insisting that we hold dominion over the salmon, and other animal species. We live in a time of unprecedented climate change, and we have access to new methods for agriculture, new ways to participate with food sustenance. Let us take a leadership role in our own Creation, and change our relationship with the salmon. Let us show our respect for other living creatures by evolving our culture, our traditions, to honour their right to life above our right to consume them.”
The science of evolution shows that species adapt to their environments. That they must evolve, in order to survive. Humans have an advantage - we can study, analyze, discuss the environmental changes we see around us, and adapt accordingly. A few years ago I spoke with a native man about the whale hunt, asked his opinions. We knew the whales were going extinct a hundred years ago, was his response.
Let me be clear - with these words I am not attempting exercise any colonialist sentiment, I'm not trying to tell anyone what they should or should not do, I'm not attempting to distract from the amazing good work of my brothers and sisters from all races and classes.
While it's true that my current blood ancestors are from the working class in England, in this lifetime I'm a native born Canadian (whatever that means). Their traditions include steak and kidney pie, bangers and mash. The neighbouring Scots have built an entire holiday around the Haggis. But I am self defined as an earth being ... an evolving vegan, a cyclist, sincerely devoted to living as simply and gently as possible on this changing and precious earth, working for systemic change and serving those less fortunate. I encourage my blood ancestors, and all people who define their culture through their relationship to food, to engage their higher Selves, ignite their philosophical grey matter, and consider ….
What would the Salmon do?
