Part 1: Summary
In The Earth’s Blanket:
Traditional Teachings for Sustainable Living, ethnobotanist Nancy J. Turner
acquaints us with the “Earth’s blanket:” an age-old Nlaka’pmx concept used to
explain the Earth’s sensitivity to human action (Turner 2005). Turner uses it
as a starting and reference point in outlining the attitudes and behaviors of
British Columbian First Nations and explaining how these can be harnessed today
in order to promote effective conservation initiatives. Although she never
directly mentions the human dimensions approach, many of its aspects, namely
the interdependency of man and nature and the need to integrate communities
into natural resource planning (Cordell et al.1999), can be identified
throughout the book.
Turner divided the book
into eight chapters, each one building upon the last. In the first chapter, “Wealth and Value in a
Changing World,” she explains that the Nlaka’pmx idea of the “Earth’s blanket,”
recorded by ethnobotanist James Teit in the 1800’s, is defined as the belief
that plants create a protective “blanket” around the Earth and when this
blanket is damaged due to overuse of resources, the earth “is sorry and weeps”
(Turner 2005: 20). The idea is referred to in most of the subsequent chapters
as a metaphorical guide for human attitudes and behavior.
In the following six
chapters the author looks at various aspects of First Nations history, beliefs
and culture, whilst bringing them into a modern-day perspective by giving
examples of how each aspect described could be useful in specific current
situations.
Firstly, she presents
the reader with a series of First Nations stories that give us an idea of the
basis of First Nations attitudes and beliefs. These include tales of creation:
how ancient beings sacrificed themselves and created riches for people to
enjoy, how specific plants and animals came into being and why they act the way
they do. In the next chapter Turner talks about the First Nations “kincentric”
approach to nature; how they view themselves as an integral and equal part of
their surroundings, resulting in a profound sense of respect for all living and
non-living parts of their environment. She describes how they apply this sense
of respect in the chapters entitled “Honoring Nature Through Ceremony and
Ritual,” “The Balance Between Humans and Nature,” and “Looking After the Lands
and Waters.” In the second of the three we can recognize that the Turner favors
the human dimensions approach to natural resource management because she
illustrates the positives of incorporating the First Nations’ unique sense of
balance between man and nature into modern day situations. She does this by describing
how elder Mary Thomas helped contribute valuable insights relating to this
subject at the “Helping the Earth Heal” conference on Ecological Restoration in
British Columbia.
In the last two
chapters, “Everything is One” and “Finding Meaning in a Contemporary Context,”
Turner summarizes the previous ones, while focusing much more on the present,
and, indirectly, on the human dimensions perspective. In “Everything is One,”
she expands upon kincentricism and the Earth’s blanket concept using the Nu-Chah-Nulth
belief that everything is
interconnected: man and nature, the past and the future, and culture and
ecology. This is then used to critique western society’s tendency to
compartmentalize and separate academic institutions into departments, thus creating
overly simplified knowledge systems that don’t accurately reflect our complex
interdependency with nature. In the last chapter we are given several current
and successful restoration projects currently taking place with First Nations
support and guidance, such as the Koeye Restoration Plan. The author ends the
chapter by listing the eight basic principles, which, according to her, are
essential to conservation. These
concepts include the idea that humans are a part of nature, the importance of
cultural, ceremonial and linguistic ties to the land, the priceless wisdom of
elders, the necessity to educate youth, and the benefits of a diversity of
participants in any conservation initiative.
Part 2: Evaluation
The purpose of Turner’s book is to deepen our understanding of First
Nations’ knowledge of nature and recognize the benefits this knowledge can have
in current and future conservation initiatives. This message comes across very
clearly because the book is informative, easy-to-read, rich in concrete
examples of the ideas discussed, and because each chapter relates to the
previous one so the reader never feels like he has lost track of the
progression of ideas as the book goes on. However, my personal reading of the
text was somewhat negatively affected by the constant mention of how words are
written/pronounced in First Nations languages and by the awkward translations
of First Nations stories at the beginning of the book.
For
example, in the first chapter Turner talks about the “the Dzawada7enuxw of
Kingcom Inlet” (Turner 2005: 25), giving us only the First Nations’ name of the
tribe, while on other occasions, she also provides the anglicized name for
certain tribes such as “The Saanich (WSÁNÉC)” (Turner 2005: 40). When
referring to these tribes later, she sometimes only uses the anglicized version and sometimes only the First Nations version, making
it difficult for the reader to focus. In my opinion she should have used only
one way of referring to tribe names. If she had chosen to do this using First
Nations’ languages, she should have included, at the end of the book, an
appendix explaining how to read/pronounce these words.
Similarly, at times Turner uses the English name for a plant
with the Latin and First Nations names in brackets as in: “spring beauty corms
(Claytonia lanceolata, tetúwn’)”
(Turner 2005: 33). Other times, she only
provides the Latin name of the plant, in brackets. Throughout the text, some
previously mentioned plants are referred to in the First Nations language and
others in English. This inconsistency causes the same type of confusion as
mentioned before with the names of the various tribes. In sections of the book
where the author mentions or discusses numerous plants or tribes, the reader
has to read very carefully in order to not get lost in all the names and even
feels urged, at times, to skip sections.
The other slightly irritating aspect of the book occurs in
the second chapter entitled “Land-based Stories of People and Home Places,” in
which Turner provides translations and explanations of various First Nations
stories to help the reader understand where their kincentric views originated.
While the explanations are clear and informative, the translations are often
quite long and awkwardly worded. For example, in the “Story of the Yellow-Cedar
Sisters” it says:
They were so tired, they decided to stop
and rest. They said to themselves, “We’d better stand here now on the side of
the mountain; they will call us salhmapt.”
And they turned into yellow-cedar trees. (Turner 2005: 57)
I am aware of the
fact that the richness of many First Nations languages and the exact meaning of
their words are extremely hard to translate, therefore I would have preferred
to read a summary of each story and understand its central meaning, rather than
having to struggle with all the details.
However, other than these two minor complaints, Turner
succeeds brilliantly at transmitting her message to the reader. She does this
by first providing the background information needed for understanding First
Nations attitudes and behaviors. Then, in the first couple of chapters, she illustrates how these were successfully
applied in the past, creating sustainable human-nature interactions in which
nature provided for humans and yet was not abused by them. Later she explains
how these practices, proven to be effective in the past but often overlooked in
the present, can be used today in order to promote sustainable land management
practices.
A perfect example would be the respectful attitudes adopted by
First Nations, which stem from creation stories that speak of mythical beings
who changed plants and animals from their ancient, human-like forms to present
day forms, thus creating wonderful gifts and helping First Nations survive
throughout history. These stories were passed down orally to all children,
ingraining in them the fundamental belief that everything in nature was a gift
and was therefore to be respected, not abused. This resulted in First Nations
communities’ sustainable use of resources (eg. Turner explains how chiefs would
be responsible for making sure that rivers were never over-fished). Bringing
this into a modern-day context, the author reveals how current educational
centers, such as the Koeye River Fishing Lodge, teach these same beliefs and
practices to anyone who is willing to learn about them, not just First Nations children, in the
hopes that this information makes into conference rooms where natural resource
management decisions are made.
References
Cordell, H.K.,
A.P. Hoover, G.R. Super, and C.H. Manning. 1999. Adding human dimensions to
ecosystem-based management of natural resources. Pp. 1-12 in H.K. Cordell &
J.C. Bergstrom (Eds.), Integrating Social
Sciences with Ecosystem Management: Human dimensions in assessment, policy, and
management. Champaign, IL: Sagamore Publishing.
In Text: (Cordell et
al.1999)
Turner, N. 2005. The Earth’s Blanket: Traditional Teachings
for Sustainable Living. Vancouver: Douglas & McIntire Ltd.
In Text: (Turner 2005)
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