If you were awakened last night by a whirring noise it was the inevitable sound of R. Grace Morgan turning over and over in her grave at this report from the CBC. The headline alone has left me in a horrified state of shock from slapping my own forehead so many times and with such velocity,

How the beaver is teaching Indigenous communities about ecological balance and reciprocity

Read that again out loud. And really appreciate the arrogance. Because we all know if there is ONE thing indigenous communities need more of it is government scientist teaching them about ecological balance.

You know in much the same way as Navy seals can teach orcas the value of limiting their oxygen intake to dive deeper, or French chefs cab teach Chinese peasants about the value of cooking meals quickly over with high heat to conserve fuel.

Thank goodness those beavers came along to teach the natives about balance. They were so UNbalanced before.

She says even though the relationship between the Anishinaabe and manoomin has changed since colonization, it still remains essential to understandings about themselves and their relationships to homelands.

“It makes sense that our ancestors obviously understood some of the work that beavers were doing, and saw that beavers create wetlands where then manoomin would grow,” said Garrity.

Displacement and relocation from colonization as well as major changes to the natural landscape from development has affected where manoomin is harvested.

Garrity sees the pre-colonial relationships as reciprocal.

“The beavers, the rice and the people were here existing in these changeable, dynamic ecological and cultural systems and relationships for a very long time.”

Hey, I know a funny story., Let’s imagine that there was this tribe that lived off the land and learned about it and tended it and served it for an eon in relative harmony and then this other group of rag tag ham-fisted greedy people sailed  in and took over everything and gave them alcohol and guns to shoot beavers so they could sell their fur for hats.

Then the first peoples drank the alcohol and shot each other and totally messed up their culture by killing all the beavers which ruined the fish and the water and the hunting so that there wasn’t enough of anything to go around, Meanwhile the the ragtags got rich and their children all graduated from college and came back and told them that beavers were actually GOOD and they should learn ecological balance from them!

Wouldn’t  that be HILARIOUS!!!