When i look at the map above the first thing i notice is the lack of political borders. The Strait of Georgia drains a huge watershed and contains a unique interdependent ecosystem. The surveyor's lines were invisible to the salmon, mussels, oysters, cod, shrimp and orcas among the countless flora that once thrived here, the Salish Sea too recognizes the 'real' boundries of sea, land and sky.
All the geo-political lines i'm used to seeing on a map are unreal divisions used by the powerful few to divide the many. The 'real' political lines, if there must be any, would be far better if they reflected the interconnectedness of each watershed than the arbitrary post-colonial crap they do now.
Geologically the Salish Sea represents what's called the Georgia Depression which further shows the bio-region's cohesion even down to its glacial, sedimentary, terrane boundry and tectonic roots.
The Coast Salish are a grouping of indigenous peoples of common cultural origin who have lived in southwest British Columbia, and northwest Washington State and shared a common linguistic history since at least 8,000 B.C.E. They lived in commune with the abundance of The Great Mother. My white anglo-saxon ancestors slaughtered them, used biological warfare to exterminate these gentle people, then they stole the land, the sea and the sky. Today we continue to rape the bounty our ancestors stole, but not for much longer, in under 200 years we've scoured the sea beds, polluted the land and the air. Soon, at our present pace, the capitialists will have wrung the life out of every square inch of paradise here and beyond. Hopefully some little bits will have escaped, some seeds will remain to sprout, a few fish will re-migrate, a random salmon will re-explore once perfect habitat and The Great Mother will once again abide in and around the Salish Sea
"The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact, non-Westerners never do." - Samuel P. Huntington
