Cascadia Poetics Lab board member Adelia MacWilliam is a poet whose family settled on Salt Spring Island in the 1850s. Adelia has struggled with the settler amnesia and is part of what promises to be a fascinating talk on Saturday, November 26, 2022 at 2pm at the Salt Spring Library. We hope to see you there.
Toward Cascadian Independence: For the Life of the Place as a Whole
What end does politics serve? Surely it must serve ends beyond itself. Why seek greater bioregional autonomy? For self-determination. Yes, but what purpose in turn shall that value serve? None some may say, it’s self-justifying. But then it becomes an absolute unto itself which can be used to justify many different things, some questionable. Why not come right out at the beginning and say what you’re really for?
The primary purpose of seeking greater bioregional identity and autonomy is to serve the life of the place and its people as a whole. Indeed, the primary purpose of Politics is to serve the life of the place and its people on many levels in an equitable and sustainable way.
Sounds so interesting. Too bad it can’t also be zoomed for us far away folks.
I would love to be there and listen. I remember Salt Spring from my childhood and I put it into my novel – Alberta & the Spark. One day – I need to go back up there and see that it gets out and read on the Island. I would be happy to mail a copy to Adelia MacWilliam.
I would drive up and ferry over if my passport hadn’t been stolen.
Of course all poets are welcome here at my house in Astoria Oregon!