CJ3: The Wilderness is Everywhere
When I was first asked in class where the wilderness is or what the wilderness is, I immediately thought of British Columbia. I was thinking trees, places people do not normally live, untouched, places I have hiked in the mountains and silence. Through my own learnings and treaty education I have now discovered that the wilderness is all around us and it is not so much this place people don't live, as I am able to see through Newbery's reading. “Wilderness is a particularly Western concept” (p.35) meaning, that everyone has different stories, but for us settlers we see the wilderness as places where nature and wild animals live. It is known for that because we are not using the land for as many resources as other people did like the founders of this land, Aboriginals.
“Wilderness and nature are called into being by the meanings given them, are constituted by their own representations, they are human creations and thus subject to the whims and politics of human activity” (p.35). By digging in, I am now able to see this idea of Wilderness is one that does not really exist. “This kind of historical analysis illustrates how wilderness is not something that simply is, but rather is a particular and changing story we tell of geographical space” (p.34), the differences between the Aboriginal culture and mine. Although the wilderness might be this silenced place, it is not untouched. It did not just magically appear but rather it appeared because of human creation. It unravels a story and in this context, a story of the Aboriginals. “The space that settlers might call wilderness is also thought of as home, the backyard, or even the pantry” (p.35) which shows that everyone has their own stories and inevitably, has a different lenses of viewing the land.
All in all, the ‘Wilderness’ is not an untouched place. It is a place that tells many different stories and how this land came to be because of the founders. The word ‘Wilderness’ is an Euro-centrism perspective and it is essentially separating people from nature. “The constructs of wilderness as a sublime landscape, as a frontier of redemption, and as a space separate or away from home all reinscribe a conceptual Western dualism separating people from nature” (p.35). It is important we begin to find alternative words for this touched, natural place as it is not ‘Wilderness’ in my books as it tells stories and is there because of human creation.
