To “Hear the Call of the Singing Firs”: (Re)Reading E. Pauline Johnson’s “Lost Lagoon” as Eco-Elegy

Authors

  • Steve Dickinson

Keywords:

Pauline Johnson, The Lost Lagoon, Timothy Morton, Eco-elegy, Eco-criticism, Canadian Poetry

Abstract

This paper explores the relationship between settler and First Nations groups in the nineteenth century and today. Anna Brownell Jameson’s account of settler/indigenous relations is similar to contemporary power imbalances between First Nations and governmental/corporate organizations. First Nations groups are frequently ignored in discussions of eco-development, and their concerns and fears over land use are often brushed aside by developers. In the case of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, Tsleil Waututh concerns regarding their quality of life and environmental degradation to their territories have not been addressed by Kinder Morgan. By integrating postcolonial concerns into discussions of the environment, Canada can ensure that First Nations voices are heard and that their concerns are assuaged, potentially preventing ecological destruction and protecting food security and cultural practices. Additionally, by rejecting the Cartesian binary view of nature and society as inherently in opposition and incompatible, we can ensure that hierarchical colonial mindsets, which marginalize and derogate certain groups of people by placing them “outside society,” are also rejected.

References

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DeLoughrey, Elizabeth;Handley, George B. Postcolonial Ecologies. Oxford University Press, USA, 2011. Web. 16 March 2017. http://www.myilibrary.com?ID=309781

Lands and Resources Department, Treaty, Assessment of the Trans Mountain Pipeline and Tanker Expansion Proposal. North Vancouver: Tsleil-Waututh Nation, 2015. Canadian Electronic Library/desLibris. Web. 3 April 2017.
Moore, Jason W. Capitalism in the Web of Life: Ecology and the Accumulation of Capital. Verso, New York, 2015. Print.

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“Three First Nations launch legal challenges against Trans Mountain expansion” Daily Commercial News, 23 Jan 2017. Web. 16 March 2017. http://dailycommercialnews.com/en-US/Resource/News/2017/1/Three-First-Nations-launch-legal-challenges-against-Trans-Mountain-expansion-1021232W/

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Published

2017-05-18

Issue

Section

Postcolonial Readings of Colonial Natures: Canada, Britain, South Africa