While BC has made some important steps on Indigenous reconciliation, the process has been slow. BC’s apparent reticence to pursue reconciliation becomes more galling once one realizes there’s a piece missing from the conversation: environmental imperialism. Environmental imperialism can roughly be defined as the process of altering a native landscape to suit a colonial project. Alongside land usage in agriculture and energy sourcing, invasive species are a way colonies solidify their presence on foreign land.
Historian Alfred Crosby argues much of the influence of colonizers was due to their ability to alter native ecosystems. This process can be deliberate, like with the importing of decorative fauna (SFU’s epidemic of English Ivy), or inadvertent, as in the spread of rats. Even more difficult to classify are the impacts on the environment of the spread of European diseases, which weakened resistance and led to deaths among Indigenous populations during colonial expansions.
The impacts of early land-use changes still resonate today. Colonies were in part formed to cultivate crops and raise livestock — broadly; to siphon the wealth of the land. Often, this exploitation came at the expense of the native environment. According to author Mary Lyn Stoll, historic colonies are now “the largest exporters of grains and animal products once utterly foreign to the colonized landscape 500 years ago.”
Globally, cultures are influenced by the ecosystems that surround them. Whether by the types of foods that are available, the access to materials for crafting, or in the allusion to animal behaviours, culture and nature are closely linked. In importing invasive species and the subsequent replacement of native flora and fauna, we can see an uncomfortable parallel to the colonial mindset.
It’s worth asking, then, how do we incorporate the decolonization of landscapes into the reconciliation process?
On an individual level, helping remove invasive species can be a benefit, both for your community and to reconciliation efforts. The 2018 #Next150 movement, aimed at providing participants with concrete steps to support reconciliation efforts, suggested “learning about invasive or introduced plant species in your community or region.”
Further, learning about native species can help inform your choices when planting a garden or going grocery shopping. Although foods like wheat and beef are invasive, blueberries, corn, squash, and tomatoes all originate from North America, as do bison, turkey, and many types of fish.
Environmental imperialism is a dominant feature of colonial projects — the alteration of Indigenous territories is essential to the success of colonial endeavors, and continues to ripple through BC. Resolving the legacy of environmental imperialism will take time and effort. The least we can do is to start talking about it.
