By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Staff Writer
Sitka Fine Arts Camp is hosting members of the environmental organization Salmon Nation this week, and the group will hold a public forum 7 p.m. Tuesday in the Odess Theater.
Salmon Nation is trying to weave a new narrative on the relationship between people and the natural world, said Ian Gill, a journalist and founding member of the organization.
In an interview with the Sentinel, Gill said “people are waking up to the fact that that narrative is broken… and a new narrative is needed.”
The goal of the presentation on Tuesday is to have a public dialogue on that subject.
Spencer Beebe, founder of the sustainable forestry organization Ecotrust, will participate in the forum. He said Salmon Nation is “trying to turn a nation-state completely upside down, in fact throw it out all together.” Ecotrust pursues a forestry model that differs from traditional timber harvesting. Beebe said that his is “not an open, clear-cut model, it’s an open patch of disturbance model… try to select the low value trees, and leave the high value trees in the woods to grow.”
Gill said Salmon Nation is designed to advocate for more regenerative economic practices as they relate to natural resources.
“We need to go back to building community capacity and a sensibility about regenerative practice,” he said. “If you’re only extracting and not regenerating, you may have what looks like a prosperous economy but it’s a false economy.”
Salmon Nation’s Ian Gill welcomes attendees to the morning program at Yaw Chapel on the SJ campus today. Gill said Salmon Nation is designed to advocate for more regenerative economic practices as they relate to natural resources. The group will hold a public forum 7 p.m. Tuesday (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)
Gill said the ideas promoted by Salmon Nation face many challenges, but “the biggest obstacle was the old narrative… and it’s a false narrative, and on top of that you have the exaggerated narratives of politicians these days.”
He added “you can make money doing sustainable forestry… (but) somehow in our society we think it’s OK for corporations to liquidate old-growth forests and turn a quick profit.”
Gill and Beebe refer to their networks of storytellers as “ravens,” noting that these birds also tell stories across wide distances.
Salmon Nation focuses on small-scale advocacy because, as Gill said, “we need to rethink everything, and ultimately the institutions that got us to where we got to aren’t the ones – can’t be the ones – that we can rely upon to undo their work. They protect their power.”
Executive Director of Alaska Arts Southeast Roger Schmidt helped coordinate the event. Schmidt agreed with Gill, saying “there’s an old story that doesn’t work, and we see it time over time, and people keep trying to squeeze success out of this old story, but it leads to bust and boom.”
By creating and spreading new narratives, Gill hopes to spark systemic change.
“Invest in the local community from the outset,” he said, “and make your money at home, and do good, and then you don’t need to be a do-gooder at the end of the day.”
The free public forum will take place at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the Odess Theater on the Sheldon Jackson Campus.
Additional information about Salmon Nation can be found online at www.salmonnation.net.
