Betty Carpick:
Take pride in being able to go forth with a shared legacy of care and compassion that’s really about people and the planet.
- I think in this community we have this amazing trifecta. We have Lake Superior, we have the boreal forest, and we have farm land. We have so much abundance and richness that we can protect and work collectively to take care of, to be stewarts of. It’s very distinctive, those three things - can we celebrate that?!?
-If we help intergenerational, interdisciplinary and inclusive communities to thrive then we’re all in a better place.
-I think we need to stop tokenizing and romanticizing and think about authentic ways of connect to people - all people. The world is so rich and diverse, if you can look at each other as human beings, each of us have different things to offer and we can learn and unlearn. That’s the way we can do it. We can fight against the system but if we’re not offering new solutions and new ways of doing things by setting examples, then we’re sort of lost.
-That’s now very much a part of my ritual and calming to see the lake and walk to the lake, the creeks and everything. The water system is super lively and animated by all the nature around it and it’s exciting. But it’s also not treated as special as it can be. There is lots of diversity and some lovely spots in Thunder Bay. You don’t need to leave the city to connect with nature.
- All of your relatives and ancestors, you’re an embodiment of them. And when you recognize that within yourself you also see how you are an ancestor. And so the way I relate to people I try to do that in a way that inspires hope and joy - I don’t want to be the scary ancestor saying the impending doom is nipping at our heels. I want to be the ancestor who says look: these might be solutions, these might be answers, this might be a way to have a conversation, these might be ways to be kind and gentle to one another and to work together.
-I think we often forget that what we are doing today is our shared legacy. It doesn’t have to be extraordinary, it can be ordinary, as long as it is authentic.
- I get around by walking & biking and I’ve never owned a car. I know how to drive a car, but there’s nothing about a car that feels good to me, it feels like a violent way to get around. So because of the way I get around I see details, I see a nuanced perspective of the world through where I’m walking and how I’m getting somewhere. I’m always talking to people and people talk to me because I’m out on the street, I’m on the paths. If you’re in a vehicle you miss out on those conversations. Also, because that’s how I get around I have to be more mindful about what I need & what I don’t need and how much I can carry. And I think about my visible and my invisible abilities and disabilities in terms of how I get around because I rely on walking and biking. It’s a practice getting around that way. I try to think in a more granular way.
- I think we have to experience the world in a sensory way and in a kind of artful way - just enjoy a slower pace. We can just slow down and really enjoy a simpler way of living if we want to. Certainly during the early days of the pandemic - I feel nostalgic for them. There was a real halting and a reckoning and a real slowing down. People were walking, cycling, baking, cooking, making. And we might not have been doing some of those things in the way we were accustomed to but we were doing them slower and in a more observant and connected way than we were before. There was a lot of good that came out of that pretty harsh reminder of the Climate Crisis.
-I think when we see where we live, if we’re really on the ground seeing it, then we can see the way we can make it a better place for all ages and abilities. A liveable community is for the people who live there.
-I have the lived experience in my own lifetime, in my Mom’s lifetime, in my relative’s lifetime of see the damage colonization and hierarchies in thinking of economy - can do: the huge destruction that happened in Northern Manitoba because of hydro development. In the seventies the Churchill and Nelson rivers were diverted to provide electricity to the South. So my Mom’s community of South Indian Lake, they were hunters and trappers and fisherman, they lived a very self sufficient life between the summer camp and the winter camp. At one point they had the most successful white fish fishery in North America. Before the Hydro development. I’ve seen documents since then that Hydro considered the people not working, they didn’t consider that true work. So the 100 or so people who lived in South Indian lake were considered disposable for this project. There was definitely a fight put up, it continues to this very day, and in some ways that has helped us become advocates for change and for opening eyes to what it means for a colonized, hierarchical way of thinking to come into a community. The community had to move to higher ground, so they left their community, they got no financial assistance and the whole ecosystem was affected. The shoreline was flooded, the debris in the lake caused mercury contamination so the whole water table, everything is affected. And consequently if you can’t do what you’ve done for centuries, and all of the sudden you have nothing to do, people are desperate, depressed, sad and voiceless. The societal problems are huge now. Recovering from that is not easy.
-I think there is the more active mourning and the more subtle, unspoken mourning that happens intergenerationally. I feel that that has been part of that community and a part of indigenous communities around the world that have had that experience of extractive industry moving in and rearranging things for their own benefit. I mean if you have someone who has been a trapper and a fisherman all their lives, you can’t make them happier by giving them a maintenance job in a mill.
-Now there is a kind of normalization of land and water destruction and that’s not okay. That’s not okay for the boreal forest which are the breathing lands, the lungs of the planet. And that’s not okay for all the communities in Canada and around the world where drinking water is an issue. Water is a valuable resource, in our lifetime. That just blows me away. Everything is moving too fast, all of this destruction.
-I think we forget that we are nature and that every time we take a breath, we’re breathing nature. We’re not a separate entity. There is a pressure to believe that we are but we’re not. We need to be humble about who we are and our role here. If we look at time in the glacial way, wow - what an honour to have this time.
-We have to humanize climate change. We can dwell and blame the past and the structures but that still gives that power of taking care of the planet to someone greater than us. So if we can all think about our relationship to the climate crisis. People who are illiterate or have health issues or are struggling to survive have different relationships than people like me who are like: it’s cool that I ride my bike and that’s how I get around the world. And then people in power, who have money (I want them to 'fess up!). I think to humanize it and not to make it seem that the climate crisis can be solved by someone else and we’re not all contributing. I contribute. You contribute. There’s no way any of us are martyrs about caring for the planet.
-For myself as a person who is 64 years old, I know I want to remind young people that they can be empowered and emboldened by the things they do in their lives. When we share intergenerationally we’re giving the young people the artillery to move ahead in a stronger way. It’s our responsibility. I really believe in the intergenerational way of learning and sharing. It’s what I grew up with.
-I’m not a fan or hierarchy in any way. That’s what I love, I can learn something from a little kid, or someone older, or someone who is not from my interest group or whatever. Learning is so abundant and its all around us but we’ve compartmentalized it and put it in silos. I mean we do try to homogenize people but if we just try to give people equity and equality, that goes a long way, and listening.
Sam:
-I want to see Climate Change change as in I want it gone. I believe that's not too optimistic. I've heard that we've actually done the science, we know how to do it and that at first it's going to cost more but it'll actually be cheaper in the long run. That begs the question: why haven't we done it yet? Why am I not noticing things around in the city - why haven't they done it?
-don't ever say food is just fuel
-Buy at a small business and they will take actually help you, more than a big business, because they only have so many clients, for a big business you are one of millions of customers. But you have to tell people about great local businesses, don't keep them a secret, or they'll go out of business!
Ben:
- There are three main changes I'd really like to see. One of them is obviously fixing climate change. The other is putting a lot more trust in our systems, like stop banning things because one bad thing happened once, have our systems be more based on trusting one another, that we're doing our best and we're pretty good people. Instead of generalizing that because one person did one stupid thing once, everyone must be stupid. The third thing I'd really like to see change in my lifetime is a lot more honesty, less of a society obsessed with perfection. And throwing things out just because they're not perfect.
-I love the idea of working and supporting local businesses. Local businesses are an important part of our culture so that whenever you go out for a treat, you're tasting originality. As well I would love to work for a local business and maybe one day even start my own business, mostly because I'll be able to make my own decisions about how I want to run the business.
