I’m reading northern stories. Yesterday it was Farley Mowat’s, “Two Against the North.” There are lessons in “Two Against the North,” a whole survival course and more.

Two boys on a hunting trip lose their way in the Barrenlands of Northern Manitoba just as the Arctic winter is beginning. It’s a rip-roaring adventure tale, and as you can see by the “Scholastic Canada” label on the cover, one often taught in schools. It’s a particularly good story for reluctant young readers and is hard to put down even for a grown up.

Here’s hoping Rob and I aren’t “two against the north” on OUR journey, and if it ever feels like this, I’ll try to remember the harrowing tale of Awasin and Jamie. I’m glad we won’t be there in the winter!

The moral of the story comes when Jamie realizes that all of their troubles started when they tried to fight against the winter and the Barrenlands. Awasin says to Jamie, “If you fight against the spirits of the north you will always lose. Obey their laws and they’ll look after you.”

An important lesson.

We settler folks have been fighting against the land throughout our short history on it. Extraction, overuse, neglect—it’s a sad story that has left all of us poorer and now, in grave danger.

I was reading yesterday in “What If We Get It Right,” that “Indigenous people (less than 5% of the world’s population) manage or have rights to around 25% of the world’s land area, which is home to about 80% of the Earth’s remaining biodiversity.” (P. 371) That is impressive and certainly no accident. Indigenous people know how to care for the land and have been doing so for millenia. We (settlers) have managed to wreck it in just a few centuries.

Yet, we settlers still haven’t grasped that Indigenous people have a track record that would make them our best teachers.

Beyond our history of genocide, we continue to try to ignore and bypass them to create more and more extractive enterprises. PM Mark Carney is currently being accused of a lack of consultation with Indigenous leaders as he moves forward with his so-called “major projects.” All that consulting might slow him down, and we all know, it’s full steam ahead. “Progress” at all costs. The success and strength of Canada demands it. It’s our patriotic duty…blah blah blah.

Is it? Wouldn’t it be better to slow down, do it right, maybe even do something else?

It’s sheer hubris to ignore Indigenous leadership and knowledge and that hubris comes from racism.

Maybe Mr. Carney should read “Two Against the North.”