The Wayfinders: Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World

The Spatsizi Wilderness of British Columbia houses the headwaters of “three of Canada’s most important salmon rivers” (116). The geography of these rivers is central to the economy and religion of several First Nations cultures. Despite their sacredness, these rivers have recently been opened to the mining industry by the Canadian government. Against the formal protests of the local First Nations peoples, the proposed endeavors will destroy thousands of kilometers of the landscape and deposit toxic chemicals into the water supplies of indigenous communities. Such ecologically and culturally destructive action for the sake of profit is a foundation of our resource-driven economy. It is the “manner in which we have reduced our planet to a commodity, a raw resource to be consumed at our whim” (119).

The Western relationship to resource dates back to the Age of Enlightenment, an intellectual and philosophical movement that began in 17th-century Europe. Scientists and philosophers of the era argued “phenomena that could not be positively observed and measured could not exist” (120). This reduced all aspects of existence to the material. Land lost agency, animals lost souls, and all biological activity was viewed as mechanical.

In his youth Davis worked in forestry, where he was indoctrinated into a belief that forests exist to be cut.