Interviews with Environmental Elders and Senior Leaders in British Columbia
by Maggie Paquet
The “Voices for Change” project is a partnership of the Watershed Sentinel Education Society and the BC Environmental Network. The project highlights the contributions to environmental education and activismby British Columbians who are considered to be elders in the environmental community.
Some of the project’s goals are:
• to provide a venue for elders to share their stories and their knowledge;
• to provide a mentoring opportunity for elders; and
• to acknowledge the ongoing involvement of elders, who they are, what they have to say, and what advice they have for the next generation.
We wanted to feature people who reflect the social and geographic range of the province, as well as balance elders from parks and wilderness groups with those who focused on toxics, species-at-risk, fisheries and oceans, and other issues. We hope you are inspired by the words so generously given by these 14 elders: May Murray, Paul George, Rosemary Fox, Ric Careless, Vicky Husband, Gordon Hartman, Ed Mankelow, Katharine Steig, Wayne McCrory, Ruby Dunstan, Catherine Stewart, Michael M’Gonigle, Olga Schwartzkopf, and Calvin Sandborn.
Did your involvement in environmental work ever have an impact on your family or other relationships? In what way? How did you deal with that? (Question 3)
Struggle and some degree of satisfaction characterise most of the responses to this question. Responses were not so much surprising in that most people said yes, their environmental work did affect their families and other relationships, the surprise was in the variety and intensity of responses. Two of the men went through marriage breakups largely because their work was so time-consuming and intense, and because they were away so much. Women, in particular, but not exclusively among this group, said they had to learn to balance their environmental work with the needs of their families. Both men and women felt it had an impact on their kids, mostly in missing their parent, but it wasn’t always negative. Catherine Stewart, for instance, while saying that her kids missed her, and she them, also said, “My work exposed them to amazing people from around the world. I sometimes took them with me to incredible places. It was hard, but also inspiring for us as a family.” Ed Mankelow admitted it was time-consuming, but, with his wife doing duty as transportation manager, he got involved with his kids at their school, and for many years took classes out into the bush, which he said was beneficial for all. Michael M’Gonigle and his wife, Wendy Wickwire, were both involved in the Stein Valley campaign when their kids were young. He feels their work was very good for his family and, “the kids have a special connection to the Stein.” Gordon Hartman, whose environmental work began in earnest after he retired, said his family is “proud of the work I did in the Alcan/Kemano and Fish Lake/Taseko issues,” and while he says he “wasn’t the hero in the Kemano situation, I did kick open the can of worms that was entailed in the ‘Settlement Agreement.’ Most of my colleagues approved of what I did.”
Another impact was on a broader social level. For some, like Katharine Steig, the people they worked with on environmental issues weren’t their neighbours or work colleagues, so they didn’t have much social life outside of ENGO meetings and activities. Ric Careless said the work was “all-consuming and extremely stressful” at times, and he felt he was always “skating on the edge of burnout.” Feeling that he has helped save “some of the beauty, magic, and wonder of being alive in this beautiful province” keeps him grounded. Olga Schwartzkopf said many of her old friends quit speaking to her. At a dinner party one time, she was called a “communist” because she wouldn’t eat farmed fish! She dealt with it by making new friends.
For Ruby Dunstan, elected chief of the Nlaka’pamux (Lytton) First Nation, it wasn’t only her family but the whole community that was affected. Some of her husband’s relatives were loggers. The women would tell her to keep fighting. There was a split between the men and the women. Many of the young people wanted roads into the area to make hunting easier. The economic aspect of logging the Stein was a big issue. Ruby said she was called a “half-baked environmentalist.” For her part, she wanted to do what the elders wanted her to do. After she got out of politics, she’s happy to say, her community, and her family have come back together, but she had to work hard to restore her relationships.
I don’t think the “outside world” much considers the price environmentalists – and their friends and families – have paid for the work they’ve done, and continue to do; but for every one of them, it’s had immense rewards in how they feel about what they’ve achieved.
What has kept you involved in the environmental movement? What keeps you going when things look bleak? (Question 4)
I was a bit taken aback when I got my first response to this question. I had to stop and think for a minute what the heck he’d just said. Then I realised he’d hit the nail on the head for all of us who do this work. It was Gordon Hartman and he said: “I don’t know how to answer this question except to say that things just kept happening and I kept reacting and staying involved. If you or I were dropped into the ocean, we’d keep on trying to swim – at least for a while.”
Of the 14 elders interviewed, 11 stated quite emphatically that they stayed involved because, as Katharine Steig said, “The work still isn’t finished. At first I thought that eventually these areas would be permanently protected, but that’s not how it happens; it’s never done. You always have to be vigilant.” Wayne Mc- Crory “always thought, and sometimes hoped, that environmental causes in my life would end, but they never do…What helps to keep me going is working with my colleagues and seeing the wildlife…and the skills we’ve all gained in doing this work.” Ed Mankelow said, “The issues never stop. It’s hard to let go.”
Another reason these elders keep on working is they feel they have to keep an eye on things. May Murray said, “Every time you turn around, government wants to sell or develop or cut down something. It’s one thing after another. Take Site C. It’s back. I listened to a person on CBC radio talking about how families were affected when the area was first flooded for the Bennett Dam, how people saw animals drowning. It was traumatic for them. I feel I have to stay on watch. If government knows there are people on watch, it may hold them in check.”
This determination to never give up runs through the minds of all the elders. This constant vigilance can take a toll on one’s physical and emotional health, warns Olga Schwartzkopf. Learning how to look after themselves as well as the planet is a theme that runs through all the responses. On the bright side, one of the most rewarding activities for many, and singled out by Olga, is the opportunity for mentoring. BC Spaces, Ric Careless’ group, engages young people on environmental issues. This kind of positive activity was mentioned by many of the others as a big part of what keeps them going when “things look bleak.”
Deeply caring for the planet and the future is another major motivator. Rosemary Fox answered emphatically, “Because I care! I wonder what kind of future there will be for the next generations, for the creatures that make the world so rich.” A key theme well-articulated by Catherine Stewart, is the “passion, hope, conviction” felt by all the elders and without which they likely would have quit long ago. They all said “there really is no choice.”
Do you work with an environmental organisation? If so, why? If not, why not? (Question 5)
Many of the elders are expert multi-taskers, carrying on a private life with family and work, as well as being active in a number of organisations, big and small, and local to international. Eleven elders responded “yes” to this question, another stays active assisting a number of groups as needed, and Vicky Husband calls herself a “free radical,” preferring to speak directly to the public, although she is active with the Watershed Watch Salmon Society. Vicky is also working to help stem the plethora of so-called run-of-river, “green” energy projects that threaten many river and stream systems in the central and south coast regions.
The benefits of working with a group ranged from the need to have people with a variety of skills and ideas working on an issue to enabling networking with other groups, the opportunity to learn new things, and most importantly, to help give you the support you need to achieve your goals. Many commented that you “can’t do it alone.”
For some, it depended on where they lived. For those in rural or smaller centres, their work is generally either in a local group or one that has a volunteer base all over the province. Rosemary Fox was with the Sierra Club for over 25 years, but “volunteering with them became difficult when I moved up to Smithers. I got involved with the local group of Nature BC, which is planning to intervene with Nature Canada in the Joint Panel Review of the Northern Gateway pipeline project.”
Olga Schwartzkopf is active in at least five ENGOs and in the RCEN’s Toxics and Water caucuses. “Why? Because we need the whole spectrum of activity… as many strategies as possible.” Catherine Stewart works with a group (Living Oceans) “because the movement deserves resources, a lot of effort, many brains. We all draw on each other’s skills, strategic sense; there’s more power and more effectiveness working with a group.”
Calvin Sandborn is inspired by the students and clients he works with at UVic’s Environmental Law Centre. He says they work with dozens of organisations and individuals. He also volunteers with the Environmental Law Alliance World-wide, a group of environmental lawyers from almost 80 countries.
I think Ric Careless, of BC Spaces for Nature and a co-founder of many groups, expresses one of the fundamental reasons groups are important: “Getting change involves power and influence. People coming together can be a source of power. But you need to know how to use the power in order to have influence – like a rocket ship filled with explosives – that’s the power. When you put fins on the rocket, you can determine where the rocket goes – that’s influence. This is what an effective organisation can do to achieve positive change.”
What do you think are possible traps to effective activism, or known failing strategies? (Question 6)
At first, most respondents were a bit hesitant at this question, but then the floodgates opened. Funding issues and becoming captive to funders’ (or government agencies’) goals and timetables topped the list of concerns. Vicky Husband said, “Groups end up working only on the issues that they can get funding for, and not necessarily the issues that need to be worked on.” Concern about “corporatisation” was also a common response. When this happens, groups end up with a lot of their activities going into looking after their own interests. Along with this were comments that some organisations with full-time paid staff had become “slick,” repeatedly sending out “e-bulletins” and asking for donations. Many found this very annoying and said it contributed to the loss of – and lack of respect for – volunteers. “Selling-out grassroots groups” means that when government holds planning processes and consultations, only the “big groups” are invited to participate and, as Rosemary Fox commented, the smaller groups “may be the ones in the local area who likely know more about local issues, but they are overlooked. This is potentially divisive and counter-productive.”
Internal conflict, divisiveness, becoming too competitive with other ENGOs (for funding and media attention), egotism, dishonesty, allowing themselves to be used for greenwash propaganda (either deliberately for funding purposes, or inadvertently through lack of seeing the “big picture”), doing a report on an issue and then moving on without achieving any particular success, not sticking with a goal but instead reacting to urgent issues, not being results-oriented, not being sufficiently committed to achieving a goal, “preaching to the choir,” being overly critical of each other (or, as Catherine Stewart said in the previous article, “circling the wagons and shooting inward”), and being too harshly judgmental of other groups were all mentioned. Ouch! I think all these can be boiled down to a huge shared concern that a lot of energy gets wasted at the expense of achieving positive results for the planet and for society in general.
Another trap mentioned was “judging success by column-inches,” feeling that if your issue is getting media coverage, then you’re being successful. Catherine Stewart said that this “is not an indicator of change, in practice or in policies. You’ve got to follow through to see if there are real indicators of success.”
Another category of traps related to “direct action,” or demonstrations. Paul George commented that for WC2, non-violence was mandatory. A number of respondents felt that demonstrations, petitions, and form letters to politicians became ineffective and were largely dismissed by the general public as “the same One trap to effectiveness that resonates with me is credibility – or, as Rosemary Fox commented, the lack of it. She, among others, said “it is really important to get your facts right…be credible.” When designing your strategy for success, a final word of advice came from Ric Careless, who believes that to be successful, “decisions are also made through the use of sentiment and emotion; you need to make your work both personal and strategic.”
~
The Interview Questions
1. What is/has been your major field(s) of interest/activity?
2. What was the primary impetus/reason that got you involved in environmental work? Why?
3. Did it ever have an impact on your family or other relationships? In what way? How did you deal with that?
4. What has kept you involved in the environmental movement? What keeps you going when things look bleak?
5. Do you work with an environmental organization? If so, why? If not, why not?
6. What do you think are possible traps to effective activism, or known failing strategies?
7. What changes do you foresee, if any, in the role of environmental organizations in the future?
8. What do you think is the most urgent/important environmental issue today? For BCers? For Canadians?
9. What lessons have you learned to share with the next generation? What advice would you give to the next generation of environmentalists? What advice would you give to all environmentalists?
10. If you could design a strategy to engage people to live in harmony with our planet, what would it look like?
11. What are you doing these days?
12. If you had the proverbial three wishes, what would they be?
13. Have I left out anything you’d like to mention?
***