Rivers Like Tears

A book review
by Sylvie Shaw

Fikret Berkes - Sacred Ecology

I picked up Fikret Berkes Sacred Ecology first because of its title. I was in the midst of writing a proposal for a course in sacred ecology and the book’s title seemed intriguing. It was not the only coincidence. I discovered the author, who is Professor of Natural Resources at the University of Manitoba, had done his field work in Northern Quebec, with the James Bay Cree.

A few years ago, I had travelled to the area and stayed with the Cree in the place Berkes mentions, Chisasabi, when I went dog sledding. It was a journey I had wanted to do since I was 10 years old - following the caribou on their annual migrations. But there was a big difference in dreaming about this trip for so long and the reality. By the time I got there, the ecology of the region had been terribly affected by the building of gigantic hydro-dams. This impacted on the quality of the lives of the people and of the land.

Before I left I had read how the flooding of vast tracts of the land has caused wide-spread mercury poisoning. Quantities of natural mercury from the soil has contaminated the rivers and the fish and poisoned the people who rely largely on fish for food. Margaret Sam-Cromarty (1992), a Cree poet whose house we stayed in at Chisasibi, laments these changes in her moving poem "Rivers"

Tears are like rivers;
they never stop flowing.
Rivers are like tears
they become dry.