Commemorating the 30^th anniversary of the South Channel Association:

Reflections On the Strange and Primitive:

Claudette Pintwala – GBA Rep

My husband and I reside in a rather large city. We much appreciate the lifestyle and opportunities that city-life provides for our 3 sons and us. And I cherish the network of friends we have met here. But we’re sometimes thought to be weird.

To my city friends, and others whom I meet, I may look and act like an ordinary urbanite. But from time to time, some of my remarks and responses have evoked a look or a shrug that confirms I am different, to them, a bit “strange”, even a bit “primitive”, particularly in my values and beliefs.

I remember, for instance, some years back, just before the summer holiday began from teaching, I was asked what I’d be doing for the break. I explained excitedly that I’d be heading up to the cottage for most of the summer with my 3 young children. “You have to take a boat to get there?” she asked. I explained we were located on an island in eastern Georgian Bay. “You stay there all summer?”, she quizzed, and her expression noticeably changed. I eagerly invited this colleague to come visit some time. “No thanks,” she remarked with that now familiar look I tend to get when I speak of our summer retreat. And she explained that her idea of a perfect vacation is, “Where I can hop in the car anytime I want to explore fine shopping malls and select restaurants, beauty salons and health spas, or maybe just to pick up a pizza and bring home a few good movies at the end of the day.”

Most recently I invoked those weird looks from other parents on my son’s hockey team when, in late October, out in the parking lot of the Arena in Guelph, I excitedly exclaimed, “Look up!” to get everyone to regard the night sky and watch the Lunar Eclipse. Some looked up in brief curiosity, but most gave me that look to say, “She’s nuts”. Then again, in early November there occurred a rare burst of northern lights in the southern city skies. These nocturnal wonders, I knew, would appear dramatically more spectacular at the cottage. Oh, how I yearned to be there to behold in these wonders of nature’s display.

It’s hard to explain to our city friends, why we leave them and the city social events and gatherings behind so readily for what has become longer and more frequent visits to “the cottage”. Going to the cottage activates a sort of awakening to reverence and inspiration. For me, the closest analogy to describe the feeling I yearn for by going to the cottage, is borrowed from mystics and spiritual leaders. Going to the cottage, is like going on a spiritual retreat: Once we reach our destination, and have unburdened ourselves from the journey and the loads we carry for the stay, we instinctively remove our shoes (perhaps replace them with sandals) as if to concede we are standing on holy ground.

Perhaps this is where the “strange” and the “primitive” is derived.

My heart, and the heart of my family, is linked to Georgian Bay, and that is where we truly “LIVE”. Georgian Bay is our earthy coastal community – a community of native species and human beings – a shared dwelling – a special place in which we converge and commune amidst the myriad wonders of nature.

I have a different set of friends I’ve met here in this Lakeland play land, and unlike my city friends, these friends on the Bay seem to be of the same strange breed that I am. What appears “strange” and “primitive” to our urban friends is regarded as normal and stimulating to most within our coastal community.

For instance, instead of being set by the clock to honour deadlines and time constraints for day-to-day commitments, our lifestyles on the Bay are set to the rhythms of nature. Recall that dazzling sunrise, or dreamy sunset, that thunderous storm, the dense fog, or wicked wind speed and wave heights that either caused us to respectfully change our plans or set in sync a new agenda for the day or night.

I am often unable to join in common conversation with my city girlfriends because I don’t know squat about designer labels or hot fashion trends, and I didn’t watch the last episode of “Sex in the City” or read the latest scandal about the most talked about movie stars, and I haven’t even seen the hit movies. But I’ve noticed that me and my Bay friends can tell whether the Loon’s cry is distressed, can smell the rain showers before they come, can sense when the eye of the storm has hit, can feel when the winds have changed direction, can distinguish the soar of an Osprey, from a turkey vulture, or a hawk, and will proudly point out the dung of a bear or moose as a treasured find. Some of us have even heard the crackle of the northern lights.

Whereas many Urbanites think nothing of moving from house to house, or city to city in a quest to upgrade to more upscale homes and neighbourhoods. Properties on the Bay are cherished as lifelong, though mainly seasonal dwellings, where the way of life here is better kept pretty much the same and passed on from generation-to-generation than subjected to a great deal of development and change. And the biggest long-term goals and challenges for those in our “strange” coastal community are to conserve and protect the natural wonders and finite resources of the Bay.

Some of our city friends, who have been brave enough to venture out to visit us here more than once, are starting to show signs that what they once thought strange is really quite enjoyable, though perhaps surreal. We see their change occurring when they stop giving their kids permission to pee in the lake; when they no longer pack high-heeled sandals or white pants to wear; when they no longer shriek at the sting of the mosquito, the scurry of a mouse, or the tickle of the spider; when they no longer need to flush what is liquid; and when they no longer think it’s gross to store stinky garbage indoors.

I’ll be proud to report to these friends that we who have a stake in eastern Georgian Bay, have gained new, globally recognized status – perhaps more than partly due to our “strange” and rather “primitive” ways that have been part of Bay life through generations.

The source of this powerful status symbol was created when, as a result of our GBA Foundation’s initiative, funding, hard work, and networking, UNESCO recently designated the Georgian Bay Littoral as a world-class Biosphere Reserve.

As the GBA Foundation has explained, “A designated Biosphere Reserve is a representative ecosystem with important natural/ecological values; a landscape with its characteristic plants, animals and human uses functioning together in particular ways. To achieve biosphere reserve status, the area must have and be a place where people live, work, and enjoy a variety of economic and recreational activities based on respect for the environment.”

Unlike other Great Lakes, our eastern Georgian Bay has not succumbed to vast urban development, sprawl or industrialization. Remarkably, pristine bays, wilderness and wetlands still exist. The 30,000 islands constitute a unique ecosystem not found anywhere else in the great Lakes, or indeed, the world.

Now there’s something we “primitive and strange” Bay people can place our pride on!

Patrick Northey, Chair of the newly formed, not-for-profit Georgian Bay Biosphere Reserve Inc. once described our commonality when he said, “The bond that unites us all is an emotional attachment to the Bay – the Georgian Bay feeling - And a passionate belief that the Bay must be protected.”

Truly a cause to celebrate! May we all preserve and live up to our newly recognized status.

For more facts on the Biosphere Reserve and other issues concerning the Bay, see our website at www.Georgianbay.ca

And just a reminder: As the tax year approaches the final month, consider that gift to the GBA Foundation and help support its many Bay projects