Nexwlélexwm Ecospiritual Regional Peace Park

Imagine Nexwlélexwm (Bowen Island)

500 years from now with abundant healthy old growth forest, sitting like a green jewel in the sparkling blue Salish Sea, alive with herring, leaping salmon, tail slapping seals, and whales spouting and breaching

What if our community has an essential role to play today in creating this beautiful future and helping ourselves and others to live in harmony and peace with each other and with Nature? I’ve recently submitted a proposal for the new Park called Nexwlélexwm Ecospiritual Regional Peace Park: Restoring, Regenerating and Rewilding Nature to Mayor and Council and Metro Vancouver Regional District In it, I ask us to consider questions of our relationship with the proposed land for the park that is in the unceded territory of Squamish Nation

I also suggest that the current model for the park with 100 campsites proposed by Metro Vancouver is an old model I invite you to consider whether it has truly served in the face of continued habitat destruction, collapsing biodiversity, accelerated climate change There are many including children and youth who are feeling anxious, depressed, hopeless, and powerless to do anything about all these issues facing them

It’s time to consider a new leading edge model for parks that connects people more deeply to nature, inspires them, and that provides opportunities for learning how to give back to Nature An ecospiritual connection to Nature is essential for our survival and the survival of remaining species By learning to listen to and be guided by the spirit of the land and waters, together with understanding Nature’s laws, we are capable of making wiser decisions

The Park will serve people of all generations, and what if it has a special focus on serving children and youth as leaders of the future What if we can equip them with spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical knowledge, wisdom and tools to begin making those wise decisions now?