History Editor

Site Administrator

I come from small-town Nova Scotia, but before I came to rest in James Bay I lived in Ottawa, and more recently Hokkaido, Japan. I hold degrees in history and journalism, but I taught myself how to design and program websites. I started this website as a way to indulge my curiousity about the culture and environment around me.

When I moved to the neighbourhood last summer it seemed like just another quiet semi-urban neighbourhood. Sure, it was an easy walk to downtown, or to the beach, and I enjoyed the freedom of not having a car. But, I didn’t really get James Bay until this winter when I started running along the cliffs overlooking the Juan de Fuca Strait. I slowly became aware of the teeming human and non-human life concentrated along the shoreline, and I began to understand what makes James Bay unique.

I have since taken to more regular and leisurely visits to the beach, and have expanded my wandering to other parts of James Bay. I am fascinated by the complex interaction between urban culture and the tenacious creatures and forces of the natural world.

We like to flatter ourselves that we have this world under-control, that we can force it to submit to our will. It’s true that we do, through billions of individual actions, have huge and lasting effects. But on a personal level we are more like passive objects trapped in nature’s grasp, than the powerful and creative subjects we believe ourselves to be.

Most of us have abdicated any personal relationship with nature. We’ve retreated behind the lazy comforts of our machines and view the world through cookie cutter windows of mass-produced imagery. Most of what we know about nature and history is filtered down to us second or third hand. For many of us our neighbourhoods have become little more than bedroom communities, the places where we eat and sleep, while our lives are conducted elsewhere.

Jamesbay.org is an attempt to reconnect with the world in front of my face. I hope it will contribute to a deeper understanding, for myself and for others, of the place that we call home.