Creating Bioregional Symbols
This piece was originally published in Cascadia Spoke, a community publication dedicated to raising awareness of the Cascadia movement and bioregionalism.
Symbols pervade our life at every level of our society. In a time when our identities are largely imagined (we will never meet the other 400 million people sharing our continent) it’s more important than ever that we create symbols that represent our values and principles. The Cascadia Doug Flag is a symbol that represents our bioregion and movement. Without it, our hope is to connect people together as citizens of their watersheds, rather than arbitrary lines rooted in blood.
But it is by no means the only symbol. Rather it is one of thousands, of which any person could make, that communicate the values on which we stand. By using the Doug Flag, and the green white and blue, we show a shared regional identity, and that we share common beliefs, dreams and principles.
Much like the Rainbow Flag, a Black Flag or the Occupy Fist, symbols can be incredibly potent means for making a public and visible statement about the values and principles that we share and identify with. With so many brands manufactured for our consumption it is important that as citizens of this world, we have our own community inspired and created symbols that are driven by a love of place and our neighbors—something authentic, rather than rooted in a profit basis.
We hope every individual or community that agrees with bioregional values creates a symbol for their place. Green, white and blue can be used as a landscape, or colors that denote specific values. The Douglas fir can be used, or can be replaced with a tree, plant or animal in a given ecoregion.
We are all Cascadian, and together, we are the Cascadia movement.
