Phillip Vannini is a professor in the School of Communication and Culture at Royal Roads University and a previous holder of a Canada Research Chair in Public Ethnography. He is the author/editor of 18 books including the most recent "Inhabited" (McGill-Queen's University Press, 2021) and "In the name of wild" (On Point Press/UBC Press, 2022), which both focus on the meanings of wildness and natural heritage around Canada and the world. His previous writings have concentrated on topics such as off-grid living ("Off the Grid," Routledge, 2015) and ferry transportation ("Ferry Tales," Routledge, 2012).

Vannini's "Ferry Tales: Mobility, Place, and Time on Canada's West Coast" (Routledge, 2012) about ferry-dependence on island and coastal communities of the west coast, was based on five years' work, 400 interviews and 250 ferry rides. When Ferry Tales was published, Vannini said he hoped to trigger an understanding that our ferry systems are  highways, driveways and doors to our homes.

BOOKS:

In the Name of Wild (UBC, 2022) $24.95 9780774890403. Co-authored by April Vannini with Autumn Vannini.

[BCBW 2023]

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In the Name of the Wild: One Family, Five Years, Ten Countries, and a New Vision of Wildness by Phillip and April Vannini with Autumn Vannini (On Point Press/UBC Press $24.95)

Review by Graham Chandler(BCBW 2022)

What do the words “wild,” “wildness,” and “wilderness” mean to you? To most, images of primitive and undeveloped nature come to mind; to others, romantic scenes of places untouched and unspoiled by humans.

Frequently humans are somehow seen as an entity separate and apart from wilderness or what we call Nature. It is all too often viewed in an “us” versus “them” split.

It’s curious that such viewpoints still dominate: after all, the idea that humans are part of Nature isn’t new. Fifty years ago, the Gaia hypothesis, named after the ancient Greek goddess of Earth, posited that Earth and its biological systems function as one huge single entity. This entity has closely controlled, self-regulatory feedback loops that keep conditions on the planet within boundaries favourable to life. Introduced in the early 1970s, the theory was conceived by chemist and inventor James E. Lovelock, who recently passed away at the age of 102.

So why the enduring split? Gabriola Island–based ethnographers and filmmakers Phillip and April Vannini set out with their preteen daughter, Autumn, on a five-year series of world trips to explore just what the terms meant to people of other cultures. Well-selected destinations, including the Galápagos Islands to Tasmania and Iceland were on the itinerary. After several hundred interviews with people from all walks of life, they came away with an understanding of wildness in a new light. In their book, In the Name of the Wild, they recorded many dramatically different perspectives, other than the usual “something remote and untouched.”

The Vanninis’ findings are surprising and thought-provoking. “The idea of wildness differs from person to person,” they write. “What a wilderness is to you is not the same as what it is to us. And what it means to us differs dramatically from what it means to a polar explorer or the average city dweller.” In New Zealand, for example, “A volcano might seem wild to a visitor, but to a Māori, it is an ancestor, it is family.”

Closer to home, Mary-Jane Johnson, heritage manager for the Kluane First Nation in Yukon Territory, said, “When you say ‘wilderness’, why are we excluded from that idea of wilderness? People are part of the wilderness; people are part of the land. My body does not survive day to day without being part of that land or without being part of that water…Why are we putting ourselves outside of the idea of wilderness?”

And speaking of family, there’s a young reader’s viewpoint throughout the book too. When asked what “wild” meant to her, daughter Autumn’s answer came to her while hiking New Zealand’s Hollyford Track: “Alone with the forest.”

In fact, this entertaining and educational book takes along not only the family but readers too: you go travelling with the authors and share their scenery and experiences, including their trepid moments. You can enjoy the journey, ponder and philosophize, and then decide what your answer might be. 9780774890403

Freelance writer Graham Chandler has visited 50 countries and has over 800 magazine articles to his credit. He lives in the wilderness of Vancouver’s West End.