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What does Salmon Nation meme to you?
What's a meme?
According to wiktionary, a meme is "Any unit of cultural information, such as a practice or idea, that is transmitted verbally or by repeated action from one mind to another. Examples include thoughts, ideas, theories, practices, habits, songs, dances and moods and terms such as race, culture, and ethnicity." (source)
Salmon Nation as a meme is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License.
Become a Translator!
Through the Salmon Nation Translator project, we seek to spread the Salmon Nation meme by jumpstarting the creativity of citizens throughout the region on behalf of a civic society. A Salmon Nation Translator is any individual who is inspired by Salmon Nation and translates the values or concepts of Salmon Nation into other mediums or representations. This might be a piece of art, a graffiti mural, a song, a play, a costume, etc...
What do Translators do?
- They take the freely available meme of Salmon Nation and translate it into other representations or projects.
To learn more, please contact Howard Silverman, either by phone at 503.227.6225 or .
See some examples of translations
Salmonpeople is a watershed of projects based on the power of stories and the life work of educator, community facilitator, and performance artist, Peter Donaldson. The purpose of the tour is to awaken stewardship behavior, to measure progress towards sustainable prosperity through community indicators, and to teach our children the link between economic choices and ecological integrity. More…
SNAP is a tribute to the unique blend of communities, history, and sustainable attitudes of Salmon Nation. Over thirty artists represent these elements through poetry, music, stories, photographs and fine art in this auditory CD and accompanying visual booklet.
This comic by Gregg Works draws on some of the themes and ideas of Salmon Nation to tell the story of Ronny Sasquatch.
My Pledge of Allegiance
By Rob Thayer
Professor Emeritus, UC Davis
(Author of LifePlace: Bioregional Thought and Practice)
I pledge allegiance
To all creatures
Of the Putah and Cache Creek watersheds
And to Salmon Nation
In which we all stand
One life-place
Unique under the Sun
With diversity and productivity
For all Beings.
Dick Jaffe, former Ecotrust board member, wrote this song called Salmon Nation, Wild and Free. He performed it live at the 2006 Salmon Nation Block Party in Portland, OR.
This flag made its debut at the 2006 Bioneers Conference in a presentation by Paul Hawken.
Classic flag appearing on shirts and murals throughout the bioregion.
Check out this Salmon Nation logo and sticker in Russian!
If Your Child
By Christa Brandenburg
If your child goes North, becomes whole with the sea
for the love of life pulled gleaming, in the wilderness
of hands working, in the rhythm of tides rocking,
in long light that does not sleep; if she is the drum beating
telling what the hold can carry, then let go and let her be
If your baby digs spruce root, weaves Eyak basket
kills and cleans what sustains her, gathers berries in the fall
if she scavenges like Crow, sleeps like Dog ‘til jolt awakens
dressed and ready at the call, if she’s lost and she is found,
out of reach where the waters
long before books held writing, even now are glacier blue
Well, then you have carried a beginning to a life still shining
sea to spent spawn, over and again
she is like some heirloom seed truly human way up there
as the other sons and daughters, in the cities calling
calling, walk past broken carts and
candy wrappers in the bark dust, still as fallen buffalo
If your daughter’s strength holds, if the Salmon Nation is not lost
and your hands keep a rhythm in the work they’re called to do
then her youth and her beauty are like starlight,
steady as endurance,
a song of remembrance in the black of night
We are awake and we are watching, seeing waters rising,
so keep on in the roiling, stories hold our meaning
raise the cup and the anchor, voice and spirit
ripple on the surface, our children’s power is a beacon,
give your very life now, become whole in this sea.