Introduction to Wetland Cultures, Past and Present

Wetlands are vital for life on earth. They are among the world’s most productive environments. They punch way above their weight as they cover about 6% of the surface of the earth. Traditional cultures have a long and vital association with wetlands going back to ancient times and coming forward to contemporary time. Their peoples regard wetlands as sacred places imbued with spiritual and ceremonial significance. They also provide physical sustenance and are sources of materials. These values are expressed in their artworks, artefacts, dance, song and story. Their artefacts, such as baskets, canoes and spears, were, and still are, created from wetlands and used in wetlands to hunt and gather the food they cultivate there. Traditional wetland cultures include wetland Aboriginals, Marsh Arabs, Fen Britons, bog Irish and marais Acadians in Canada. By contrast, ancient Greek and Roman cultures denigrated (literally and figuratively ‘blackened’) wetlands as places of disease, terror, horror, the hellish and the monstrous. Wetlands are an oppressed minority and a marginalized community of plants and animals (humans and more-than-humans). Wetlands are non-binary and queer bodies of water. Writing a word for wetlands is speaking on behalf of marginalized communities and oppressed minorities in wetland literature.