CULTURAL HACKING IN PARADISE

Dr Bob Maher, neo-Geographer

On May 4^th our community (in fact Lawrencetown) is hosting an event called ‘The Road to Georgetown’ (bit.ly/road2georgetown). This is in preparation for a bigger conference, sponsored by Newspapers Atlantic, in Georgetown, PEI (thegeorgetownconference.ca ) --  “Rural Redefined”.

Our plan is to assemble a group of speakers and storytellers who will share their perceptions about this part of the Annapolis Valley -- sounds very similar to “Hyperlocal”, but with a rural flavour.

The Halifax Chronicle Herald recently launched a weekend edition, with new format, typeface and content. It is full of articles that give voice to the changes that are happening in rural communities across the province.

What is going on ? Here we have two instances where newspapers are re-inventing their relationship with local citizens. Which brings me to "cultural hacking in Paradise". If existing systems or institutions do not meet the needs of the grassroots then how do we change them ? Just like software systems, we have to hack into them.

There are several recent examples. In Nova Scotia, there are moves to close small rural schools. To resist, we have to change the language and the concept of a school in the community, for example the hub concept. In Nova Scotia, they have closed the Rural Development Agencies (RDA) and are replacing them with Regional Enterprise Networks (REN). How do we reinvent the concept and change the decision making process -- and much more than, simply, changing an acronym.

From my apple orchard in Paradise, I have found a couple of touchstones that show us the way.

Recently, Donald Savoie has written a book entitled ‘Whatever happened to the music teacher’. In the preface, he describes a conversation between a businessman, a civil servant and a politician about the growth of the provincial civil service and the lack of change at the local school. The book is about decision making in government. In his case, the emphasis is at the federal level, in our case, we are looking at the provincial and municipal scales.

My second discovery was the book by Trudy Sable and Bernie Francis ‘ The Language of this Land, Mi’kma’ki. In this case, we can see the relationship between the traditional language and how it mirrors the environment and ability to live in a sustainable manner today.

What is the task of the cultural hacker in Paradise?To absorb what is happening around us. Observe the changes not only in the physical environment but also our cultural environment. To experiment with different ways of communication – use maps and new technology – but most importantly to share stories. Sure, there are risks, but allowing the current systems to persist, has even greater risk.