Van Anderson
Consul - Education & Outreach
Completed Training: 5/2019
Resident in: Upper Cowlitz Watershed - Ta’idnapam first nations territory
Cascadian Since: 2004
Pronouns: he/him/his
Diplomat Bio:
I am born Cascadian with a deep appreciation for the natural and cultural history of the bioregion. I was raised among the volcanoes of the south-central Cascades in the territory of the ta’iDnapam Sahaptian first nations. I was the primary researcher for encoding in the international Unicode Standard the Chinook Pipa charaters used by first nations and settler communities in the Okanagan to write Chinuk Wawa in the late 19th century.
My goal as a diplomat is to bring the strategies of experiential education to developing tools for Cascadians to help others explore the lessons that our bioregion’s history, culture, and ecology can teach.
Why my work with Cascadia is important:
I believe that Cascadia and its underlying ethos of bioregionalism is a dream that dares to explore whether human civilization can be made compatible with long-term biological survival. Our lives are dependent on the plants, animals, water and air that surrounds us. A civilization that does not protect those things sows the seeds of its own death. Cascadia is the only hope for human civilization I can currently see. But maybe we can be an example for the rest of the world.
