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[Episode 1 Preview: Series Introduction]
>> NARRATOR: It is all too easy to see difference as something that divides.
But there are certain places in the world that have the power to unify, where the land
encourages cultures to come together instead of falling apart.
The area in Ontario, Canada that some people are calling ‘The Land
Between’ is one of those places.
Here, two great ecological regions - the mythic and majestic Canadian Shield, and the lush
and fertile St. Lawrence Lowlands, join together to form a vast mosaic of interconnected environments.
In a very Canadian way, The Land Between's diversity has encouraged sharing between cultures
for thousands of years.
But The Land Between is not a Utopia - it has little bits of almost everything, and
a lot of almost nothing. Famous Canadian poet, Al Purdy, refers to this area as ‘The Country
of our Defeat’ and some Mississaugas refer to it as ‘Shakunigun,’ meaning ‘Left
Over Lands.’
This is the story of the Mississauga and Algonquin - who shared this landscape with their more
southern Wendat and Haudenoshaunee neighbours; of the first European visitors, who were both
inspired and repulsed by The Land Between;
of the traders, the farmers, the lumbermen and miners, who tried and often failed to
succeed amongst the flat limestone alvars and undulating granitic barrens that characterize
this region.
And it is the story of generations of travellers and artists and dreamers, who see beauty,
inspiration and even the creator, in the hidden places in-between.
You may already be familiar with some of The Land Between - it includes large parts of
Ontario’s famous Muskoka and Kawartha lakes cottage country.
But in many ways, The Land Between represents those special places everywhere that are still
worth protecting.
Places at the fringes of human ‘progress’ and urban development.
The hinterlands, that have so far, largely resisted change - but are now increasingly
under threat.
Places that represent the meeting of our greatest opportunities, and our greatest challenges.
This story is about our evolving relationship with these special places.