ABSTRACT
My teaching and research about human animal interaction (HAI) in social work are inspired by an affinity with the more-than-human world. I grew up on the Atlantic coast of Canada, in a small town nestled in the Tantramar Marshes, or Tintamarre, as Acadians called it, referencing the racket made by raucous birds who feed there, and the rushing sound of tidal waters filling the Chignecto Bay. In Indigenous oral tradition, the Tantramar was alluded to as a meeting place through which Mi’kmaq bands moved seasonally from sea coast to inland forest (Mount Allison University Archives). As a child, this expansive tidal saltmarsh, hugging the Bay of Fundy, steeped in cattails and tadpoles, wild flowers, bogs, sandpipers, and dykes, was sacred in its natural splendour.
