On Friday 4 October 2024 Dr. Maarten Zwiers (University of Groningen) presented this year’s RIAS Environmental History Lecture on the meaning of wetlands throughout history in the Netherlands, the US, and beyond.
In his lecture, which is part of a series of lectures on environmental history, Maarten Zwiers addressed what Wetlands have meant throughout the history of the United States and the Netherlands alike. The stories about these peripheral places have been long, complicated, and full of contradictory narratives. Swamps, bogs and fens have been places of danger and refuge, sites of oppression, and wellsprings of resistance, seen as worthless and full of riches, and described as both polluted and containing great natural beauty. These clashing narratives are still relevant in our present world, perhaps best illustrated by Donald Trump’s promise to “Drain the Swamp.” More than just a slogan, the “Swamp” can be viewed with an environmental, political, racial and economic perspective. Zwiers masterfully guided the audience through a morass of contradictory narratives, identifying four ways wetlands have been seen in our past and present.
Zwiers showed that for men such as George Washington in Virginia, or Johannes van den Bosch in the Northeast of the Netherlands, wetlands represented a resource frontier, untamed and dark wastelands that could be conquered, tamed, rationalized and eventually exploited. They articulated and encouraged the process of Swampification, “whereby governments, corporations, and the press socially (re)invented swamplands as uninhabitable spaces of death and disease to justify their destruction.” Although Zwiers noted that there were differences in the geographic, social, and racial factors of the plantations in the Southern US and the peat colonies of the Netherlands, there are also similarities. The pursuit of resources and rationalization, the vilification of wetlands, and the structured and oppressive societies that emerged in these wetlands, can be found on both sides of the Atlantic.
Yet Zwiers also points out that the very nature of these places formed the ecosystem for maroon geographies, a safe space for those who were enslaved and exploited, and a refuge away from the colonies and plantations. For many, wetlands were seen as a place of protection, wherein its very wild and untamed geography were positive attributes. For others, wetlands became a Place of Resistance; sometimes as a symbol, sometimes as a base of rebellion and revolution. Through it all, Zwiers splendidly showed what Wetlands have meant in the past, and what they could mean it the future.
The lecture was delivered to a full auditorium, and was preceded by the presentation of the annual RIAS-UCR sustainability essay prize. Maarten Zwiers has also written a book chapter on the meaning of wetlands and its connection with American Authoritarianism. It is open access and available here.
The full lecture was recorded and can be watched here.
See the official invitation here.
