Importance of coastal restoration for preserving Louisiana's culture
Kerry St. Pé by Susan Testroet-Bergeron, 2012; 4700.2567
TEMPESTS: Storms in the Archives
Kerry St. Pé: It's the wetlands that make our people what they are. It's really all about the people. It's the wetlands that are responsible for forging the culture that we have. We're all bayou people, we're all marsh people, we're all wetlands people. We have this rich mixture of cultures intertwined and that's the thing that makes this place unique, and it's because of the wetlands. That's why people come here and that's why people like to stay. So it's all about the wetlands. The wetlands are us and we are the wetlands and that's why it's so important to save it.
There's a long list of things we could use if we weren't restored, a long list of fisheries products: oysters, crabs, shrimp. But most importantly we'd lose the culture. There's no culture like Southeast Louisiana. I mean, people like to come here for a reason. It's different ecologically. We live at the end of one of the world's great rivers so it would follow that we would be different ecologically but we're different culturally also. And that's what I fear most, we lose this culture.
So, we need to restore it for the culture, for the people.