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She understood, then, the nature of the force that was drawing her north She did not arrive until spring and even then was caught by surprise It was early , the forest air thick with mist The sea, far below, at the base of a tall cliff, was heavy and dark In the dense shade of trees, she was cresting a rise when all of a sudden a feeling of co that it froze her in her tracks She ascended the rest of the way and e with a view of the ocean, and there her heart seemed to stop

The field was carpeted with the most lustrous shoildflowers she had ever seen--flowers by the hundreds, the thousands, the millions Purple irises White lilies Pink daisies Yellow buttercups and red columbines and many others she knew no nah the clouds She shrugged off her pack and walked slowly forward It was as if she ading into a sea of pure color The tips of her fingers brushed the petals of the flowers as she passed They see her into their e theolden sunshine fell over the field; far away, across the sea, a new age had begun

Here she would arden, and wait

90

Third Global Conference on the North American Quarantine Period

Center for the Study of Human Cultures and Conflicts

University of New South Wales, Indo-Australian Republic

April 16–21, 1003 AV

Transcript: Plenary Session 1

Welcoan Miles

Professor and Chair of Millennial Studies, University of New South Wales, and Director of the Chancellor’s Task Force on North A and welcoues and valued friends in the audience today We have a busy schedule, and I know everyone is eager to get started with the presentations, so I will keep these opening reether researchers from every settled territory, in virtually every field of study A our numbers, we count scholars in disciplines as various as huy, syste, epideious studies, philosophy--and on and on We are a diverse group, with a range of ies and interests But we are united by a common purpose, one that runs far deeper than any specific field of study It is board for innovative scholarly collaboration but also as an occasion for reflection--the opportunity for all of us, individually and collectively, to consider the broader, humanistic questions that lie at the heart of the North American Quarantine and its history This is especially important now, as we pass the millennial mark and the project of North American reclamation, under the authority of the Trans-Pacific Council and the Brisbane Accord, o, human history very nearly came to an end The viral pandemic we know as the Great Catastrophe killed over seven billion people and brought hu us would assert that this event was an arbitrary occurrence--nature’s way of shuffling the deck Every species, no reater than itself, and it was simply our turn Others have postulated that the wound was self-inflicted, the consequence of ical systems that sustained our existence We ht back

Yet there arethem--who look at the history of the Great Catastrophe and see not ance and death, but also one of hope and rebirth How and where the virus originated is a door that science has yet to unlock Where did it come from? Why did it vanish fro? We may never know the answers, and in the last instance, I pray we never do What is known is that our species, against the greatest odds, endured On an isolated island in the South Pacific, a pocket of humanity survived, eventually to spread the seeds of a reborn civilization across the Southern Hee of huht with peril, and we have far to go History teaches us that there are no guarantees, and we ignore the lessons of the Great Catastrophe at our peril But the example of our forebears is no less instructive Our instinct for survival is indomitable; we are a species of unconquerable will and the capacity for hope And should that day coainst us, huo quietly