Anti-Colonial Science: A Course Journal. Vol. 1, 2022. https://ojs.library.dal.ca/acs/

Mi’kmaq Knowledge and Conservation in the Fisheries Dispute of 2020

Kenzie MacIntosh

The village of Saulnierville is one of many in Nova Scotia that rely economically on the fishing season. Similar to my hometown, it is also the home and sacred land of Sipekne’katik First nations, a Mi’kmaq population who have lived there long before ‘fishing seasons’ were implemented for conservation reasons.1 Currently, this Nation does not wish to abide by conservation efforts, due to their existing use of traditional knowledge, or ‘netukulimk.’ This knowledge transmitted primarily through storytelling has taught Mi’kmaq people to respect the land they live on. From the colonial perspective, a viewpoint that I was unknowingly a part of, oral traditional knowledge holds no merit in the world of ‘science’. In this essay, I will attempt to demonstrate how the combination of ignorance of Indigenous oral knowledge and inaccurate narratives of Indigenous people has led to a false understanding of Mi’kmaq fisher people and their forms of resource management through netukulimk in Saulnierville, Nova Scotia. Through centuries of storytelling and oral knowledge, it is shown that Indigenous populations hold respect for the land they live on. Through centuries colonialism, a different, ignorant story of Indigeneity is painted by non-Indigenous settlers.

I will begin this essay by clearly highlighting the difference between conservation for Canadians as a nation and netukulimk for the Mi’kmaq as a separate nation within Canada. Distantly related to the concept of conservation, netukulimk is more accurately summed up as ‘take what you need’.2 Conservation efforts in Saulnierville require the quantitative assessment of fish and other depleted resources.3 This is not how Mi’kmaq traditionally practice netukulimk. Despite this, many non-Indigenous settlers in Saulnierville do not view netukulimk as a valid form of conservation, and therefor Mi’kmaq fisher people are interpreted as greedy or selfish for wanting to ignore fishing season regulations. Through Cameron,4 and Maracle’s 5 writings on Indigeneity, I was able to understand the present-day issue in Saulnierville as a continuation of the year’s long appropriation and ignorance of Indigenous oral knowledge and stories in favour of colonial methods and narratives. The main difference that I interpret between the colonial concept of conservation and the Mi’kmaq concept of netukulimk is that the former revolves around repairing damages done by colonial development endeavours such as fossil fuel extraction, the felling of trees, and specifically in Saulnierville, overfishing. The latter consists of thousands of years of traditional Mi’kmaq knowledge passed down orally through generations of storytelling.6

An example of this knowledge and its invalidity in the colonial world is demonstrated by Maracle when explains the instance of Indigenous groups having to purchase their original medicines or methods of healing in pharmacies or stores, having been stolen by settlers and then sold for profit. In her work, Maracle shows many examples of the ‘appropriation’ of Indigenous knowledge. This work helped me to understand how Indigenous people have not only lost control of their land through colonization, but also of their stories, narratives, and much of their knowledge.7 It is through Lee Maracles work that I was able to comprehend how this continues to affect the Mi’kmaq fisher people and how they are interpreted in Saulnierville. This paradox of the colonial sciences disregarding Indigenous oral traditions and yet stealing the knowledge they hold them can only be explained by the word ‘colonization.’

As highlighted by both Maracle and Cameron, a core value of Indigeneity is seen through storytelling or ‘oral knowledge’. Storytelling has been used very different from the colonial perspective, and in Cameron’s piece, it is used as a method of colonization and control over Indigenous people. It isn’t until reading Emelie Cameron’s piece on Copper discovery that I realized how many stories that I take to be the truth could have been reframed in favour of colonizers and settlers. In Cameron’s work, she tells the story of an Inuit group’s hunt for copper being retold by a settler. The Indigenous knowledge in this instance was ignored and then appropriated, and they as a population were depicted falsely.8 For the Sipekne’katik people of Saulnierville, the narrative or ‘story’ told by settler fishermen depict the Mi’kmaq to be greedy and anti-conservationist because they do not want to abide by fishing season regulations.9

Furthermore, Cameron discusses how the arctic is shaped by the history of imperialism and colonialism, and the hunt for resources and power, similarly to Saulnierville. Cameron’s writing helped me understand how territory and land can be seen through a colonial perspective due to these interventions, past and present. The arctic is also shaped by indigenous political movements, says Cameron.10 I have seen throughout my research that the Mi'kmaq people of Saulnierville have not abided by conservation laws or 'fishing season,' instead resisting, and therefor shaping Saulniervile further through political movements.11

If I look at the issue of conservation in a colonial context, the urgent need to conserve depleted fishery resources is very prevalent today. That being said, when viewed from a Mi’kmaq perspective, the issue of depleted resources is both not their fault, and not their problem. This has led me to believe that they should not be held to the standard of ‘conservation’ that settlers should. This is also because I know not to accept the current narrative that is being told by the white fisher people of Saulnierville, as many of my ancestors accepted narratives told by settlers before, such as in Cameron’s work.

The constant ‘story’ that colonial scientific methods of conservation are the only way to fix the depleting fish resources shows the unwillingness to understand Indigeneity; the unwillingness to validate their stories and oral knowledge; the unwillingness to accept Mi’kmaq people as a nation within what is now known as Canada. Non-Indigenous Canadians have been allowed to tell their stories of conservation and colonization the way they want, why can’t Mi’kmaq people tell their stories of netukulimk? Lee Maracle and Emelie Cameron showed me how important stories are presently and in the history of colonization, for both settlers and Indigenous populations, but for two very different reasons.

Bibliography

Cooke, Alex. “Mi’kmaw fishermen launch self-regulated fishery in Saulnierville”,CBC.ca. CBC News. (September 17th 2020), https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/mikmaw-fishermen-self-regulated-fishery-lower-saulnierville-1.5727920

Denny, Shelley and Fanning, Lucia. “A Mi’kmaw Perspective on Advancing Salmon Governance in Nova Scotia, Canada: Setting the Stage for Collaborative Co-existence”, The International Indigenous Policy Journal 7, no. 3 (2016): pp. 1-25

Cameron, Emilie. “Copper Stories: Imaginative Geographies and Material Orderings of the Central Canadian Arctic.” In Rethinking the Great White North: Race, Nature and the Historical Geographies of Whiteness in Canada, edited by A. Baldwin, L. Cameron, and A. Kobayashi, 169–190. Vancouver: UBC Press, 2011.

Maracle, Lee. My Conversations with Canadians, Toronto: BookThug (2017): pp. 99-123

Endnotes

  1. Alex Cooke. “Mi’kmaw fishermen launch self-regulated fishery in Saulnierville”,CBC.ca. CBC News. (September 17th 2020), https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/mikmaw-fishermen-self-regulated-fishery-lower-saulnierville-1.5727920↩︎

  2. Shelley Denny and Lucia Fanning. “A Mi’kmaw Perspective on Advancing Salmon Governance in Nova Scotia, Canada: Setting the Stage for Collaborative Co-existence”, The International Indigenous Policy Journal 7, no. 3 (2016): pp.1-25↩︎

  3. Denny and Fanning, “A Mi’kmaw Perspective on Advancing Salmon Governance in Nova Scotia, Canada,” pp.1-25↩︎

  4. Cameron, Emilie. “Copper Stories: Imaginative Geographies and Material Orderings of the Central Canadian Arctic.” In Rethinking the Great White North: Race, Nature and the Historical Geographies of Whiteness in Canada, edited by A. Baldwin, L. Cameron, and A. Kobayashi, 169–190. Vancouver: UBC Press, (2011).↩︎

  5. Lee Maracle, My Conversations with Canadians, Toronto: BookThug (2017): pp. 99-123↩︎

  6. Emilie Cameron. “Copper Stories”, pp. 169-190↩︎

  7. Lee Maracle, “My Conversations with Canadians”, pp. 99-123↩︎

  8. Emilie Cameron. “Copper Stories”, pp. 169-190↩︎

  9. Alex Cooke. “Mi’kmaw fishermen launch self-regulated fishery in Saulnierville.”↩︎

  10. Emilie Cameron. “Copper Stories”, pp. 169-190↩︎

  11. Alex Cooke. “Mi’kmaw fishermen launch self-regulated fishery in Saulnierville.”↩︎

Copyright (c) 2022 Kenzie Siobhan MacIntosh

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