Forests & Oceans for the Future Discussion and News

For twenty plus years students have worked with me on collaborative projects within Laxyuup Gitxaała. Some have conducted research as part of ethnographic field schools (2006, 2007), others have worked as research interns with Gitxaała Nation, and others still have been research assistants working directly with me as research assistants and/or collaborators.  Providing student research opportunities is an expectation placed on faculty at research universities like UBC.

Under the collaborative research relationship with Gitxaała all research data collected is considered to belong to Gitxaała Nation, but the Forests and Oceans for the Future Research Group has been granted a license to publish results of our ongoing research.  Publications are reviewed by appropriate members of community leadership and/or community agencies.  Some of the students have produced final reports for internal community distribution, others have gone on to produce theses and some have published peer reviewed articles. This post is a summary of theses and peer-reviewed publications that have emerged from the past twenty-five years of collaborative research and highlights the work done by students.

Readers will note that most of the student researchers’ published peer reviewed articles are sole authored pieces by the students themselves (the exceptions reflect long term professional collaborations).   While acknowledging that the data belongs to Gitxaała Nation, it is important to ensure that the intellectual work of preparing reports, theses, and publishable articles of student authors is clearly recognized. Where the working relationship developed into one of professional colleagues in which we both come equally to the writing table then there is a trajectory of co-authorship.

For most of the students their involvement ended with the submission of a report to Gitxaała Nation. Their reports included any interviews or related data for use by Gitxaała as community leadership saw fit.  The data attached to those reports remained the intellectual property of Gitxaała Nation.  My own publications do not make use of or (usually) reference to the student reports. My objective has been to encourage the student authors to prepare their own materials for publication, as long as it has been reviewed by Gitxaała prior to publication.

One other technical point of note: UBC ethics requirements. Under the terms of UBC’s Behavioural Research Ethics Board (which follows the Tri-Council Policy on Research Ethics) research data must be held at UBC in a secure location for at least five years after the close of a research project. In addition, UBC considers the faculty member supervising student research (either in courses or for graduate study) to be the principal investigator (PI).  Sometimes students misunderstand this point. Being the PI of record doesn’t mean that the faculty member ‘owns’ the student’s work, it merely lays out legal obligations and responsibilities of the faculty member. Thus,  as a faculty member supervising student work I am legally responsible for the research practices of students under my supervision and have therefore a legal obligation to ensure, to the best of my ability, that proper ethical practices are followed.  This also means that I am obligated to store research data in a UBC facility for at least five years.  After five years I destroy what data may have been left with me.  Original copies of research data are held permanently by Gitxaała Nation in their research archives. Sometimes students also hold copies of research data, but for field school students Gitxaała expected them to return all materials to Gitxaała Nation at the close of their course when they handed in their final projects.

Research Reports that Became Theses

Developing out of two ethnographic field schools (2006, 2007) and a host of research internships have come a strong collection of MA Theses, listed here in reverse chronological order.

• • Katrin Schmid. 2020. Being Thorough: Cumulative Effects in Resurgent Gitxaała. [research internship]
  • Ada Parkhurst Smith. 2018. Toward Decolonizing Food Literacy Education Co-Creating Curriculum at Lach Klan School with Gitxaała Nation. [research internship]
  • Marie-Elise Laforest. 2017. Gitxaała sovereignty: indigenous governance and industrial development. [research internship]
  • Danielle Gendron. 2016. Eating Gitxaała, being Gitxaała: food and cultural security. [research internship].
  • Naomi H Smethurst. 2014. Inscribed on the landscape: stories of stone traps and fishing in Laxyuup Gitxaała [research assistant and graduate research]
  • Lauren Sacha Rodman. 2013. Spinning wind into power: industry and energy in Gitxaała Nation, British Columbia. [research internship]
  • Jonathon William Irons. 2012 (David Pokotylo, Primary supervisor). Ethnographic perspectives on Laxyuup Gitxaała. [research assistant and graduate research]
  • Morgan Elizabeth Moffit. 2012. Gitxaała marine use planning: making indigenous jurisdiction in contemporary aboriginal-state relations. [research internship]
  • Jennifer Wolowic. 2008. Research tools or collaborative toys? cameras and participatory research with youth. [ethnographic field school student and graduate research]
  • Jessica Rogers. 2007. Reshaping Crown-First Nation relationships amid changing contexts: an examination of the intersection between the Crown’s promise of a New Relationship and the implementations of the Forest and Range Agreement. [ethnographic field school student and graduate research]
  • Robin Anderson. 2007. Diabetes in Gitxaała: colonization, assimilation, and economic change. [research internship]

Research Reports that Became Peer Reviewed Publications.

Each student in the two ethnographic field schools submitted a written report on their fieldwork to Gtixaała Nation (or, to their community partner if they weren’t working with Gitxaała). Some of these students turned their reports into peer reviewed publications.  Five students published reflections on fieldwork in a special section of the journal Collaborative Anthropologies: “Collaborative Service Learning and Anthropology with Gitxaała Nation.” 2011.  4:169-242.

• Solen Roth. “In and Then Out of Gitxaała, Becoming One of Its “Butterflies”
• Natalie Baloy.  “Getting the Story Right.”
• Robin Anderson. “Whose Field is it Anyway?”
• Jennifer Wolowic.  “See What Happens When You Give Us the Camera.”
• Oralia Gómez-Ramírez.  “Racial and Gender Politics in Service Learning.”

Several other students have published peer reviewed chapters or articles independently of the above project.

• Marina Lasalle. 2013. “‘Capital-C’ Consultation: Community, Capitalism and Colonialism.” New Proposals. Vol. 6(1-2).
• Oralia Gómez-Ramírez. 2016.  “Coping with Colonialism: Services for Aboriginal Women in Prince Rupert, British Columbia.” New Proposals. Vol. 8(1).
• Robin Anderson. 2016. “Gitxaała’s Own Food: Decolonizing Food Practices.” New Proposals. Vol. 8(1).
• Danielle Gendron. 2016.”Eating Gitxaała, Being Gitxaała: Food and Cultural Security.” New  Proposals. Vol. 8(1).

Miscellaneous Related Research Reports

Over the period of field research a number of research reports have been produced by students, associates, and contractors working within the Forests and Oceans for the Future reserach group.  Though these reports do not arise from specific fieldschool or internship projects they are relevant to the general corpus of materials produced through the collaborative project.

• • Iain Mckechnie. 2009. Archaeological Reserach in Southern Gitxaała Territory, Pitt and Banks Islands,August 2009
  • Kenzie Jesome. Lithics Analysis of Intertidal Lithics Scatter, South Pitt Island, 2010
  • Cora den Hartigh. 2015. Saltwater Ethnobotany.
  • Adam Huggins. 2017. Phytogeography of Hevenor Inlet on Pitt Island, BC

Research Associates and Assistants

Between 1997 and 2002 the provincial agency, Forest Renewal BC, funded a series of community-based reserach projects.  A range of different types of publications were produced which included curriculum materials for the K-12 school system and a special section of the Canadian Journal of Native Education.

In addition, Caroline Butler, PhD, ( formerly a UBC graduate student) and I produced a series of papers that started with the FRBC project but have continued since as our own collaborative relationship shifted from student/ research supervisor to colleagues and co-researchers. These papers are all based upon research conducted by Butler and Menzies in collaboration with Gitxaała community researchers.

• 2000.    Caroline Butler and Menzies. “Out of the Woods: Tsimshian Women and Forestry Work. Anthropology of Work Review. 21(2):12-17.
• 2001    Menzies and Caroline Butler. “Working in the Woods: Tsimshian Resource Workers and the Forest Industry of BC.” American Indian Quarterly. 25(3):409-430.
• 2006. Menzies and Caroline Butler. “Introduction: Understanding Ecological Knowledge.”   In Charles R. Menzies (ed). Traditional Level Ecological Knowledge and Natural Resource Management. 1-17. Lincoln, Nebraska: Nebraska University Press.
• 2007    Caroline Butler and Menzies. “Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Indigenous Tourism.” In R. W. Butler and T. Hinch (Eds). Tourism and Indigenous Peoples. Pp. 18-31. London: Elsevier.
• 2007.  Menzies and Caroline Butler. “Returning to Selective Fishing Through Indigenous Fisheries Knowledge: The Example of K’moda, Gitxaała Territory.” American Indian Quarterly 31(3):441-464.
• 2008.  Menzies and Caroline Butler. “The Indigenous Foundation of the Resource Economy of BC’s North Coast.” Labour/Le Travail 61:131-149.
• 2011.   Menzies and Caroline F. Butler.  “Collaborative Service Learning and Anthropology with Gitxaała Nation.” Collaborative Anthropologies 4:169-242.
• Caroline Butler, Linda Matson, and Menzies. “Newcomer Self-Provisioning on the North Coast of British Columbia. New Proposals.” Vol. 8(1).
• 2019. Menzies and Caroline Butler. “Redefining University Research Enterprises: partnership and collaboration in Laxyuup Gitxaała.” In Irene Bellier and Jennifer Hayes (eds). Scales of governance and Indigenous Peoples’ rights in a globalized world: New rights or same old wrongs? London: Routledge.
• 2021. Menzies, Charles R. and Caroline Butler. “Centering Community Knowledge in Resource Management Research.” BC Studies no. 209 (Spring 2021): 103-124.

Menzies’ own papers

Over this period I have also published papers that emerged out of my ongoing research with members of my family and community. Listed here are the most relevant ones.

• 2022. hagwil hayetsk  (Charles R. Menzies). “Grief, Extinction, and Bilhaa (Abalone).” In Valérie Bienvenue and Nicholas Chare (Eds). Animals, Plants, and Afterimages: The Art and Science of Representing Extinction.  New York / Oxford: Berghan Press.
• 2015. Charles R Menzies. “REVISITING “DM SIBILHAA’NM DA LAXYUUBM GITXAAŁA (PICKING ABALONE IN GITXAAŁA TERRITORY)”: Vindication, Appropriation, and Archaeology.” BC studies 187(Autumn):129-153.
• 2015. Charles R. Menzies. “In Our Grandmothers’ Garden: An Indigenous Approach to Collaborative Film.” In Aline Gubrium, Krista Harper, and Marty Otañez, (eds). Participatory Visual and Digital Research in Action.  Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Books.
• 2015. Charles R. Menzies.  “Oil, Energy, and Anthropological Collaboration on the Northwest Coast of Canada.” Journal of Anthropological Research. Vol. 71(1):5-21
• 2013. Charles R Menzies.  “Standing on the Shore with Saaban: an anthropological rapprochement with an Indigenous intellectual tradition.” Collaborative Anthropologies  6:171-199.
• 2012     Charles R. Menzies. “The Disturbed Environment.  The Indigenous Cultivation of Salmon.”  In Benedict J. Colombi and James F. Brooks (Eds.) Keystone nations: Indigenous Peoples and Salmon across the North Pacific. Santa Fe: School for Advanced Research. Pp. 161-182
• 2010. Charles R. Menzies. “Dm sibilhaa’nm da laxyuubm Gitxaała: Picking Abalone in Gitxaała Territory.”  Human Organization 69(3):213-220.
• 2006     Charles R. Menzies. “Ecological Knowledge, Subsistence, and Livelihood Practices:  The Case of the Pine Mushroom Harvest in Northwestern British Columbia.”  In Charles R. Menzies (ed). Traditional Level Ecological Knowledge and Natural Resource Management.  Pp. 87-104. Lincoln, Nebraska: Nebraska University Press
• 2004. Charles R. Menzies. “Putting Words into Action:  Negotiating Collaborative Research in Gitxaała.”  Canadian Journal of Native Education  27(3):15-32.
• 2001. Charles R. Menzies. “Reflections on Research With, For, and Among Indigenous Peoples.”  Canadian Journal of Native Education  25(1):19-36.