Traditional Ecological Knowledge
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2LsHHSDiWg
An excellent YouTube video on Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK). TEK promotes an Indigenous approach to environmental stewardship. It is the teachings of Elders as taught to them by their ancestors that is TEK. European settlers dictated how land was to be treated after their arrival. The TEK movement is to move towards a more ecologically friendly method of land usage.
On my drive to work today, I was listening to a professor, Dr. Judith Sayers of the University of Victoria and her take on the latest proposal by the Canadian federal government related to expanding reserve lands, regardless of their location. To hear her full interview (8:21 in length) click here.
Historically, reserve lands could be expanded on, but expansion was limited to lands neighbouring the reserve area. This proposal will potentially see other lands, separate from First Nation reserve lands, subject to sale to become incorporated into First Nations reserve and fall under First Nations jurisdiction. While this is an exciting development in regards to further steps of reconciliation, it has raised alarm bells and a flurry of questions. Municipalities are concerned over loss of tax revenue, policing, fire, city planning, and much more.
In my community, the First Nations population is the fastest growing demographic, and I think that such a proposal could result in wealthy First Nations tribes, such as Cowichan Tribes, regaining many lost territories which are not recognized as being their lands. With land being so integral to our indigenous peoples, it will be interesting to watch how society receives – how it welcomes or resists – such change to who controls lands.
Mel Burgess.
The past few weeks we have been reading many materials regarding the recognition and revitalization of the traditional ways of First Nations people. As I research materials for my course project, I came across this website from National Geographic regarding the Tar Sands of Alberta.
How are the Tar Sands related to the challenges faced by First Nations people? I think that the biggest challenge put in front of First Nations people is how cultures in Canada view land.
The predominant culture sees the land as a “resource” first. Land is meant to be extracted, refined, exported. Land drives economy, creates jobs, and puts Canada on the global map as a provider of raw materials.
First Nation groups see land as something radically different from this. It is part of their “self”. Land cannot be removed from the self. It is tied to each of us. It is tied to the air we breathe and the animals that roam over, squirm under, and fly over, its surface. It is part of their economy too. For the land provides that which they need to survive. It is revered and honoured in daily life. There are spoken codes of conduct of how one interacts with the land, and this conduct presents itself in the traditional stories passed down from one generation to the next. As Dr. Nancy Turner spoke of in last week’s podcast… “Most of the people that I have worked with have lived in their community their entire life and so have their family, and their family’s family, going back to the beginning of time. They are situated in a specific place. Their wisdom, stories, language, all sits in that place. A lot of this knowledge of plants, environments, and how to live their lives is situated in these places.”
Enter the indigenous peoples of Ft. McKay, a small community located at the very heart of the Tar Sands. The indigenous peoples of Ft. McKay are literally surrounded by the Tar Sands and have watched their land literally disappear from underneath them for the past 20 years. How will the First Nations people of Ft. McKay save what is left of their culture when huge corporations have invested billions into the extraction, purification, and exportation of those lands?
I believe it is a difference in perspective that is the biggest challenge facing indigenous peoples of North America.
Mel Burgess.