![]() ![]() It conveys “the need to treat animals with respect and to honour the sacrifices they have made” ( Young 2016, p. ![]() This is an excerpt from a Mi’kmaw or L’nu teaching story. In our paper, in alignment with the Mi’kmaw practice of caring for M’sɨt No’kmaq-all my relations, we hope to be “the eye, the ear and the voice” for the ones that cannot defend themselves, in human form, and remind ourselves what our true responsibilities are. Together, we listen and learn from each other through heart, mind, spirit, and body, in total reflection, with two eyes seeing and strong like two people, deepening our relationships through the exchange of stories. The remaining three co-authors are peace and friendship allies who also value the land, all peoples and their Treaty agreements and obligations. Their stories are woven throughout and also amplified in podcast form by co-author Jessica Hum, of Chinese/settler and First Nation descent, in Story-telling/Story-listening ( Hum 2020). Lisa Young’s keynote address for Transformative Politics of the Wild 2 inspired the title, “Awakening the sleeping giant” ( Supplementary Material 1). Other authors include Tłı̨chǫ citizen and young grandmother, Janet Rabesca, and two Mi’kmaw women-Sherry Pictou and shalan joudry. They come from the land of the people- Mi’kma’kik-in the east, Wabanaki, where the sun rises first. ![]() The stories of Mi’kmaw Elder Albert Marshall and Lisa Young form the backbone of this paper ( Supplementary Materials 1 and 2). Achieving the massive effort required for biodiversity conservation in Canada will entail transformations in worldviews and ways of thinking and bold, proactive actions, not solely as means but as ongoing imperatives. Although the principles derive primarily from a Mi’kmaw worldview, many are common to diverse Indigenous ways of knowing. This paper introduces Indigenous principles for re-Indigenizing conservation: ( i) embracing Indigenous worldviews of ecologies and M’sɨt No’kmaq, ( ii) learning from Indigenous languages of the land, ( iii) Natural laws and Netukulimk, ( iv) correct relationships, ( v) total reflection and truth, ( vi) Etuaptmumk-“two-eyed seeing,” and “strong like two people”, and ( vii) “story-telling/story-listening”. Key to both are systems that value people and nature in all their diversity and relationships. To work towards these aims requires significant transformation in conservation and re-Indigenization. Biodiversity conservation and resurgence of Indigenous autonomies are mutually compatible aims. Indigenous Peoples have stewarded the land in ways that support people and nature in respectful relationship. Despite these challenges, Indigenous-governed lands retain a large proportion of biodiversity-rich landscapes. Colonial systems have decimated species and ecosystems and dispossessed Indigenous Peoples of their rights, territories, and livelihoods. Precipitous declines in biodiversity threaten planetary boundaries, requiring transformative changes to conservation. ![]()
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