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Reconciliation and Relationality in Water Research and Management in Canada: Implementing Indigenous Ontologies, Epistemologies, and Methodologies

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Water Policy and Governance in Canada

Part of the book series: Global Issues in Water Policy ((GLOB,volume 17))

Abstract

Water-related issues disproportionately affect Indigenous communities in Canada. Despite millions in investment, Western-trained scientists, engineers, and other researchers as well as the government agencies that have constitutionally-mandated fiduciary responsibilities to address such issues have been rather unsuccessful in solving them. This has been due, in large part, to an overreliance on methods of Western science and management, ignoring the vast place-based wisdom of Indigenous knowledge systems and relational practices regarding water found across the country. The underlying reasons for this partiality are not innocuous; entrenched colonial and racist policies, programs, and practices have persisted across time and space. In recent years, there is increasing recognition of the importance of applying Indigenous approaches to water challenges in Canada. But strategies for successful implementation are only beginning to emerge. In an attempt to respond to this knowledge gap, our research has sought to systematically identify and assess how both Indigenous and Western ontologies, epistemologies, and methodologies have been implemented in water research and management. In doing so, this chapter identifies some of the most promising practices in Canada. We share these with the goal of contributing to processes of reconciliation and responsibility towards each other as well as our roles as water stewards across the country.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    We use the term ‘Indigenous’ to refer to and recognize the inherent rights of the original inhabitants of the land now known as Canada; the Canadian Constitution identifies three groups of Indigenous peoples collectively as ‘Aboriginal’: Indians (now commonly identified as First Nations ), Inuit, and Métis/Metis.

  2. 2.

    We use both ‘Métis’ and ‘Metis’ because (as per the National Aboriginal Health Organization) while the original ‘Métis’ is translated from French as ‘mixed blood’ and applied to the children of French fur traders and Cree women in the Prairies, of English and Scottish traders and Dene women in the North, and Inuit and British in Newfoundland and Labrador, many peoples and groups particularly from the North and western Canada have dropped the accent.

  3. 3.

    In Canada, the ‘Settler population’ refers to those non-Indigenous peoples whose ancestors, or themselves, have immigrated to Canada at any point over the past 500+ years and, through intentional or unwitting actions, have dispossessed Indigenous peoples from their land and now inhabit their territories.

  4. 4.

    Reserve communities are a product of the colonial system whereby the Settler government forcibly relocated many First Nations to small tracts of land (often not arable or populated with game or medicines), and colonial agents instituted a ‘pass’ system to control and regulate movement on and off reserve; the pass system is no longer at play but the legacy of regulation continues.

  5. 5.

    Integrative science is now often termed “Two-Eyed Seeing” (translated from Etuaptmumk), an Indigenous concept first articulated by Mi’kmaq Elder Albert Marshall in 2004. It is a call to the research community to see the strengths of Indigenous knowledge (one eye) on equal terms as Settler knowledge (one eye), and to learn how to use both (two eyes) to answer pressing research questions in more wholistic ways (Bartlett et al. 2012). The term has seen relatively rapid uptake in Indigenous health research since 2012 due in large part to the decision taken by the Candian Institutes of Health Research-Institute of Aboriginal Peoples’ Health to foster this concept by prioritizing projects for funding that show evidence of using this approach.

  6. 6.

    By original instructions, we refer to readers to, for example, the Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address for codes of behavior (e.g., http://www.naho.ca/documents/naho/publications/codeofBehaviour.pdf)

  7. 7.

    In fact, some institutions are making headway in this upstream battle. For example, Lakehead University is introducing a mandatory degree requirement that all undergraduate students must complete the equivalent of a ‘Half Course’ containing at least 50 % (approximately 18 h) of Indigenous knowledge and/or Indigenous content. The University of Winnipeg has also recently approved a requirement that all undergraduate students will be required to complete a course in Indigenous rights , traditions, histories, governance , and cultures. While this may not seem significant, it is a step in the right direction.

  8. 8.

    We also need to develop nuances around these distinctions in different Indigenous contexts; that is water rights and responsibilities are not generalizable across all First Nations , nor are they illustrative of the different relationships that Métis/Metis and Inuit have with water. Moreover, for example, gendered relationships with water play out differently in Inuit, First Nations Métis/Metis contexts, where some may have specific roles and responsibilities or spiritual relationships with water, others do not and instead see water for its pragmatic purposes: sanitation, travel, and sustenance.

  9. 9.

    The lead author doesn’t know many good jokes but she likes a good laugh, even at her own expense; the one joke she does know just so happens to have a water reference and made it in here (if the Editors don’t cut it). We hope you’ll tease her about it when you bump into her along the way. The authors would like to acknowledge the Canadian Water Network for its financial support in 2014-2015 for funding our research in this area. The authors would also like to gratefully acknowledge and thank all those who participated in interviews with our team, those who participated in either/both Water Gatherings, as well as the National Advisory Committee who steered us in good directions over the course of our study and our fantastic research assistants: Rob Stefanelli, Lindsay Day, and Kaitlin Lauridson. Finally, this chapter is an abridged version of a full-length report, which is available at www.heclab.com.

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Castleden, H., Hart, C., Cunsolo, A., Harper, S., Martin, D. (2017). Reconciliation and Relationality in Water Research and Management in Canada: Implementing Indigenous Ontologies, Epistemologies, and Methodologies. In: Renzetti, S., Dupont, D. (eds) Water Policy and Governance in Canada. Global Issues in Water Policy, vol 17. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-42806-2_5

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