Within the revitalization of Indigenous practice, Canada pursues action of truth and reconciliation in which Indigenous groups are activating their rights to govern themselves, maintain rights to their land, and share their perspective through a means of alternative approaches to economic development. As our world transforms into something bigger than ever before, economic expansion takes place; specifically, the proposed Embridge pipeline of gas and resource extraction that is allegedly to be placed along the coastal line of Hartley Bay, the traditional territory of the Gitga’at First Nations. It is valuable to share Gitga’at’s message with the public as an integral piece to pursuing truth and reconciliation; we must educate others and make them aware of the socio-economic situations at play that, at its best, could be an exercise of Indigenous rights and prosperity. Within our modern day of science and digital research, showing and respecting the prevalent knowledge of Indigenous communities, and making space for their perspective when it comes to pipeline implantation along traditional territories is an imperative and respectful step towards reconciliation; however, most people are not sure where to start with understanding the situation at play. This plan proposes a four-part blog series accompanied by a six-question likert scale to educate readers while simultaneously recording their actuality of learning.
AUDIENCE
This blog campaign will be targeted at various groups: Indigenous communities and activists, environmentalists and allies, and BC residents who are directly affected by potential pipeline traffic.The commonality between these people are they are ones whom are affected, and in turn, more likely to care about the potential invasion a pipeline will create through the currently untouched area of Hartley Bay, BC.
RESEARCH
In a modern day of science advancement, there are a wide variety of approaches to research regarding land and habitat. Through colonization and the segregation of Indigenous people, clean water and land reclamation have been at the forefront of inflicted battles on Indigenous communities. Battles of water conservation and land reclamation attempt to preserve and restore sacred Indigenous land and culture. This pursuit is one of human rights that heavily relates to a reclaimed role of land stewardship among the territories western society attempts to control and change for the endeavours of our capitalistic reality. In 2015, The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada conducted and published research that amounted to 94 Calls To Action in which the document clearly states we must acknowledge ancestral land and stewardship responsibilities and co-management authority of territory. This means listening and implementing Indigenous ways, teachings, preservation, and reclamation tactics.
According to Water First of 2021, 13.5% of First Nations communities live under boil water advisories due to land treaties and lack of attention from respected governments. Communities who face hardship as a result of poor land use planning and land utilization are stakeholders within the initiative to halt Enbridge pipelines; this decision reinforces the opportunity to reclaim and take care of sacred Earth elements such as water and habitat that affect Indigenous communities ability to prosper in more ways than one.
In addition to resources, proximity plays largely in Indigenous communities concerned with the situation at hand. In 2020, NPO conducted research concluding that Indigenous settlements cumulatively occupy over 55 million acres of land and 57 million acres of subsurface mineral estates. Within these lands come all encompassing resources that some now recognize as an entity untouched and/or sawed after by many corporations for resource benefit or extraction in the name of economic development. NPO reports “nearly 30 percent of the nation’s coal reserves west of the Mississippi, as much as 50 percent of potential uranium reserves, and up to 20 percent of known natural gas and oil reserves.” This translates to Indigenous people occupying land that stretches over 15 million acres of potential energy and mineral resources, with 90% of these areas being untouched. These numbers confirm that untouched lands of Indigenous people, inevitably filled with resources, double as sacred biomes that fuel Indigneous ecosystems, culture, and sacred protected habitats of Indigenous species. This creates a special debate between Indigenous land stewards and extraction companies across the globe.
SPOKESPEOPLE
Modern say research values scholarly perspective that is placed within the academic world; whereas Indigenous knowledge values oral storytelling and places great emphasis on ancestral respect, land relationality, and passing down of culture through family, with a main and focused listening respect of elders. Attempting to combine the two, this blog will rely on two different approaches; it will highlight and follow a Cetacea Lab researcher, but it will also incorporate local First Nations perspective of Killer Whale Clan Matriarch of Gitga’at First Nation. This combined delivery approaches our communication in a hybrid realm of academic and holistic approaches, in which we leave space for oral teaching and land based research that tends to favour preservation and land, as opposed to money and numbers.
CONTENT
The campaign is designed to instill a caring awareness into Indigenous communities and activists, environmentalists, activists, and Hartley Bay residents who, whether physically or figuratively, are affected by pipeline expansion in BC. Within the dark realities of colonization, land rights and dispossession remain to be a poignant topic of our country. Through Indigenous resilience and expanded access to education, Indiegnous voice and perspective, sobeit always present and necessary, are now finally taking its place with mainstream media and news, gaining well deserved traction on various Indigenous political, socio-economic debates. As Canadians, with time bred by privilege, we have begun to understand and study the truly violent history of our country, and the contingencies it has to the harm within Indigenous groups. Through extreme injustice comes resilience, sovereignty, and allyship; therefore, we can start to see a rise in groups who attempt to protect and pursue reconciliation through meaningful action.
CALENDAR
This blog will submit to the National calendar in an attempt to gain relevant traction and remain parallel with society’s ability to intake and care for this information. Monthly posts will take place from June – September; the first post will aim at the beginning of summer, after individuals are starting to feel closer to the land and rely more on being outside. This doubles with National Indigenous Peoples Day (shared with Summer Solstice) on June 21 of every year.
Data should be collected after each blog post to gauge three important attributes: numbers/levels of reader engagement, the level of learning accomplished by the reader, and the ways (or lack thereof) the reader’s thoughts have changed after the read. This will be measured on a simple six question likert scale at the end of every post.
The final blog will be released near the end of Summer, as it makes its inevitable connection to National Truth and Reconciliation day which is on September 30 of every year.
CONCLUSION
This four-part blog series intends to educate communities on land based research approaches, economic land use and resource extraction plans, and reconciliation relational strategies that better define intention and process of further pipeline projects.