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How do Indigenous communities in Canada balance the development needs of a growing population while maintaining cultural commitments and responsibilities as stewards of their lands and waters? Caring for Eeyou Istchee recounts the extraordinary experience of the James Bay Cree community of Wemindji, Quebec, who partnered with a multi-disciplinary research team to protect territory of great cultural significance in ways that respect community needs and circumstances. Caring for Eeyou Istchee tackles fundamental questions: What is "environmental protection"? What should be protected? What factors inform community goals? How does the natural and cultural history of an area inform protected area design? How can the authority and autonomy of Indigenous institutions of land and sea stewardship – and the knowledge integral to them – be respected and reinforced? In answering these questions, Indigenous and non-Indigenous contributors present a comprehensive account of one of the world's most dynamic coastal environments. In so doing, they address a multiplicity of ways in which the Cree people and their territories are deeply intertwined, the complex trans-institutional processes and policies that they navigate, and the potential of protected area creation to build upon and to support Indigenous stewardship, biological conservation, and cultural heritage.
Caring for Eeyou Istchee will appeal to those working in or studying environmental protection and protected areas, Indigenous self-determination and governance, northern development, and the ecology of Subarctic and Arctic regions.
Foreword / Stan Stevens
Preface
Introduction / Rodney Mark, Monica E. Mulrennan, Katherine Scott, and Colin H. Scott
Part 1: Context
1 Protected Area Development in Northern Canadian Indigenous Contexts / Monica E. Mulrennan and Fikret Berkes
2 The Politics of Traditional Ecological Knowledge in Environmental Protection / Wren Nasr and Colin H. Scott
3 A Balancing Act: Mining and Protected Areas on Wemindji Territory / Ugo Lapointe and Colin H. Scott
4 Collecting Scientific Knowledge: an Historical Perspective on Eastern James Bay Research / Katherine Scott
Part 2: What to Protect
5 Shoreline Displacement and Human Adaptation in Eastern James Bay: A 6,000-year Perspective / Florin Pendea, Andre Costopoulos, Gail Chmura , Colin D. Wren, Jennifer Bracewell, Samuel Vaneeckhout, Jari Okkonen, Eva Hulse, and Dustin Keeler
6 Patterns on the Land: Paakumshumwaau through the Lens of Natural History / James W. Fyles, Grant Ingram, Greg Mikkelson, Florin Pendea, Katherine Scott, and Kristen Whitbeck
7 The Mammals of Wemindji: in Time, Space, and Ways of Knowing / Murray M. Humphries, Jason Samson, and Heather E. Milligan
8 Coastal Goose Hunt of the Wemindji Cree: Adaptations to Social and Ecological Change / Claude Péloquin and Fikret Berkes
9 Coastal Landscape Modifications by Cree Hunters / Jesse S. Sayles and Monica E. Mulrennan
10 Aa-wiichaautuwiihkw: Cultural Connections and Continuities along the Wemindji Coast / Véronique Bussières, Monica E. Mulrennan, and Dorothy Stewart
Part 3: How to Protect
11 Wemindji Cree Relations with the Government of Quebec in Creating the Paakumshumwaau-Maatuskaau Biodiversity Reserve / Julie Hébert, François Brassard, Ugo Lapointe, and Colin H. Scott
12 A Responsibility to Protect and Restore: Advancing the Tawich (Marine) Conservation Area / Monica E. Mulrennan and Colin H. Scott
Conclusion / Monica E. Mulrennan, Katherine Scott, and Colin H. Scott
Index
Monica E. Mulrennan is a geographer and associate vice-president of research, at Concordia University. She works closely with Indigenous coastal communities on topics related to Indigenous knowledge, stewardship, and conservation. Colin H. Scott is an anthropologist at McGill University. He directs the Centre for Indigenous Conservation and Development Alternatives and the Indigenous Stewardship of Environment and Alternative Development research program. Katherine Scott is a PhD candidate in the Department of Anthropology at McGill University. She is a heritage research coordinator in the Cree Nation of Wemindji’s Department of Culture and Wellness.
Contributors:
- Fikret Berkes
- Jennifer Bracewell
- François Brassard
- Véronique Bussières
- Gail Chmura
- Andre Costopoulos
- James W. Fyles
- Julie Hébert
- Eva Hulse
- Murray M. Humphries
- Grant Ingram
- Dustin Keeler
- Ugo Lapointe
- Rodney Mark
- Greg Mikkelson
- Heather E. Milligan
- Wren Nasr
- Jari Okkonen
- Claude Péloquin
- Florin Pendea
- Jason Samson
- Jesse S. Sayles
- Dorothy Stewart
- Samuel Vaneeckhout
- Kristen Whitbeck
- Colin D. Wren
"This book expertly details what nature bureaucrats call a 'new protected area paradigm,' according to which lands are 'governed by and with Indigenous people,' promoting 'respect for [their] knowledge, values, collective tenure, stewardship, [...] and management of biodiversity"
– B. E. Johansen, Choice
"Caring for Eeyou Istchee is an urgently needed book. It contributes to protected area establishment, Indigenous co-governance, and northern ecology, while responding to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's report and recommendations. Indigenous resurgence in Canada is demanding more from non-Indigenous allies; this offers a very timely example of good allyship in practice."
– Douglas Clark, Centennial Chair in Human Dimensions of Environment and Sustainability and associate professor, School of Environment and Sustainability, University of Saskatchewan
"More and more, scientific researchers and Indigenous communities are joining forces to search for answers to the environmental concerns of today. Told through the perspective of culture and community, this book offers an account of one of those partnerships and the land they were able to protect. A must-read for sure!"
– Sammy Blackned, Wemindji Iiyiyuu, Cree Nation of Wemindji, Eeyou Istchee
