MY Eco Action

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The Impacts of the Alberta Oil Sands on Indigenous Subsistence Practices and Inflicted Cultural Harms

Introduction 

Northern Alberta has a number of Indigenous communities, consisting of Cree, Dene and Métis peoples. These communities are increasingly impacted by the expansion of and extraction from the Alberta oil sands within their traditional territories (Baker & Westman, 2018). First Nations in northern Alberta have Treaty rights, and part of these include the right to practice traditional subsistence activities, including hunting, trapping, fishing, and gathering (Westman & Joly, 2019). These Treaty rights are affirmed in s. 35 of the Constitution (Baker, 2018) and Métis rights, as Aboriginal people, are also Constitutionally protected (Westman & Joly, 2019). Yet many people from Indigenous communities in northern Alberta have argued that their ability to practice their rights to subsistence are being infringed upon by the oil sands industry through the loss of land and resources to industrial activities and through the contamination of wild foods and medicines by the oil sands industrial processes (Baker, 2018; Westman & Joly, 2019). This is significant, considering Baker’s (2018) ethnographic work, with the people from Chipewyan Lake, found that the majority of the community continue and prefer to eat wild foods, with some Elders having only consumed wild meat their entire lives. While the majority of research that examines the effects of the oil sands on Indigenous subsistence practices and wellbeing addresses access to land and resources and effects of pollutants on animals, plants, earth, air, and water, there is a deficiency of research which addresses the significant cultural harms caused when culturally significant foods and medicines are perceived to be unsafe due to the risk of contamination by the oil sands. 

Figure 1 Moose: An important source of wild meat

(Hagerty, n.d.)

Figure 2 Low bush cranberry: An important food and medicine

(Rønning, 2009)

Impact: Decreased Access to Land

Figure 3 Alberta oil sands mining map

(NormanEistein, 2006)

One way I believe the oil sands are impacting Indigenous subsistence practices is by physically occupying and expanding onto large tracts of land within their traditional territories. The oil sands have been named “the most destructive project on Earth,” with over 370 km2 of land strip-mined (Willow, 2016) and with toxic tailing ponds covering over 50 km2, which are visible from space (Huseman & Short, 2012). 

 Companies falsely conclude that the destruction of one particular habitat will not have a significant impact on traditional land users because there are other similar habitats within the Nation’s traditional territory. They fail to understand that certain familial groups hold harvesting rights to specific areas and when a family loses an area to development the entire family lineage loses rights and connection to that place. Oil sand companies also argue that the land can be restored, ‘reclaimed’, and even improved. Companies have self-reported the reclamation of 65 km2, yet the Alberta Government has only certified 0.15% of oil sand land as reclaimed. Of this reclaimed land, it is no longer the same, with stunted trees and no successful restoration of peatland (Baker & Westman, 2018). Also, Indigenous beliefs about extraction of oil from land are not taken into consideration, where a number of people Baker and Westman (2018) spoke with have stated that the land is no longer the same once it has changed, where it has “lost its spirit and is considered contaminated and untrustworthy” (p. 151). The extraction/ exploitation by oil companies is also seen as breaking the cycles of reciprocity humans have with the land and nonhumans (a form of negative reciprocity) (Baker, 2018).

 Furthermore, access to traditional land and resources has become increasingly challenging due to decreasing water levels in rivers, lakes and wetlands, caused by the water uptake necessary for oil sands extraction (Westman & Joly, 2019). Oil sands extraction requires three barrels of water to one barrel of oil, which is significantly more water needed than for the extraction of conventional oil (Huseman & Short, 2012). Waterways are how Indigenous Peoples access much of the land for subsistence in northern Alberta, and the dropping levels have made navigation more challenging and certain areas inaccessible by boat (Westman & Joly, 2019).

Impact: Contamination

Another way I think the oil sands are negatively impacting traditional subsistence practices is because people fear that water and air, as well as wild foods and medicines, have been contaminated by industrial processes, and so they perceive water, foods and medicines as unsafe to consume. Indigenous community members have observed changes to the water and air quality since oil industry development. Elder Elsie Fabian, who lives along the Athabasca River, described how the air is bad now, the water is brown when it used to be blue, and now no one can fish or drink from it (Huseman & Short, 2012). Fort McKay First Nations have frequently complained  of the smell of sulphur and ammonia in the air (Westman & Joly, 2019). Ethnographic work has also revealed that community members from Bigstone Cree Nation and Fort McKay have observed changes in the animals and plants, including moose that are green inside and that have cysts and/or many parasites; fish with ulcers, growths, and/or deformed faces; beavers also green inside and with thin fur; birds covered in oil; and important food and medicine plants, such as berries and mint, dried up and dusty, and being perceived to have lost their medicinal power (Baker, 2018). Elders have often expressed concern for the wellbeing of these medicinal plants, recognizing them as “a portal to the spirit world and healing” (Baker & Westman, 2018, p. 151). As well, Elder Albert Yellowknee of Bigstone Cree Nation talked about the significance of this contamination on culture, where “when you kill the land, you contaminate culture, language, spirit of the people. When you lose both, it’s completely gone” (Baker, 2018, p. 39). 

This perception of contamination is backed by evidence from scientific research and literature. Studies have shown that the oil sand industry’s extraction and processing releases carcinogens and other toxic pollutants (i.e., polycyclic aromatic compounds & heavy metals) in the ground, water and atmosphere, which are harmful to the ecosystem. The toxins from leaking tailing ponds have been linked to increased hormone levels and tumor growth in fish. The odours of sulphur and ammonia, in communities close to oil sand sites, have been found in the air exceeding odour and health thresholds defined by the government, and carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic compounds and aerosol emissions have been detected in the air from evaporating tailing ponds and upgrading facilities (Westman & Joly, 2019). 

Figure 4 Contamination by oil sands industrial activities

(Howl Art Collective, 2008)

Conclusion

It is because of the significant expansion of the oil sands resulting in limited access to land, which contain foods and medicines, and also because the foods and medicines people are able to access are often perceived to be unsafe to consume due to contamination, that I believe that the Alberta oil sands are having serious consequences for Indigenous traditional subsistence practices and are causing detrimental cultural harm to the Indigenous nations who live on their traditional territories which contain these oil sands. Some implications of these impacts may be that communities who have traditionally relied on wild foods might end up choosing to eat western foods because they are perceived to be safer, yet a shift to a western diet has been linked to an increased risk of high blood pressure, CVD, diabetes, and obesity (National Collaborative Centre for Aboriginal Health, 2012). Furthermore, Indigenous Peoples who no longer have access to their traditional land to hunt, fish, gather, and to visit important cultural and spiritual places, may not be able to maintain and transmit important traditional knowledge to the next generation (Westman & Joly, 2019), which may jeopardize their self-determination, language, and cultural identity (Huseman & Short, 2012). As Albert says “when you destroy the berry patch, you destroy the roots of the four-leggeds [animals], birds, culture and people” (Baker, 2018, p. 40). In the future, I think more research needs to be done examining this topic, as I only found one dissertation with ethnographic work about this specific topic by Janelle Baker. I think it would be particularly valuable if research examined Dene and Métis people’s experiences of the impacts of the Alberta oil sands, where the research thus far has focused mainly on Cree communities’ experiences.

References

Baker, J. M. (2018). Eating in the oil sands: sâkawiyiniwak (Northern Bush Cree) experiences with wild food contamination in Alberta’s oil sands (Doctoral thesis, McGill University, Montréal, Québec). https://escholarship.mcgill.ca/concern/theses/qv33rz827

Baker, J. M., & Westman, C. N. (2018). Extracting knowledge: Social science, environmental impact assessment, and Indigenous consultation in the oil sands of Alberta, Canada. The Extractive Industries and Society, 5(1), 144 -153. doi.org/10.1016/j.exis.2017.12.008

Huseman, J. & Short, D. (2012). ‘A slow industrial genocide’: Tar sands and the Indigenous  Peoples of northern Alberta. The International Journal of Human Rights, 16(1), 216-237. dx.doi.org/10.1080/13642987.2011.649593

National Collaborative Centre for Aboriginal Health. (2012). State of knowledge of Aboriginal health: A review of Aboriginal public health in Canada . https://www.nccih.ca/495/State_of_knowledge_of_Aboriginal_health__A_review_of_Aboriginal_public_health_in_Canada.nccih?id=52 

Westman, C. N, & Joly, T. L. (2019). Oil sands extraction in Alberta, Canada: A review of impacts and processes concerning Indigenous Peoples. Human Ecology, 47(2), 233-243. doi.org/10.1007/s10745-019-0059-6

Willow, A. J. (2016). Indigenous extrACTIVISM in boreal Canada: Colonial legacies, contemporary struggle and sovereign futures. Humanities (Basel), 5(3), 55. doi:10.3390/h5030055

Images

Hagerty, R. (n.d.). A bull moose animal mammal [Photograph]. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A_bull_moose_animal_mammal.jpg

Howl Art Collective. (2008). Tar sands in Alberta 2008 [Photograph] .Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tar_sands_in_alberta_2008.jpg

NormanEistein. (2006). Athabasca oil sand mining map [Digital image Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Athabasca_Oil_Sands_map.png

Rønning, A. (2009). Vaccinium vitis-idaea 09 [Photograph]. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vaccinium_vitis-idaea_09.JPG

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Métis Peoples & the Buffalo

For this post I will be discussing Métis people and the significance of the buffalo to us as a culture and as a Nation. I will first give a bit of background on who the Métis people are. Then, I will discuss why the buffalo were historically a central part of Métis culture, identity and way of life in the 1700s to 1800s. A part of this history is the incredible buffalo hunts that the Métis came together for, in a highly chaotic, yet organized fashion, for such freedom loving people, in order to sustain their families, as well as for trade and income. I will also touch on a darker part of history, where the magnificent buffalo herds of Turtle Island were almost driven to extinction in the late 1800s, of which the Métis may have played an unfortunate part in, along with other forces at play during that time. I will then discuss how the buffalo hunt, although a thing of the past, still has relevance to contemporary Métis people, particularly regarding our political tradition, and I will consider how Métis peoples historical relationship with buffalo has implications for the future of the Métis Nation, including Métis wellness and self-determination.

Who are the Métis?

The Métis people are descendants of plains First Nations women and European fur traders who had country marriages and began families (Kodiack, 2020b), in the 16 and 1700s (Métis Nation of Ontario, n.d.) Over several generations a distinct culture emerged from these unions, where the Métis have a unique culture, a distinct ancestral language, Michif, an extensive network of kin, and a shared history, political tradition and way of life (Gaudry, 2019). They had many lifestyles in the 17 & 1800s, including as hunters, trappers, gathers, traders, farmers, translators or clerks. Education opportunities varied, depending on peoples’ access to money and land. A shift from trading to a mixed lifestyle was more common as permanent Métis communities formed across Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta in the 1800s (Kodiak, 2020b). The Métis were known as entrepreneurs, ‘self-made” people, who were independent of clan or kinship obligations to European and First Nations groups. Some Michif traders did very well for themselves and were known as ‘Rich Men’. The Métis valued liberty, equality and democracy (Teillet, 2019). The Cree would call them Otipemisiwak (oh-ti-pi-miss-i-wak), which means the “people who own themselves” or “those who rule and command themselves” (Kodiak, 2020).

(Image: https://www.canadiangeographic.ca/article/toward-metis-homeland)

History of the Métis, Buffalo, and Buffalo Hunt

The buffalo is central to the formation of Métis culture and nationhood, where buffalo herds brought thousands of descendants of the First Nations women and European fur traders together in the 1700s & 1800s, to work towards a common goal, to hunt buffalo for food and the meat was also used as form of currency to be traded for other important things, including trade goods, other food, land and education. Métis buffalo hunters brought in a reliable, steady source of nutritious food, which was an important source of food security in the Red River, where crops often failed. They also made far more money than one could farming (Teillet, 2019). 

Many Métis preferred the lifestyle of living “entirely by they chase,” with the wind in their face and with the constant change that following the herds across the plains for 100s of miles brought, rather than by the “monotonous toil of the settlers.” There were summer, fall and winter hunts. Whole families went along on these hunting expeditions, because everyone was needed, where the men were responsible for the hunt and the women played an important role in pemmican making, and later in the production of Buffalo robes (Teillet, 2019). 

(Image: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%A9tis_buffalo_hunt#/media/File:PaulKane-BuffaloHunt-ROM.jpg)

Here is a poem by Marilyn Dumont about how to make pemmican:

How to Make Pemmican

Kill one 1800lb. Buffalo 

Gut it

Skin it

Butcher it

Slice the meat in long strips for drying

Construct drying tripods and racks for 1000lbs. Of wet meat

Dry it while staving of predators for days

Strip from drying racks and lay on tarps for pounding

Round 1000 lbs. of dry meat

Mix with several pounds of dried berries, picked previously 

And rendered suet

Cut buffalo hides in quarters

Fill with hot dried meat, berry and suet mixture

Sew quarter-hide portions together with sinew

Bury in a cache for later mmmh.

(Dumont, 2015)

While the buffalo hunt had the very practical purpose of obtaining meat and trade supplies, it was also a time where the Métis were able to sing, laugh, dance, gossip, joke and fight. It was a pretty loud affair, not to mention over the shrieks made by their signature Red River carts (Teillet, 2019).

Cuthbert Grant, the Buffalo Hunt & its Significance for Future Métis Governance

After 1816, Cuthbert Grant brought together the Métis in a way where you could say that “the buffalo hunt began in earnest” and grew into the legendary Métis buffalo hunts. He was able to somewhat tame a freedom loving and wild group of people. He managed to create an environment where their freedom and pride was honoured, while they also learned to work together as a unit. Grant developed democratic rules of the hunt, and a chain of command, from the chief captain of the hunt to ten captains below, as well as to scouts and camp guards (Teillet, 2019). When over a 1000 people could be participating in a single hunt, it required rules to make it work, including things like no stealing, swearing or hunting on Sundays. Once these rules were well established among the Métis, it was possible to apply them to other important matters of survival. This is why this institutional structure of the hunt was an early form of Métis governance (Cram, 2020).

(Image: http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/grant_cuthbert_1854_8E.html)

Near Extinction of the Buffalo Herds of Turtle Island 

The buffalo hunt as a way of life came to an end in the late 1800s, when the buffalo herd populations were nearly decimated. This near collapse of the population is said to be due to over harvesting, as well as the  deliberate and successful attempt to starve Indigenous peoples of plains in the United States by the American government (Bergman, 2013). 

Well not the only groups considered to be responsible for the near extinction of buffalo, the Métis have been named to have been part of the problem. They were considered to be wildly successful hunters, where they rode on horseback and killed by the gun. I’ve also read contradictory information about whether they used as much of the buffalo as they could or whether they were wasteful. One source claims that nothing was wasted, where all the “meat and skin was preserved and cured” before any more buffalo were killed (Teillet, 2019). But another source talks about how it was witnessed that the Métis could be quite wasteful, where hunting in the summer risked spoiling a huge amount of meat and fat if the weather suddenly became too hot and they sometimes took the best cuts of meat and best fat and left the rest of the buffalo on the field (Cunfer & Waiser, 2016).

If the latter part is true, it is certainly requires some critical reflection. If it is true, It makes me think maybe many Métis lost their teachings from their First Nations mothers, that animals are sacred and every bit of them should be used to honour them for sacrificing their lives. It’s possible that survival may have been so hard at that time they felt they had no other way to survive but to get pemmican meat and buffalo robes to market.

Relevance of the Buffalo and the Hunt to the Métis Today and in the Future: Political Tradition

First off, I recognize that as Métis people we will never go back to a subsistence life based on the buffalo.

Yet I recognize that Métis peoples’ past relationship with the buffalo and the structures that came about due to the buffalo hunt has current and future implications for the Métis, including opportunities and challenges.

One could argue that out of these buffalo hunts came a sense of unity and from that emerged a new Nation. The Métis had developed a governing system during these hunts that were based on Métis values, including egalitarianism, freedom, democracy, mobility, family and kin (Teillet, 2019). We saw these values and structures of government reflected in the Métis provisional government, of which Louis Riel was the leader, that was concerned with the rights of the Métis and negotiating the terms of entering Confederation (Bumsted, 2019). We now see these values shine through in our current local community and provincial governments, who represent us and advocate for our Métis rights today, as constitutionally enshrined Indigenous peoples in Canada. 

I think that one of the opportunities that has arisen from the Métis buffalo hunt and Métis values is our strong political tradition, which our culture should continue to use in governance. I think the continuation of this political tradition is important to carry on into the future in the Métis fight for increased self-determination in a State which has continuously and continues to try to deny many of our rights, as Indigenous peoples in Canada, and more specifically as Métis people.

(Image: https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/arts-and-life/entertainment/books/recasting-riel-568290592.html)

Métis, Buffalo and the Buffalo hunt: Other Implications

I also think that the love of Métis peoples to be out on the land, where they would have rather been hunting buffalo than toiling away at agriculture, points to the fact that connection to land is an important part of Métis wellness. I have noticed that in my Métis community, particularly with youth, there is a strong desire to connect more with the land, including through the gathering of plants for food and medicine, and through hunting. In the future it would be helpful if there was more funding that helps get Métis people out on the land. 

Finally, I think that the issue of the near collapse of the buffalo population is both a challenge and opportunity to the Métis peoples, and other peoples, when reflecting on the future. I think it is important for us as Métis people to reflect on the fact that we may have played a significant part in this and to use it as an opportunity to reflect and take action in the future regarding environmental protection and conservation that is done in a decolonized manner, where we take the lead from those First Nations whose traditional territories we are working in.

References

Bergman, B. (2013). Bison back from brink of extinction. The Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved from https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/bison-back-from-brink-of-extinction 

Bumsted, J, (2019). Red River Rebellion. The Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved from https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/red-river-rebellion

Cram, S. (2020). Muddied water season 2 episode 2: The buffalo hunt [audio file]. CBC Listen. Retrieved from https://www.cbc.ca/listen/cbc-podcasts/371-muddied-water

Cunfer, G. & Waiser, W. A. (2016). Bison and people on the North America great plains: A deep environmental history. College Station: Texas A & M University Press.

Dumont, M. (2015). The pemmican eaters: Poems. Toronto, Ontario, Canada: ECW. Retrieved from https://www-deslibris-ca.libsecure.camosun.bc.ca:2443/ID/467925

Gaudry, A. (2019). Métis. The Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved from https://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/metis

Kodiak, K. (2020). Lii sayzoons Michifs: L’itii (June to August) [PowerPoint presentation]. Archaeological Society of Alberta.

Métis Nation of Ontario. (n.d.). Métis historic timeline: Significant dates in the development of the Métis Nation. Retrieved from http://www.metisnation.org/culture-heritage/m%C3%A9tis-timeline/

Teillet, J. (2019). The north-west is our mother: The story of Louis Riel’s people, the Métis Nation (First ed.). Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Patrick Crean Editions, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.

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Diamond Willow Fungus

I recently attended a zoom class held by Métis Elder Linda Bourdreau from Fort McMurray, AB, who is currently living in Saint Paul, AB, which just so happens to be the town where my Métis grandmother Hazel Poitras was born.  

Linda was teaching us about the diamond willow fungus (Haploporus odorus), a powerful and old medicine, which is a grandfather smudge that clears out negative energy. The Cree word for this fungus is "Wikmasigan”. This smudge can be used in pipe ceremonies and in sweat lodges, as well as for sickness and trauma. It is also good for helping with focus when one is lacking motivation. It is a bracket fungus, where it looks like a shelf, and it has a pungent odour, with an anise/licorice smell. It grows from the Maritimes through to Alberta, and may even grow in the mountains in BC. It is harvested from June until the end of September.  

If one’s intentions are good and it is meant for you it will show itself. Some people go out and whistle and it reveals itself to the person who is meant to pick it.  

When found, offer tobacco. Offer it first to the Creator, then to the four directions. Place the tobacco on the South side of the tree, where the sun is. Pray. This medicine will help people heal and bring balance. Pray to the Creator that the medicine will keep growing for the coming generations. 

To harvest one can either break it off or take it off with a knife, in a gentle manner. Do not harvest if one is not sober. 

When smudging, it can be used in your home, around doorways, when people leave your home and in and around your car for a safe journey, whether you are traveling far and wide or going to a ceremony. Do not use it in the bathroom.

Light it and smudge. Pray to the Creator to clear everything in the mind, body and spirit. Ask for guidance on how to do things right and ask for protection. When using, one should stay positive and prayerful. One should talk to the Creator and pray to use the medicine in a good way, where one will do no harm with it. One should express gratitude for this medicine. 

To dispose of smudge ashes, collect in a can and put back to the land with a bit of tobacco. Ask the medicines to be renewed on the lands. You could also put ashes across a gate, and ask for protection on the land you live on. 

Store in something that can breath, such as in a broadcloth, net bag, cotton bag or in a glass jar, but not in plastic, which takes away the smell and strength. You could also store in a green cloth, which represents new life and spring. Do not store in an area where a bunch of people will walk by, as the strength of medicine can leave with them.

Diamond willow fungus is also used for:

Headaches: Burn a little bit, inhale and hold in, lie down and close eyes. It will clear a headache.

Earaches: Add powder to warm water, wait until it cools down, drip in the ear that aches and put a cotton ball over top. Note, be careful not to do this for an ear infection.

Internally: Some medicine people use it internally in teas. Do not do this without guidance from a medicine person and the Creator.

Women/people with uteruses: Do not harvest or smudge with it if one is on their moon time and up to four days after, as people on their cycle take strength away from medicines because this is a powerful cleansing ceremony unto itself. If a person on their moon time needs to smudge because something serious has happened, they can smudge with sage.

Note about sustainable harvesting: It is harder to find medicines these days due to over-harvesting and other factors. We should pray to the Creator that there will be more sent for the generations to come and we should only take what we need.

*I asked Linda if it was okay to share what she had taught and if there was any protocol to consider when sharing these teachings. She said it was okay to share, with the important thing being acknowledging where I was gifted these teachings from. Thank you Linda!

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The Greater Victoria Green Team

I was able to make it out to my first habitat restoration community event with The Greater Victoria Green Team on Saturday July 18! 

The program manager, Amanda Evans, believes that people’s connection to each other and to nature is essential for the health and wellbeing of our gorgeous, life-giving planet Earth. 

The activities that volunteers can participate in with the Green Team vary, including: invasive species removal, planting native species, picking up litter, maintaining and building trails, and preparing vegetable beds.

 This organization has over 3,000 volunteers and works with numerous collaborative organizations. It has also revitalized over 30,000 m2 of habitat, has removed over 3,000 m2 of invasive plant species, and has planted more than 10,000 native plants and trees (Green Teams Canada, n.d.). This is incredible work that has already been accomplished!

For this event volunteers gathered in Portage Park in View Royal on a sunny July morning, which is part of a habitat filled with Douglas Fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii), red cedar (Thuja plicata), and Gary oak (Quercus garryana) trees. I also spotted some nootka rose (Rosa nutkana) and yarrow (Achillea millefolium) plants, which are also native species to the area. There is also a stunning little cove a short walk from the site we were working in, that hosts the scattered seashells of a First Nations’ midden.

Before work commenced to remove some invasive species, including tree ivy (possibly Hedera helix), holly (Ilex aquifolium), and daphne (Daphne laureola), the program manager Amanda said a territorial acknowledgement, recognizing that we were gathered and working that day on the unceded traditional territories of the Songhees and Esquimalt Nations, who are Lək̓ʷəŋən speaking peoples. She also touched on how removing non-Indigenous plants from Indigenous environments on Indigenous traditional territories is important work. It made me think of how vital this kind of work is in decolonizing Indigenous traditional land and territories, which is an important part of reconciliation. We also went around and introduced ourselves and what brought us out that day.

I was shown how to remove invasive ivy from trees. I was able to cut ivy off a Douglas fir tree, one meter up the trunk of the tree, and then I pulled the ivy growing along the ground one meter away from the base of the trunk. While working I was able to chat with some of the other interesting volunteers (from a safe social distance of course). It was energizing and fun work. I was impressed by the visible difference before and after in the area, where we were able to remove quite a bit of ivy and daphne, even with some first-time volunteers who haven’t done this kind of work before (myself included).

After, myself and some other volunteers were shown a beautiful and rare native orchid, which I believe is the Platanthera elegans (Ron, 2011), growing elsewhere in the park. This was a wonderful way to conclude a fulfilling few hours helping make the park a better place for the native plants that belong to it.

I am looking forward to volunteering more with The Greater Victoria Green Team as I continue on this path with MY Eco Action, where myself and other Métis Youth across the province in BC are exploring a Métis perspective on land-based reconciliation, while learning more about our culture and history.

References

Green Teams Canada. (n.d.). Greater Victoria Green Team. Retrieved from https://www.greenteamscanada.ca/our-green-teams/greater-victoria-green-team/

Ron. (2011). Plethora elegans on Vancouver Island [Blog Post]. Retrieved from http://nativeorchidsofthepacificnorthwest.blogspot.com/2011/08/piperia-elegans-on-vancouver-island.html

Some photos retrieved from https://www.meetup.com/Greater-Victoria-Green-Team/events/269063952/

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MY Eco Action program

To start off this blog I first want to acknowledge that I currently reside on the traditional territories of the Lkwungen and WSÁNEĆ peoples. I think it is important to acknowledge whose territory I am on to honour those and their ancestors who have protected and cared for the land, its plants and animals, the water, and the sky since long before the arrival of colonizers. I see it as my responsibility to be respectful to the wishes and will of these peoples and how I live on their territory, as well as to educate myself on what it means to exist on someone’s territory uninvited, and what I should in turn do in response to this reflection and understanding.

To briefly self-locate I am the daughter of Orland Wayne Mitchell Moyou and Tracie Lee Fawkes. I am Cree/Métis on my father’s side and I am English/Snuneymuxw/Cree/Icelandic on my mother’s side. I am 29-years-old and I am in my second year of pre-social work at Camosun College, and I am hoping to transfer to UVIC in 2021 to finish a BSW with an Indigenous specialization. 

 In the coming months I will be volunteering with the MY (Métis Youth) Eco Action program, which is funded by the Government of Canada through the Canada Service Corps initiative. It is providing an opportunity for Métis Youth to learn how to support and advocate for Métis-inclusive reconciliation in Canada, through a Métis cultural land-based, environmental perspective. This program will link us youth with Elders and traditional Knowledge Keepers, so that we can learn about Métis traditional ways of the land, including responsibility and stewardship. This is an opportunity to connect with the land, which is a vital Indigenous-specific social determinant of health, while also learning about Métis specific culture and history. This will help expand our understanding of who the Métis people are and what our unique environmental needs are. 

I am still exploring what kind of meaningful land-based volunteer opportunities there are where I live, in BC and across Canada. Some ideas I have are volunteering with organizations that protect fresh water and/or the environment through conservation efforts and removal of invasive species. I would also be interested in volunteering at a local community garden, which will be built soon, as part of the holistic support for Indigenous residents/’the family’ at a new housing project that will be opening soon. I am at the phase where I am still reaching out to organizations to see what opportunities there are.

I am hoping through this program to learn more about Métis history and culture and I would love to specifically learn more about the Métis language Michif, as well as Métis craftsmanship, such as sash weaving and beading, which are intimately linked with Métis people’s relationship to the land, way of life, and expression. I am looking forward to connecting with other Métis Youth in the program and seeing what kind of land-based volunteer work they do. I am especially looking forward to the opportunity to connect with the Knowledge Keepers and Elders and I am thankful to the organizers from Métis Nation BC. What a gift!

With this blog I am planning on posting about what I learn on this journey, the research I do on Métis culture and history and the link to land-based reconciliation, and the volunteer work I participate in. I will also post about my experience at the end of the program, where the Métis Youth are invited to go on a trip to Winnipeg to celebrate Louis Riel day in February 2021, amongst many other activities (Covid depending of course).

The picture above is of a Métis Youth sash, which I was given at the 2018 Métis Youth Forum in Strathcona Park by Elder Stella Johnson. It also has some tobacco I grew in my garden, which I use as an offering when harvesting food and medicines from the land. I took this picture to honour National Indigenous Peoples Day in Canada last year.