Among many other things, this year has brought public attention to Indigenous land disputes more than any other year that I’ve been alive.  From the protest coverage at Wet’suwet’en at the beginning of the year, to more recent confrontations at 1492 Landback Lane in Ontario and growing tensions in Nova Scotia regarding lobster fishing.  This ongoing unrest in Nova Scotia between the settler lobster fishermen and Mi’kmaq fishermen has been the center of many news stories over the past few weeks; It has erupted into violence and sabotage, by which treaty rights of the Mi’kmaq people are being contested by the settler fishermen. Arguments against setting of traps by the Mi’kmaq have been risen as “conservation” issues by the settler fishermen, but these claims have been debunked by researchers as described in this Huffington Post article. What settler fishermen are largely worried about, is diminishing lobster populations which will impact stock prices, and consequentially, their earnings. While Mi’kmaq fishermen also sell their catch, they have a different relationship with the area and the lobster.

Philosopher Kyle Powys Whyte writes in his essay Food Sovereignty, Justice, and Indigenous Peoples: An Essay on Settler Colonialism and Collective Continuance about the consequences of settler colonialism for Indigenous ecologies. Whyte describes the relationships that Indigenous groups have with foods such as salmon or rice as important, if not inherent, to their ability to maintain what he refers to as “collective continuance.” By this he means that there are practices and systems in place by Indigenous peoples that make up the fabric of their society, these he refers to as “collective capacities” or ecological systems. Woven together all of these collective capacities harboured by the group strengthen them and make them adaptive and resilient; this is their collective continuance. At the heart of his essay Whyte states that settler colonialism targets these relationships that Indigenous peoples have with their environment that in turn create collective capacities, therefore jeopardizing the collective continuance of the groups. This continuance is vital to the endurance of the culture and livelihood of a group.

In his example of the Karuk, indigenous to what is now Northern California and Oregon, Whyte illustrates that many of these collective capacities are, in fact, also extremely beneficial to the environment. Their knowledge of the land, tending to it, harvesting, and monitoring it as a part of their food system left the land in better condition. These practices and cultural capacities become diminished and all but destroyed as US settler colonialism restricts the Karuk’s ability to manage their own lands. These barriers put a lot at stake: food, traditional knowledge, cultural and tribal identity, and most importantly for the Karuk, basic human dignity.

For the Mi’kmaq, Whyte would consider their relationship with the lobster and their trapping as a system or ecology that leads to cultural continuance, and the fishermen who are tirelessly trying to undermine the Mi’kmaq’s right to fish for lobster as obviously the catalysts of settler colonialism, putting this collective capacity at risk of being destroyed. They are placing the relationship that has existed since time in memorial at stake, and once this relationship is broken, it may be nearly impossible to rekindle. Even if the Mi’kmaq were operating illegally by placing traps, even if there were legitimate concerns about the conservation of lobster stocks, even if the violent sabotage against the Mi’kmaq were not clear displays of racism and greed, I believe that Whyte would still argue, based on the perseverance of these crucial cultural relationships between the Mi’kmaq and the land, that the DFO should defend the Indigenous fishermen and furthermore, likely advocate for restrictions to be placed on commercial fisheries to ensure that these relationships the Mi’kmaq hold can flourish.

References

Bailey, M. (2020, October 27). Conservation Isn’t The Problem In Nova Scotia’s Lobster Dispute. But Racism Is. Retrieved October 27, 2020, from https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/nova-scotia-lobster-dispute-conservation_ca_5f96fc73c5b6e1e70762e5b2

Whyte, K. (2018), Part IV Food Justice and Social Justice. In Part IV Food Justice and Social Justice. In A. Barnhill, M. Budolfson, & T. Doggett (Eds.), Food Sovereignty, Justice, and Indigenous Peoples: An Essay on Settler Colonialism and Collective Continuance. The Oxford Handbook of Food Ethics. 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199372263.001.0001