In this talk I reflect on my experience of over 20 years in asserting small scale fishery and Indigenous rights including Mi’kmaw treaty rights against commodification schemes designed as conservation management and in the current era of the "blue economy". I also introduce recent Mi’kmaw efforts to assert treaty relations informed by ancestral laws (Indigenous law) transcend the politics of reconciliation. This will include a focus on broader interdisciplinary research initiatives into Indigenous forms of governance inclusive of the roles of women and two-spirited persons as our inherent responsibility for ensuring the well-being of future generations.
Dr. Sherry Pictou is a Mi’kmaw woman from L’sɨtkuk (water cuts through high rocks) known as Bear River First Nation, Nova Scotia. She is an Assistant Professor in the Faculties of Law and Management at Dalhousie University focusing on Gender and Indigenous Governance. Dr. Pictou is also a former Chief for her community and the former Co-Chair of the World Forum of Fisher Peoples. She is a member of the The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) Task Force on Indigenous and Local Knowledge. More recently she became the first female District Chief for the Confederacy of Mainland Mi’kmaq.
Dr. Martin is a Professor in the Faculty of Health at Dalhousie University. She holds a Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Peoples’ Health and Well-Being. She leads two multi-year network grants – the Wabanaki-Labrador Indigenous Health Research Network, and the Atlantic Indigenous Mentorship Network. She is a newly elected member of the Royal Society of Canada College of New Scholars. She is Inuk and a member of NunatuKavut.
Ken is a member of the Wolastoqey First Nation at Neqotkuk located at Tobique, NB. Ken is currently the Lead Fisheries Negotiator and Research Coordinator for the Wolastoqey Nation of New Brunswick. He has served previously as Fisheries Director with the Assembly of First Nations and the Atlantic Policy Congress of First Nations Chiefs advocating for First Nations rights regionally, nationally and internationally.
Dalhousie University operates in the unceded territories of the Mi’kmaw, Wolastoqey, and Peskotomuhkati Peoples. These sovereign nations hold inherent rights as the original peoples of these lands, and we each carry collective obligations under the Peace and Friendship Treaties. Section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982 recognizes and affirms Aboriginal and Treaty rights in Canada.
We acknowledge that the lands on which Memorial University’s campuses are situated are in the traditional territories of diverse Indigenous groups, and we acknowledge with respect the diverse histories and cultures of the Beothuk, Mi’kmaq, Innu, and Inuit of this province.
