My research is on sakâwiyiniwak (Northern Bush Cree) experiences with wild food contamination in Alberta’s oil sands region. My academic work is inspired from doing applied research as a traditional land use consultant for First Nations in the region since 2006. I continue to be involved in community-based environmental monitoring projects with Bigstone Cree Nation and Fort McKay First Nation. I am also working on new research that celebrates traditional foods and Boreal forest identities. My specializations include ethnography of contamination, environmental and ecological anthropology, ethnobiology and ethnoecology, post-humanism and the anthropocene, anthropology of food, community-based research methods, political ecology, and ethnographic writing. As a female academic and a mother, I am also interested in feminism in academia and anthropology, and feminist research about landscapes and food procurement.
A geographically diverse group of 29 ethnobiologists addresses three common themes in response to... more A geographically diverse group of 29 ethnobiologists addresses three common themes in response to the COVID-19 global health crisis: impact on local communities, future interactions between researchers and communities, and new (or renewed) conceptual and/or applied research priorities for ethnobiology.
n this paper I discuss how being a student of Northern Bush Cree traditions has revealed some pos... more n this paper I discuss how being a student of Northern Bush Cree traditions has revealed some possibilities for understanding how berries listen, and respond to, living in, and on, the edge of areas of extreme extraction. Members of Fort McKay First Nation and Bigstone Cree Nations tend to their relationships with the sentient landscape and its entirety of living beings through respectful speech, behaviour, and harvesting practices. The agency of those living beings is expressed through their decisions as to whether or not humans can encounter, harvest, and share in their substance. By examining relationships of reciprocity between the human and other-than-human animal world from a post-humanist perspective, this paper seeks to expand upon traditional indicators of contamination resulting from the large-scale industrial development of the Athabasca oil sands in First Nations’ traditional territories, and to value and share some observations and knowledge of Cree Elders and knowledge holders.
Traditional foods provide nutritional, social, and economic benefits for Indigenous communities; ... more Traditional foods provide nutritional, social, and economic benefits for Indigenous communities; however, anthropogenic activities have raised concerns about mercury (Hg), especially methylmercury (MeHg), in these foods. This issue may be of particular concern for communities near large industrial activities, including the Bigstone Cree Nation adjacent to the Athabasca oil sands region, Canada. This community-led study sought to assess variation in THg and MeHg concentrations among traditional food types (plants or animals), species, and tissues (muscles, organs), and variation in concentrations of the micronutrient selenium (Se)— thought to protect against Hg toxicity—and Se:THg ratios. Thirteen plant and animal species were collected in 2015 by Bigstone Cree community members. We quantified THg, Se, and Se:THg ratios in 65 plant and 111 animal samples and MeHg in 106 animal samples. For plants, the lichen, old man’s beard (Usnea spp.), showed the highest concentrations of THg and Se (0.11 ± 0.02 and 0.08 ± 0.01 μg g−1 w. w., respectively) and also had a low Se:THg molar ratio. Concentrations of THg, MeHg, and Se differed among animal samples (P < 0.010), showing variation among species and among tissues/organs. Generally, concentrations of THg and MeHg were highest in aquatic animals, which also had relatively low Se:THg molar ratios. Overall results revealed substantial variation in the patterns of THg, MeHg, Se and Se:THg ratios across this comprehensive basket of traditional foods. Thus, measuring concentrations of THg alone, without considering MeHg and potential associations with Se, may not adequately convey the exposure to Hg in traditional foods.
This dissertation is an exploration of sakâwiyiniwak (Northern Bush Cree) experiences with wild... more This dissertation is an exploration of sakâwiyiniwak (Northern Bush Cree) experiences with wild or 'bush' food contamination in Alberta's oil sands region. It is based on ethnographic learning experiences with members of Bigstone Cree Nation and Fort McKay First Nation in their traditional territories on the land in the Treaty No. 8 region, and during community-based environmental monitoring studies of bush food contamination. First, I provide an in-depth examination of the "diagnostics" and "etiologies" implicit in sakâwiyiniwak ecological knowledge of environmental contamination specifically, and sakâwiyiniwak criteria for food quality more generally. Second, I consider this ethnoecological inquiry from the standpoint of cultural theory related to the concepts of "pollution" and "risk," as well as political ecological understandings of the power relations to which Indigenous knowledges are subject in the public policy evaluation and management of pollutants.
This article provides a critical overview of consultation, impact assessment, and traditional lan... more This article provides a critical overview of consultation, impact assessment, and traditional land use research as these methods of extracting knowledge intersect in the oil sands region of northern Alberta. Based on our experience as anthropologists working in policy analysis, consultation, impact assessment, and community-engaged ethnographic research with impacted communities, we examine public participation and risk assessment procedures, including those conducted through documents and those conducted through personal or group interviews − primarily with Crees. Alberta's oil sands industry has expanded exponentially in recent decades; however, consultation, impact assessment, and accommodation of Cree, Dene, and Métis interests in the region have not kept up with best practices established during the same timeframe. We point to a number of examples where consultation and impact assessment processes have supported an overall political economic push to develop the oil sands as quickly as possible. We argue for improved participatory processes to inform more open political and scientific debate.
In this paper I suggest that it is possible to participate in research as an act of reciprocity; ... more In this paper I suggest that it is possible to participate in research as an act of reciprocity; when a community asks a researcher for help on a specific topic, the application of that researcher's skills can be one of the ways they show appreciation for being welcomed into a place. I also argue that a researcher needs to be sensitive to, and participate in, systems of respect and reciprocity belonging to the people, ancestors, and sentient landscape of the place they are doing research.
This post is part of the Engagement blog thematic series: Life on the Frontier: The Environmental... more This post is part of the Engagement blog thematic series: Life on the Frontier: The Environmental Anthropology of Settler Colonialism
Edited by Eveline Dürr and Rivke Jaffe. 2010. Studies in Environmental Anthropology and Ethnobiol... more Edited by Eveline Dürr and Rivke Jaffe. 2010. Studies in Environmental Anthropology and Ethnobiology, Vol. 15. Berghahn Books, New York. 216 pp. $27.95 (paperback), $120.00 (hardcover). ISBN 978-1-84545-692-4 (paperback), 978-1-78238-508-0 (hardcover). Reviewed by Janelle Marie Baker Reviewer address: Department of Anthropology, McGill University, 855 Sherbrooke Street West, Montréal, Québec H3A 2T7, CAN. Email: janelle.baker@mail.mcgill.ca
Shale Gas in New Brunswick: Towards a Better Understanding, 2014
Economic and Social Development of First Nations Communities, Aboriginal Rights and Opportunities... more Economic and Social Development of First Nations Communities, Aboriginal Rights and Opportunities for Developing Natural Gas from Shale
Innovative Strategies for Teaching in the Plant Sciences, 2014
Innovative Strategies for Teaching in the Plant Sciences focuses on innovative ways in which educ... more Innovative Strategies for Teaching in the Plant Sciences focuses on innovative ways in which educators can enrich the plant science content being taught in universities and secondary schools. Drawing on contributions from scholars around the world, various methods of teaching plant science is demonstrated. Specifically, core concepts from ethnobotany can be used to foster the development of connections between students, their environment, and other cultures around the world. Furthermore, the volume presents different ways to incorporate local methods and technology into a hands-on approach to teaching and learning in the plant sciences.
Written by leaders in the field, Innovative Strategies for Teaching in the Plant Sciences is a valuable resource for teachers and graduate students in the plant sciences.
This report is based on a qualitative interview and focus group study recommended by the housing ... more This report is based on a qualitative interview and focus group study recommended by the housing intake workshop facilitators at the Boyle Street Community Services since a number of participants had been repeating the workshop several times. This latter was an indication that some individuals were not able to maintain the housing provided to them through the housing program. The study was to determine what the barriers were for individuals to maintain their housing. The report on findings are more narrative and aligned with the literature. For example, the term ‘urban nomads’ came out of Spradley’s work in 1970 to denote mobility, poverty, alienation and survival strategies. The application was made in this report to Aboriginal people migrating into Edmonton and experiencing the challenges of living in urban centres. Homelessness is one consequence. Barriers to preventing and coming out of homelessness consider the many factors impacting urban nomads, including affordable housing, social supports, funding, transportation access, trauma/injuries, children, violence, discrimination and incarceration. Housing needs to be more flexible for individuals who are homeless and particularly those who are urban nomads. More research is needed in this area. - See more at: http://www.homelesshub.ca/resource/urban-nomads-edmonton-moving-coping-strategy#sthash.YgGf6Ufg.dpuf
When I say the words “Alberta’s oilsands” what words come to mind? Perhaps wealth, bitumen, envir... more When I say the words “Alberta’s oilsands” what words come to mind? Perhaps wealth, bitumen, environment, pipelines, or even Newfoundlanders. Often forgotten is that northern Alberta’s oil sands region is indigenous territory for 23,000 Cree, Dene and Metis people. People who continue to harvest from the land as their ancestors did. They gather medicines and berries, they hunt moose, they catch fish. Except all of a sudden there are massive open pit mines in their backyard, along with associated upgraders, tailings ponds, fences restricting access to traplines and hunting territories, highways lined with big trucks and buses, private airstrips, disputed pipelines, SAGD facilities, seismic activity, workcamps the size of cities, and on and on. And all of this is planned to triple in size in the next 25 years.
With a Masters degree in environmental anthropology I have spent the past 6 years working for First Nations in northern Alberta performing traditional land use studies and assessments. Traditional land use assessments are used as a way for the government and companies to consult First Nations regarding the impact that industrial development is having on their treaty rights to harvest from their territories. During these studies, I’ve had the honour to learn from people and go out on the land with them. I regularly hear from Elders and harvesters that they are concerned about contamination to the wild food supply, and I can see that they have incredibly nuanced indicators to determine that contamination is occurring. Who else would be able to tell that there are changes in the environment, but the people who live directly from it, who respect and honour it and have spent endless generations doing so? I spent 6 years writing up reports about people’s concerns. Companies and the government file the reports as a part of the Environmental Impact Assessment process and people’s words and concerns are closed away in those reports. Besides, the company-hired scientists say that there are no problems of contamination in the wild food supply. “No significant impact” is the term they prefer to use.
So this is why I am here at McGill pursing a PhD. I am responding to what people have been telling me - I am recording their indicators for contamination, their stories about the changes that they have seen, how they know what is contaminated, and locating where they are no longer able or willing to harvest any more. My core objective is to investigate First Nations indicators for wild food contamination by exploring how their traditional ecological knowledge informs the concept of contamination (rather than simply locating and lab-testing foods). First Nations ability to observe, manage and survive from the land is a fundamental dimension of cultural and biological diversity in the subarctic. My goal to elucidate the First Nations meaning of food contamination based on their cosmological and ethnoecological system will lead not only to a better understanding of the changes in plant and animal populations that they are observing as a result of industrial development; it will document their changing relationship with these populations in this development context. I intend to publish my results for a wider audience, but also to share them with companies, government and organizations in the oil sands region to educate and inform practice and policy.
A geographically diverse group of 29 ethnobiologists addresses three common themes in response to... more A geographically diverse group of 29 ethnobiologists addresses three common themes in response to the COVID-19 global health crisis: impact on local communities, future interactions between researchers and communities, and new (or renewed) conceptual and/or applied research priorities for ethnobiology.
n this paper I discuss how being a student of Northern Bush Cree traditions has revealed some pos... more n this paper I discuss how being a student of Northern Bush Cree traditions has revealed some possibilities for understanding how berries listen, and respond to, living in, and on, the edge of areas of extreme extraction. Members of Fort McKay First Nation and Bigstone Cree Nations tend to their relationships with the sentient landscape and its entirety of living beings through respectful speech, behaviour, and harvesting practices. The agency of those living beings is expressed through their decisions as to whether or not humans can encounter, harvest, and share in their substance. By examining relationships of reciprocity between the human and other-than-human animal world from a post-humanist perspective, this paper seeks to expand upon traditional indicators of contamination resulting from the large-scale industrial development of the Athabasca oil sands in First Nations’ traditional territories, and to value and share some observations and knowledge of Cree Elders and knowledge holders.
Traditional foods provide nutritional, social, and economic benefits for Indigenous communities; ... more Traditional foods provide nutritional, social, and economic benefits for Indigenous communities; however, anthropogenic activities have raised concerns about mercury (Hg), especially methylmercury (MeHg), in these foods. This issue may be of particular concern for communities near large industrial activities, including the Bigstone Cree Nation adjacent to the Athabasca oil sands region, Canada. This community-led study sought to assess variation in THg and MeHg concentrations among traditional food types (plants or animals), species, and tissues (muscles, organs), and variation in concentrations of the micronutrient selenium (Se)— thought to protect against Hg toxicity—and Se:THg ratios. Thirteen plant and animal species were collected in 2015 by Bigstone Cree community members. We quantified THg, Se, and Se:THg ratios in 65 plant and 111 animal samples and MeHg in 106 animal samples. For plants, the lichen, old man’s beard (Usnea spp.), showed the highest concentrations of THg and Se (0.11 ± 0.02 and 0.08 ± 0.01 μg g−1 w. w., respectively) and also had a low Se:THg molar ratio. Concentrations of THg, MeHg, and Se differed among animal samples (P < 0.010), showing variation among species and among tissues/organs. Generally, concentrations of THg and MeHg were highest in aquatic animals, which also had relatively low Se:THg molar ratios. Overall results revealed substantial variation in the patterns of THg, MeHg, Se and Se:THg ratios across this comprehensive basket of traditional foods. Thus, measuring concentrations of THg alone, without considering MeHg and potential associations with Se, may not adequately convey the exposure to Hg in traditional foods.
This dissertation is an exploration of sakâwiyiniwak (Northern Bush Cree) experiences with wild... more This dissertation is an exploration of sakâwiyiniwak (Northern Bush Cree) experiences with wild or 'bush' food contamination in Alberta's oil sands region. It is based on ethnographic learning experiences with members of Bigstone Cree Nation and Fort McKay First Nation in their traditional territories on the land in the Treaty No. 8 region, and during community-based environmental monitoring studies of bush food contamination. First, I provide an in-depth examination of the "diagnostics" and "etiologies" implicit in sakâwiyiniwak ecological knowledge of environmental contamination specifically, and sakâwiyiniwak criteria for food quality more generally. Second, I consider this ethnoecological inquiry from the standpoint of cultural theory related to the concepts of "pollution" and "risk," as well as political ecological understandings of the power relations to which Indigenous knowledges are subject in the public policy evaluation and management of pollutants.
This article provides a critical overview of consultation, impact assessment, and traditional lan... more This article provides a critical overview of consultation, impact assessment, and traditional land use research as these methods of extracting knowledge intersect in the oil sands region of northern Alberta. Based on our experience as anthropologists working in policy analysis, consultation, impact assessment, and community-engaged ethnographic research with impacted communities, we examine public participation and risk assessment procedures, including those conducted through documents and those conducted through personal or group interviews − primarily with Crees. Alberta's oil sands industry has expanded exponentially in recent decades; however, consultation, impact assessment, and accommodation of Cree, Dene, and Métis interests in the region have not kept up with best practices established during the same timeframe. We point to a number of examples where consultation and impact assessment processes have supported an overall political economic push to develop the oil sands as quickly as possible. We argue for improved participatory processes to inform more open political and scientific debate.
In this paper I suggest that it is possible to participate in research as an act of reciprocity; ... more In this paper I suggest that it is possible to participate in research as an act of reciprocity; when a community asks a researcher for help on a specific topic, the application of that researcher's skills can be one of the ways they show appreciation for being welcomed into a place. I also argue that a researcher needs to be sensitive to, and participate in, systems of respect and reciprocity belonging to the people, ancestors, and sentient landscape of the place they are doing research.
This post is part of the Engagement blog thematic series: Life on the Frontier: The Environmental... more This post is part of the Engagement blog thematic series: Life on the Frontier: The Environmental Anthropology of Settler Colonialism
Edited by Eveline Dürr and Rivke Jaffe. 2010. Studies in Environmental Anthropology and Ethnobiol... more Edited by Eveline Dürr and Rivke Jaffe. 2010. Studies in Environmental Anthropology and Ethnobiology, Vol. 15. Berghahn Books, New York. 216 pp. $27.95 (paperback), $120.00 (hardcover). ISBN 978-1-84545-692-4 (paperback), 978-1-78238-508-0 (hardcover). Reviewed by Janelle Marie Baker Reviewer address: Department of Anthropology, McGill University, 855 Sherbrooke Street West, Montréal, Québec H3A 2T7, CAN. Email: janelle.baker@mail.mcgill.ca
Shale Gas in New Brunswick: Towards a Better Understanding, 2014
Economic and Social Development of First Nations Communities, Aboriginal Rights and Opportunities... more Economic and Social Development of First Nations Communities, Aboriginal Rights and Opportunities for Developing Natural Gas from Shale
Innovative Strategies for Teaching in the Plant Sciences, 2014
Innovative Strategies for Teaching in the Plant Sciences focuses on innovative ways in which educ... more Innovative Strategies for Teaching in the Plant Sciences focuses on innovative ways in which educators can enrich the plant science content being taught in universities and secondary schools. Drawing on contributions from scholars around the world, various methods of teaching plant science is demonstrated. Specifically, core concepts from ethnobotany can be used to foster the development of connections between students, their environment, and other cultures around the world. Furthermore, the volume presents different ways to incorporate local methods and technology into a hands-on approach to teaching and learning in the plant sciences.
Written by leaders in the field, Innovative Strategies for Teaching in the Plant Sciences is a valuable resource for teachers and graduate students in the plant sciences.
This report is based on a qualitative interview and focus group study recommended by the housing ... more This report is based on a qualitative interview and focus group study recommended by the housing intake workshop facilitators at the Boyle Street Community Services since a number of participants had been repeating the workshop several times. This latter was an indication that some individuals were not able to maintain the housing provided to them through the housing program. The study was to determine what the barriers were for individuals to maintain their housing. The report on findings are more narrative and aligned with the literature. For example, the term ‘urban nomads’ came out of Spradley’s work in 1970 to denote mobility, poverty, alienation and survival strategies. The application was made in this report to Aboriginal people migrating into Edmonton and experiencing the challenges of living in urban centres. Homelessness is one consequence. Barriers to preventing and coming out of homelessness consider the many factors impacting urban nomads, including affordable housing, social supports, funding, transportation access, trauma/injuries, children, violence, discrimination and incarceration. Housing needs to be more flexible for individuals who are homeless and particularly those who are urban nomads. More research is needed in this area. - See more at: http://www.homelesshub.ca/resource/urban-nomads-edmonton-moving-coping-strategy#sthash.YgGf6Ufg.dpuf
When I say the words “Alberta’s oilsands” what words come to mind? Perhaps wealth, bitumen, envir... more When I say the words “Alberta’s oilsands” what words come to mind? Perhaps wealth, bitumen, environment, pipelines, or even Newfoundlanders. Often forgotten is that northern Alberta’s oil sands region is indigenous territory for 23,000 Cree, Dene and Metis people. People who continue to harvest from the land as their ancestors did. They gather medicines and berries, they hunt moose, they catch fish. Except all of a sudden there are massive open pit mines in their backyard, along with associated upgraders, tailings ponds, fences restricting access to traplines and hunting territories, highways lined with big trucks and buses, private airstrips, disputed pipelines, SAGD facilities, seismic activity, workcamps the size of cities, and on and on. And all of this is planned to triple in size in the next 25 years.
With a Masters degree in environmental anthropology I have spent the past 6 years working for First Nations in northern Alberta performing traditional land use studies and assessments. Traditional land use assessments are used as a way for the government and companies to consult First Nations regarding the impact that industrial development is having on their treaty rights to harvest from their territories. During these studies, I’ve had the honour to learn from people and go out on the land with them. I regularly hear from Elders and harvesters that they are concerned about contamination to the wild food supply, and I can see that they have incredibly nuanced indicators to determine that contamination is occurring. Who else would be able to tell that there are changes in the environment, but the people who live directly from it, who respect and honour it and have spent endless generations doing so? I spent 6 years writing up reports about people’s concerns. Companies and the government file the reports as a part of the Environmental Impact Assessment process and people’s words and concerns are closed away in those reports. Besides, the company-hired scientists say that there are no problems of contamination in the wild food supply. “No significant impact” is the term they prefer to use.
So this is why I am here at McGill pursing a PhD. I am responding to what people have been telling me - I am recording their indicators for contamination, their stories about the changes that they have seen, how they know what is contaminated, and locating where they are no longer able or willing to harvest any more. My core objective is to investigate First Nations indicators for wild food contamination by exploring how their traditional ecological knowledge informs the concept of contamination (rather than simply locating and lab-testing foods). First Nations ability to observe, manage and survive from the land is a fundamental dimension of cultural and biological diversity in the subarctic. My goal to elucidate the First Nations meaning of food contamination based on their cosmological and ethnoecological system will lead not only to a better understanding of the changes in plant and animal populations that they are observing as a result of industrial development; it will document their changing relationship with these populations in this development context. I intend to publish my results for a wider audience, but also to share them with companies, government and organizations in the oil sands region to educate and inform practice and policy.
Since 2011, WBEA has been collaborating with Fort McKay to record and use Cree, Dené and Métis on... more Since 2011, WBEA has been collaborating with Fort McKay to record and use Cree, Dené and Métis ontologies and specialized indicators to observe four community berry patches (Vaccinium vitis-idaea and Vaccinium myrtilloides) in Fort McKay’s traditional territory. While using community-based research methods, WBEA has supplied the resources and scientific expertise to support the project with passive air monitoring, weather monitoring, and berry sampling and testing. Fort McKay collaborators use indicators such as dust on the berries, proximity to development, taste, colour, size, and ‘plumpness’ to identify quality of berries. Fort McKay community members lack trust in berries that are close to the community due to their proximity to industrial developments, and this impacts people’s access to a nutritionally and socially fundamental food source. This poster will display early findings of correlations between indicators based on traditional knowledge and measurable contaminants in the berries. It will also provide qualitative results of the Fort McKay collaborator’s observations of change in their berry supply and subsequent impacts on their social, physical, and spiritual well-being.
Fort McKay, a Cree, Dene and Metis community located in the epicenter of oil sands extraction act... more Fort McKay, a Cree, Dene and Metis community located in the epicenter of oil sands extraction activities in northern Alberta, is participating in long-term monitoring of their berry patches, funded by the Wood Buffalo Environmental Association (WBEA). The focus group regularly observes the berry patches, harvests berries, and shares traditional knowledge and oral histories about the sites. They also use science to monitor the air and berry quality from each of the berry patches. Many of the community’s berry patches have been removed through mining, and others that remain are avoided because of people’s concerns about contamination. This means that those individuals who are fortunate enough to travel long distances, often by float plane, to collect cranberries then have the responsibility of distributing them to community members who need them as medicine. We we discuss the implications of this shift in berry availability for Fort McKay, the determinants for safe cranberries, and how they are distributed and used as medicine.
Fort McKay is a Cree, Dené and Métis community in the heart of the oil sands in northern Alberta,... more Fort McKay is a Cree, Dené and Métis community in the heart of the oil sands in northern Alberta, Canada. In partnership with the Wood Buffalo Environmental Association, Fort McKay designed a long-term research project where they visit intact berry patches to share stories and TEK. The research team also observes berry health and quality and records perspectives on contamination. Many local berry patches have been disturbed and people do not trust berries that grow near oil sands developments, so people are now traveling greater distances to harvest. In 2013 the research team introduced scientific testing into the project by setting up passive air monitors in berry patches and sending berries to laboratories for testing. We will discuss the results from the testing, while contemplating the implications of verifying traditional knowledge with science in a context where expert knowledge, government regulations, and environmental impact assessments are driven by profit.
Uploads
Papers by Janelle Baker
Reviewed by Janelle Marie Baker
Reviewer address: Department of Anthropology, McGill University, 855 Sherbrooke Street West, Montréal, Québec H3A 2T7, CAN.
Email: janelle.baker@mail.mcgill.ca
Written by leaders in the field, Innovative Strategies for Teaching in the Plant Sciences is a valuable resource for teachers and graduate students in the plant sciences.
Talks by Janelle Baker
With a Masters degree in environmental anthropology I have spent the past 6 years working for First Nations in northern Alberta performing traditional land use studies and assessments. Traditional land use assessments are used as a way for the government and companies to consult First Nations regarding the impact that industrial development is having on their treaty rights to harvest from their territories. During these studies, I’ve had the honour to learn from people and go out on the land with them. I regularly hear from Elders and harvesters that they are concerned about contamination to the wild food supply, and I can see that they have incredibly nuanced indicators to determine that contamination is occurring. Who else would be able to tell that there are changes in the environment, but the people who live directly from it, who respect and honour it and have spent endless generations doing so? I spent 6 years writing up reports about people’s concerns. Companies and the government file the reports as a part of the Environmental Impact Assessment process and people’s words and concerns are closed away in those reports. Besides, the company-hired scientists say that there are no problems of contamination in the wild food supply. “No significant impact” is the term they prefer to use.
So this is why I am here at McGill pursing a PhD. I am responding to what people have been telling me - I am recording their indicators for contamination, their stories about the changes that they have seen, how they know what is contaminated, and locating where they are no longer able or willing to harvest any more. My core objective is to investigate First Nations indicators for wild food contamination by exploring how their traditional ecological knowledge informs the concept of contamination (rather than simply locating and lab-testing foods). First Nations ability to observe, manage and survive from the land is a fundamental dimension of cultural and biological diversity in the subarctic. My goal to elucidate the First Nations meaning of food contamination based on their cosmological and ethnoecological system will lead not only to a better understanding of the changes in plant and animal populations that they are observing as a result of industrial development; it will document their changing relationship with these populations in this development context. I intend to publish my results for a wider audience, but also to share them with companies, government and organizations in the oil sands region to educate and inform practice and policy.
Conference Presentations by Janelle Baker
Reviewed by Janelle Marie Baker
Reviewer address: Department of Anthropology, McGill University, 855 Sherbrooke Street West, Montréal, Québec H3A 2T7, CAN.
Email: janelle.baker@mail.mcgill.ca
Written by leaders in the field, Innovative Strategies for Teaching in the Plant Sciences is a valuable resource for teachers and graduate students in the plant sciences.
With a Masters degree in environmental anthropology I have spent the past 6 years working for First Nations in northern Alberta performing traditional land use studies and assessments. Traditional land use assessments are used as a way for the government and companies to consult First Nations regarding the impact that industrial development is having on their treaty rights to harvest from their territories. During these studies, I’ve had the honour to learn from people and go out on the land with them. I regularly hear from Elders and harvesters that they are concerned about contamination to the wild food supply, and I can see that they have incredibly nuanced indicators to determine that contamination is occurring. Who else would be able to tell that there are changes in the environment, but the people who live directly from it, who respect and honour it and have spent endless generations doing so? I spent 6 years writing up reports about people’s concerns. Companies and the government file the reports as a part of the Environmental Impact Assessment process and people’s words and concerns are closed away in those reports. Besides, the company-hired scientists say that there are no problems of contamination in the wild food supply. “No significant impact” is the term they prefer to use.
So this is why I am here at McGill pursing a PhD. I am responding to what people have been telling me - I am recording their indicators for contamination, their stories about the changes that they have seen, how they know what is contaminated, and locating where they are no longer able or willing to harvest any more. My core objective is to investigate First Nations indicators for wild food contamination by exploring how their traditional ecological knowledge informs the concept of contamination (rather than simply locating and lab-testing foods). First Nations ability to observe, manage and survive from the land is a fundamental dimension of cultural and biological diversity in the subarctic. My goal to elucidate the First Nations meaning of food contamination based on their cosmological and ethnoecological system will lead not only to a better understanding of the changes in plant and animal populations that they are observing as a result of industrial development; it will document their changing relationship with these populations in this development context. I intend to publish my results for a wider audience, but also to share them with companies, government and organizations in the oil sands region to educate and inform practice and policy.
community’s berry patches have been removed through mining, and others that remain are avoided because of people’s concerns about contamination. This means that those individuals who are fortunate enough to travel long distances, often by float plane, to collect cranberries then have the responsibility of distributing them to community members who need them as medicine. We we discuss the implications of this shift in berry availability for Fort McKay, the determinants for safe cranberries, and how they are distributed and used as medicine.