Maliseet Traditional Use Study Madawaska, Tobique, Woodstock, Kingsclear, St. Mary’s & Oromocto 2015-2016

Purpose of the research Sponsored by the Madawaska, Tobique, Woodstock, Kingsclear, St. Mary’s, and Oromocoto Maliseet First Nations Support environmental assessment of Energy East pipeline & other development projects Support negotiation & design of environmental mitigation & monitoring measures Defend Maliseet land rights in the Traditional Use territory Support possible land rights negotiations Support future negotiation of Impact & Benefit Agreements.

Documenting Traditional Use Requirement = to support the environmental assessment of the proposed Energy East pipeline project by documenting Maliseet resource use and occupancy (Traditional Use). TU where people: stayed over night in cabins, tents, trailers, etc. killed big game, hare, fur bearers killed waterfowl, partridge, fish collected plants (e.g., berries, medicine plants) have sacred sites & other special places on the land. use a map biography methodology record oral tradition (stories) about TU by grandparents & other relatives

What we did public meetings to explain project – June & Nov. 2015 community interviews – 22 Oct. 2015 – 8 Apr. 2016 data processing Dec. 2015 – May 2016 confirmation/verification process – June 2016 review by chiefs, legal, team members, consultation coordinators – Sept.- Nov. 2016 prepare final report – November 2016

How it was done (methods)

Ethical research Community engagement Contracts with researchers - ethics guidelines (e.g., Draft Maliseet Ethics Guidelines) Maliseet own the information Informed consent, information kept confidential, PINs, secure data storage, etc. Individual harvester maps, etc. Confidentiality statement by the chiefs

Methods

1:75,000 scale

Map biography methodology

Mapping knowledge & experience – questionnaire survey with maps Time period – “Living Memory” (entire life time)

Traditional Use Categories

Other research tasks Audio recordings of interviews Transcription of recordings NVivo coding of transcriptions Put map information in computer Make maps Write Traditional Use study report Write detailed methods appendices (the “recipe book”)

Who was interviewed Interviewees selected by co-researchers, consultation coordinators & Research Planning Meetings in consultation with research director & some chiefs: the most experienced land users in the community (today and yesterday); altogether, have land use covering the full extent of the Maliseet Traditional Use (TU) territory; have experience of as many of the TU categories included in the survey as possible (e.g., moose, fur bearers, fish, medicine plants, etc.); be representative of all family groupings in the community; be 18 years or older, and be able to read maps.

Some of the research output… 239 people interviewed 250 interview sessions 280 hours of audio recording information recorded on 935 base maps 12,044 TU features recorded on these maps

Example Map biography

Thematic maps (hodgepodge) Overnight & special sites Fish and seafood Plant & earth resources Big game, fur bearers, small game, birds All-features

Your Traditional Use Data Map based (spatial information) Contextualized with historic information (Jason Hall) Narratives from the interviewees to illustrate the Traditional Use

Woliwon! Thank you!