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

2. 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.

3. 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

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

5. How it was done (methods)

6. 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

7. Methods

8. 1:75,000 scale

9. Map biography methodology

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

11. Traditional Use Categories

12. 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”)

13. 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.

14. 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

15. Example Map biography

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

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

21. Woliwon! Thank you!