Community Well-Being and the Anishinabeg of the Lake Nipigon Region of Northern Ontario

26 y 27 de abril, Ciudad de México. Community Well-Being and the Anishinabeg of the Lake Nipigon Region of Northern Ontario By Robert Robson, Ph.D Chair and Associate Professor Department of Indigenous Learning Lakehead University Thunder Bay, Ontario Canada Introduction The Community Well-Being Project is a collaborative research project that was initiated jointly by the members of the Anishinabeg community of the Lake Nipigon area of northern Ontario and faculty within the Department of Indigenous Learning at Lakehead University. The intention of the project was to document the land-use activities of the Anishinabeg in and around the Lake over an extended period of time and to demonstrate the connectedness of the Anishinabeg community to the land. At the same time, the project was intended to show how the health and well-being of the Anishinabeg community was directly linked to the land. Focusing on trapping territory, hunting areas and berry picking grounds as well as the location of winter lodges and summer fish camps, the project also aimed to highlight “traditional territory”. Indeed, the unstated goal of the initiative was to “reclaim” traditional territory; to prove occupancy. As the project evolved and as the community became more and more invested in the project, the Community Well-Being Project morphed into a community development project. While the land-use component remained an important part of the undertaking, land-use became a tool of community development. Working within a framework of asset based community development, the land-use activities of the Anishinabeg became the catalyst for community sustainability. In other words, the traditional routes of travel were envisioned as possible school based, canoe trip routes, the traditional berry picking locations were defined as modern day harvest locations and the family fish camps were described as possible ‘eco-tourism” sites. Central to all of this was the notion of “preserve and protect”. Recognizing that the project would not only include the voices of the Elders or the testimony of the fishers but also the record of the missionaries or the reports of the Indian Agents, researchers, many of whom were community members, began to compile the story of the Anishinabeg and the land. The story of the land, however, was a two part undertaking. The first part of the project, is focusing on the “historical’ experience while the second part is centring on the issues related to community development. The historical experience has allowed the project to map family based fishing sites or traditional hunting grounds while the community development component of the project is connecting traditional activities to sustainable community development. Framed around the notion of asset based community development, the Community Well-Being Project is attempting to build upon the strengths of the community to help sustain a healthy, vibrant community. Until recently, community development as has been applied in the Indigenous community has largely been driven by western values and a western world view. It has, for the most part been about employment opportunities, skill enhancement or training, capital investment, partnership arrangements and infrastructure development. It has also largely been co-ordinated by the two senior levels of government in Canada and while on occasion it has included private sector participants such as the Royal Bank of Canada, Calmeadow or CAPE Fund Management Inc., it is through initiatives such as the federal government’s Community Economic Development program or provincial government programs such as Ontario’s New Relationship Fund that community development has touched the Indigenous community. Beginning in the late 1980's a slow but steady reassessment of the process of community development and its application within the Indigenous community began to occur. 1/15 26 y 27 de abril, Ciudad de México. Through the work of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, the Council for the Advancement of Native Development Officers, the National Centre for First Nations Governance, the First Nation Development Institute, the Center for American Indian Economic Development the Native American Institute as well as the efforts of Indigenous scholars such as Wanda Wuttunee, Sherry Salway Black, Dean Howard Smith and David Newhouse, a new community development paradigm evolved. This new community development paradigm tended to be culturally centred, value based, people oriented and holistic in application. It was also, as is argued by Newhouse in his paper “Modern Aboriginal Economies: Capitalism With a Red Face”, founded on the seven sacred teachings1 or what are often referred to as the seven grandfathers or the seven grandfather teachings. Identified by Newhouse as kindness, honesty, sharing, strength, bravery, wisdom and humility, the seven teachings speak to the capacity for caring, the maintenance of integrity in all relationships, generosity and sharing, strength of character, 2 courage, respect for knowledge and the gift of vision and finally, humbleness. As this new community development paradigm came to be applied and particularly as it was applied by the Indigenous community, community development focused on what the First Nation Development Institute has called “Native asset-building strategies”.3 Rather than “needs” based or “deficiency oriented” development, asset-based strategies are oriented on the strength of the community.4 Recognizing that asset building in the Indigenous community has a dual purpose, “assisting tribal nations in controlling and building their assets, and assisting tribal members with individual asset-building to support their families and communities”, the First Nations Development Institute established “An Asset Building Framework” in 2004.5 Within the framework, a typology of assets was developed to help facilitate the process. Reflecting “the holistic nature of Native communities and Native economies” as well as acknowledging the fact that assets are not just financial assets “but also cultural assets and human resources”, eight broad asset categories were defined.6 From financial assets to cultural assets social capital, the framework was intended to help provide for the establishment of asset-based, sustainable development strategies.7 Eventually co-ordinated by the Native America Asset Watch Initiative, the asset-building strategy came to form the cornerstone of the new community development 8 paradigm. Asset building as it has come to be applied has focused on both the resiliency of the Indigenous community and the social capital inherent therein. Community resiliency which has been defined as “the capacity of a distinct community or cultural system to absorb disturbance and reorganize while undergoing change so as to retain key element of structure and identity that preserves it distinctness’ and social capital as “those features of social organization, such as trust, norms and networks that improve the efficience of society by facilitating coordinated actions” both factor large in the asset building equation. Indeed it is the trust, norms and networks of the 1 Newhouse actually refers to the teachings as “primary traditional values”. Cited as wisdom, love, bravery, honesty, humilty, truth and respect by Ojibway Elder Edward Benton-Benai in his book The Mishomis Book, Newhouse’s primary traditional values are the seven grandfather teachings. See the primary traditional values in David Newhouse, “Modern Aboriginal Economies: Capitalism With a Red Face”, The Journal of Aboriginal Economic Development, V. 1, N. 2, 2000, p. 58 and the seven grandfather teachings in Edward Benton-Benai, The Mishomis Book, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1988, pp. 60 - 66. 2 David Newhouse, op. cit., p. 58. 3 Integrated Asset-Building Strategies for Reservation-Based Communities: A 27 Year Retrospective of First Nations Development Institute, A Report Prepared for the First Nations Development Institute, Colorado, 2007, p. 4. 4 John Kretzmann and John McKnight, Building Communities from the Inside, The Asset-Based Community Development Institute, Northwestern University, Illinois, 1993, p. 2. 5 Rebecca Adamson, Sherry Salway Black and Sarah Dewees, Asset Building in Native Communities; An Asset Building Framework, First Nations Development Institute, Colorado, 2004, p. 6. 6 Ibid., p. 7. 7 Ibid., p. 8. 8 Native American Asset Watch: Rethinking Asset-Building in Indian Country, A Report Prepared for the First Nations Development Institute, Colorado, 2009, p. 10. 2/15 26 y 27 de abril, Ciudad de México. Indigenous community that have helped the community to retain key elements of its structure and provided for community sustainability. Community sustainability, however, as is suggested by Newhouse in the paper “The Development of the Aboriginal Economy Over the Next 20 Years”, must be “consistent with the cultural norms of the community” and development that takes place must “occur within the broad ethical guidelines of the community”.9 Arguing further, Sherry Salway Black maintains that community sustainability must allow “Native peoples to control and develop their assets, and through that control, build the capacity to direct their economic futures in ways that fit their cultures”.10 In other words, the new paradigm of community development not only acknowledges the culture and values of the Indigenous community it also attempts to incorporate the culture and values in the community development process. Recognizing as well

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