WEMINDJI COMMUNITY VOICES ON THE FUTURE OF THE MARINE REGION

A conversation with community members on what they value, the issues they face, and their vision for the future of the Eeyou Marine Region

Compiled by the Eeyou Marine Region Planning Commission February 2019

EEYOU MARINE REGION

The of Eeyou Istchee have occupied and cared for the coastal regions identified in the Eeyou Marine Region Land Claim Agreement (EMRLCA) for millennia. The EMRLCA is a result of several decades of on and off negotiations between the Crees and Canada which began in the 1970s.

These negotiations resulted in the EMRLCA (a modern treaty) which came into effect on February 15, 2012. The EMRLCA covers approximately 61 270 square kilometers of and south eastern Hudson Bay off the coast of .

LAND USE PLANNING

Land use planning in the Eeyou Marine Region aims to protect and promote the existing and future well-being of the people of Eeyou Istchee. For this, we needed sit down with people of the coastal communities including representatives of local government, youth, elders, women, tallymen and land users to hear from them:

• what is important to them about the marine area, • what issues they are facing, and • what is their vision of the future of the marine region?

These conversations will help define the goals for land use planning in the Eeyou Marine Region and are described in this report.

The Eeyou Marine Region Planning Commission will continue this conversation with Wemindji through several activities in the community in the coming months and years, before a plan is tabled for consideration and approval. 82°0'0"W 80°0'0"W 78°0'0"W 76°0'0"W

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N22 THE EEYOU MARINE REGION PLANNING COMMISSION (EMRPC)

The Eeyou Marine Region Planning Commission (EMRPC)

The EMRPC is an independent body created out of the EMRLCA. The EMRPC is responsible for developing a land use plan to guide development and conservation in the Eeyou Marine Region. The EMRPC is made up of two commissioners nominated by the Grand Council of the Crees, one nominated by the government of Canada, and one nominated by the government of Nunavut. The commission also includes a chairperson selected by the other commissioners.

At the time of the consultations, the EMRPC included:

• Chairperson: Tina Petawabano • Cree Nominee: Chantal Otter Tetreault • Cree Nominee: Chris Beck • Canada Nominee: Lorne McNeice • Nunavut Nominee: David Alagalak

The EMRPC works closely with the Eeyou Planning Commission formed out of the 2012 Cree-Quebec Governance Agreement. The EPC includes Commissioners from each of the Cree communities and is chaired by the Cree Nation Government.

The EPC commissioner for Wemindji is:

• Elmer Georgekish • Johnny Mark (alternate) WHAT DO WEMINDJI CREES VALUE MOST ABOUT THE MARINE REGION? VALUES

EVERYTHING IS VALUABLE “I love everything about the marine area. The scenery, hunting, fishing, camping, picnics, boating, setting fish nets, sailing, kayaking”

FREEDOM “I love the fish and the freedom, it’s so quiet and so peaceful. The waters can be unforgiving but I feel so free when I go out there.”

LIVING OFF THE LAND “I mostly lived off the land learning the traditional way of life. I had limited education because I’d rather learn the traditional way of life.”

HUNTING “I also like to sit out on the islands for long neck. I hop on with friends who have boats. Sometimes it’s tiring, you have to run over to where they fly but the joy of it keeps me going out.”

FISHING “Setting up nets and making smoked fish is one of the things I loved the most. We would also get birds with snares instead of rifles. We would use a hook to retrieve the baby birds from under the rocks when they’ve just hatched.” VALUES

FISHING DERBIES “I value collecting firewood, driftwood, having picnics, tourism, and fishing derbies. We do a local fishing derby for sea trout in July.”

TRAPPING “Harvesting beaver and other furbearing animals was a good source of income.”

GATHERING “I started first at the Georgekish trapline collecting driftwood, cedar and different woods for floats and decoys. You need to collect different woods for cooking. You can’t use cedar for cooking because you can taste it. We used to collect eggs too.”

HARVESTING BERRIES “I harvest raspberries, strawberries, blackberries, goose berries, and cranberries. We also gather cloud berries. They can be found by small lakes on these islands.”

CONNECTING WITH OTHERS WHILE OUT ON THE LAND “The coastal families who had coastal traplines would all stay together on a particular island. I often went by canoe with my mom to set nets and stay on the islands.”

GOOSE ISLAND “I love Goose Island. That’s where I spent most of my time in the summer. I’m very emotional remembering my time on the island with my late husband and spring goose camp on the mainland. We used to spend every summer out there just the two of us.” VALUES

OLD FACTORY “I moved from Old Factory when I was 19. I used to love living out there. When the geese lost their big wings, you could chase after them like a rabbit along the shore.”

SEAL HUNTING “We used to make clothing from seal that was water proof, like hip waders. We used to set seal nets. We used seal for many things: clothing, ammunition cases, medicine and food. People used to eat seal, it has good nutritional value. We used to seal hunt when we had dog teams but not anymore. Maybe some still go out to hunt for seal.”

LEGENDS “There are many legends about marine area. There is one legend that originated from Chisasibi. According to the legend, a man was being chased by a cannibal, to escape the cannibal the man jumped into a ravine and shot up and killed the cannibal. That is why the land is red in that place.”

MONITORING “I’m part of Canadian rangers. When I first got into it, in the early 1990s, they had rangers all along the coast as the eyes and ears for Canadian government so if we see any odd ship, we would notify the government e.g. the Russians have a mind to come in and get access.” WHAT ARE THE ISSUES THAT WEMINDJI CREES ARE FACING IN THE MARINE REGION? ISSUES

CHANGES TO BERRIES “Back in the 80s when I was growing up, I spent lots of time on the islands. There were lots of berries, that’s disappearing now. There are not as many berries on islands. Maybe the seagulls are eating them?”

DEPLETION OF EELGRASS “The depletion of eelgrass has a great impact on our harvest. There’s no eelgrass, the brants can’t feed on it so they go onshore and consume other vegetation.”

CHANGES TO ICE CONDITIONS “The ice conditions in the spring are not as sure as before. The way ice is melting, ice patterns it just moves now not the way it used to be in the past. The ice would go out and come back to shore and sometimes because the ice would scrape the seabed that would help restore the vegetation.”

CHANGES SINCE HYDRO DEVELOPMENTS “Quebec committed to a guaranteed level of harvest. They said that our harvest wouldn’t change, it’s not true. It’s easier said than done. Certain projects handed out benefits to people from the immediately affected area but we are still feeling the effects on the coast and we are not seeing any benefit. Hydro Quebec says that we’re not impacted.”

CHANGES TO THE WATERS “I went to residential school and when I came back the waters were different, as soon as you get to shoreline it’s a brownish colour. It used to be grey. Now you see brown coloured sediments. You know green glacial water, it used to look like, that now you won’t see that. I don’t know how it affects the animals.” ISSUES

CHANGES TO BIRDS… “The harvest of [Canada] goose is getting very low. They don’t stay long. We depended on brants to supplement the harvest but now we can’t. There’s no eel grass and no brants. When there was eel grass it helped with the waterfowl. Even if we kill some, people get sick, because the birds they don’t eat vegetation.”

FISH “I’m sure the fish are damaged too. They need to check it once in a while. They could have something else other than mercury. Some fish are soft like jelly. I have to throw them away or burn them. This happens to whitefish and trout. Some are sick too. There needs to be research on this.”

WHALE “Whales are disappearing. Whales in James Bay are much smaller than in Hudson Bay and the water dried up in Eastmain they can’t get in there.”

CORMORANTS “We’ve started seeing cormorants up here now. We are getting heavily impacted by these birds. They swallow fish whole. They compete with our fish harvesting.”

INCREASED CONTACT WITH POLAR BEAR “I used to go out to the islands looking for eggs, but polar bears are taking over during the time we would usually go because we can’t travel anymore because of the ice. Then the polar bear eats them and there are none left for us.”

THE LAND IS GROWING “They say that with global warming the water is rising, it is happening everywhere but not here. Here the vegetation is growing fast. What was once an island has now become the mainland. I went hunting when I was 12 years old, when we hunted, we saw willows and trees back then. The uplift is supposed to be only so many meters. According to studies, uplift is inevitable but don’t know why it is happening so fast. The theory is that maybe it has to do with the reservoirs.” ISSUES

CHANGES TO CREE WAY OF LIFE “We are going out less now. My grandson is in school. It is hard for everyone. They built the school here, they told us to stay in the community. They talk only English and money. Every little boy asks for money. Besides alcohol going on in community and new things coming in, for example, new skidoos. It all means more families are split apart. One family over there another over here.”

CHANGES TO HUNTING PRACTICES “There are more and more hunters now. When young hunters go out to hunt on the coast, they don’t always ask. Elders used to advise people not to hunt when it’s calm (yostiich) only when it’s windy because the sounds of the shots carry far and the sound scares other animals.”

CREE LANGUAGE “Another time we went out for 2 weeks went to cut some wood I told them in Cree - make sure you put bows down before you put the wood down, I watched them just throwing it in the snow. I watched them, they didn’t understand me in Cree. So I told them in English you’re disrespecting the wood that gives you heat and also for cooking. How will you balance Cree culture and modern society? When you’re 40 will you still go out on the land? The keepers are getting smaller and smaller.”

SAFETY “It’s harder to find the channels now. I used to travel to Chisasibi, Eastmain, Moose Factory. Now I have to tilt my motor in places where I used to go full throttle because of isostatic rebound elders call it ‘the land is growing,’ the uplift.”

EMERGENCY RESPONSE “We don’t have a protocol for emergency response. I don’t think the fire department has equipment that could travel in severe conditions. We need a coast guard or search and rescue. Even if they have the equipment, I don’t think they practice.” WHAT IS THE VISION THAT WEMINDJI CREES HAVE FOR THE FUTURE OF THE MARINE REGION? VISION

PRESERVE AND PASS ON CREE WAY OF LIFE “I want to continue to speak my language and for this way of life to go-on on the islands. I want to see people continuing to pursue the traditional way of life, setting fish nets.”

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION “Most tallymen have ideas of which areas to protect with birds migrating. A lot of those areas are affected with climate change and the vegetation growing very fast. Certain areas, geese don’t land anymore.”

BIRD SANCTUARIES “Now a day’s young people are eager to take birds down. But we should have a limit to where we can hunt, maybe have a sanctuary for birds, geese, and ducks in the long run. I don’t know if all will agree. That should be part of our culture. Only take what you need.”

RESTRICT DEVELOPMENTS “Once upon a time, the engineers were looking at damming whole James Bay and pumping salt water out. They called it the GRAND canal. They did lots of studies about it. I don’t want to see that.”

RESTORE AREAS “There is a biologist from New Hampshire studying the eelgrass, they say it can be transplanted. I want to see eelgrass, birds and bears come back.”

TOURISM… “Tourism would be one thing to show people visiting what it’s like to fish or camp out there and go and tell legends and stories.”

DONE RIGHT “At last year’s COTA conference, we talked about different policies. In the St. Lawrence River, they used to have boats crowding whales. Now boats have to be 100 meters from whales. I would like to see the same thing here. You also see videos of people getting too close to polar bears. I don’t want to see that” VISION

COMMERCIAL HARVESTING “I’m interested to explore commercial harvesting of mussels. But if we commercialize any harvesting, I want to see a balance of economic development and protection so nothing becomes extinct.”

SEAPORT “Tawich were in discussion about developing a seaport. The idea has stalled for now. There’s no big business at this time. We still have it in our plans though. Years ago, we asked about it and the local tallyman didn’t allow it because he would lose a lot of his trapline. There are so many families living off his area that don’t have a trapline to go to. He also said that, because of the way water looks, he didn’t think water could take the weight of big ships. There may be too many sand bars.”

SAFETY “We should have enforcement with coast guards. Maybe we could initiate a coast guard auxiliary. They were willing to work with us to create one for up north.”

For more information on the Eeyou Marine Region Planning Commission please see:

https://www.eeyoumarineregion.ca/

You can contact the Eeyou Marine Region head office at:

819-895-2202

P.O. Box 580 4 Chief Isaiah Salt Road Waskaganish, Quebec, J0M 1R0