TLA-O-QUI-AHT KNOWLEDGE SYSTEMS Saul Milne & Terry Dorward October 29 & 30 2019 Indigenous Knowledge Forum • Tla-o-qui-aht • Political context of knowledge production OVERVIEW • Research initiated by Tla-o-qui-aht First Nations • Fish WIKS (SSHRC funded) • EPIC4 (Genome Canada/Genome BC funded) • Traditional Resource Committee • Doing indigenous research • Preliminary findings TLA- O - QUI- AHT TFN TLA-O-QUI-AHT • Current occupied villages (Esowista, Ty Histanis, Opitsaht) located on the west coast of Vancouver Island near Tofino, B.C. • ha-ha-huułi (land [and its resources] owned by a chief) and nismaa (the land) includes Kennedy Watershed • Tla-o-qui-aht Chiefly Family relatives of the Nuu-Chah-Nulth-aht • Chief and Council for program delivery • The Ha'wiih (Hereditary Chiefs) are the traditional leadership that govern the Lands, Resources, Cultural Activities of the Tla-o-qui-aht people - they are informed by haahuupa (teachings) and himwića (storytelling) and ?uusumč (careful seeking, knowledge acquisition). • Tla-o-qui-aht First Nations is a confederation of families Highway 4 completed in 1959 1970’s Pacific Rim Protecting Wah-nuh-jus-hilth-hoo (Meares Island) POLITICAL CONTEXTS OF Scientific Panel for Sustainable Forest Practices in Clayoquot Sound KNOWLEDGE PRODUCTION Tla-o-qui-aht Treaty West Coast Aquatic 2009 the BC Supreme Court recognized the aboriginal rights of five Nuu-chah-nulth Nations (Ahousaht, Ehattesaht/Chinehkint, Hesquiaht, Tla-o-qui-aht, Mowachaht/Muchalaht) FUNDED RESEARCH PROJECTS • Fish WIKS - https://www.dal.ca/sites/fishwiks.html 1. Identify opportunities with the Tla-o-qui-aht Traditional Resource Committee to depict Tla-o- • The research aims to identify the commonalities and qui-aht knowledge systems through the documentation differences in Indigenous knowledge systems of both formal and informal oral histories and archival and ethnographic records associated with the renewal • 4 PhD Students and 4 masters Students across the Pacific, Arctic, Inland and Atlantic regions and in four 2. Explore the ontological assumptions of e.g. nature, distinct coastal communities in Canada (Tla-o-qui-aht, regeneration, and life, while remaining accountable to British Columbia; Naujaat, Nunavut; Nipissing, Ontario; the Tla-o-qui-aht Traditional Resource Committee; and Eskasoni, Nova Scotia). and • Fish WIKS is interested in the “how” of knowledge 3. Work with the Tla-o-qui-ahtTraditional Resource generation, transmission, and effective use, ‘the rules’ Committee and others in Tla-o-qui-aht’s fisheries underpinning institutional worldviews, and especially governance to identify opportunities for Tla-o-qui-aht those that relate to valuation, ownership and control of knowledge systems to find expression within the the substantive knowledge. current (e.g. local, regional, national, international) fisheries governance regimes by providing policy relevant recommendations to advance self- determination practices. RESEARCH PROJECTS • EPIC4 - http://www.sfu.ca/epic4/Act5/ActSlideShow.html • Enhancing Production in Coho: Culture, Community, Catch • Activity 5.1 - “The social-ecological values of a person’s community, society, and other cultural and reference groups provide the social context for subjective assessments of well- being and shape the meanings that may attach to new genomic enhancements of aquaculture strains and the protection of local wild populations.” • Broad range of values, held, assigned, relational, collective, etc. TRADITIONAL RESOURCE COMMITTEE • Tla-o-qui-aht had learned from research experience from Protected Areas for Poverty Reduction • In May 2015, Tla-o-qui-aht’s hawił and elected Chief and Council passed a Band Council Resolution to support the creation of the Traditional Resource Committee (TRC) TRADITIONAL RESOURCE COMMITTEE • Tla-o-qui-aht had their own desire to establish an endorsed committee comprised of youth, adults and elders to participate in and guide knowledge production • Participants include elected Chief and Council and Tla-o-qui-aht Hawił, Elders, knowledge • Meet over a meal, with an agenda, always in the villages TRC • The role of the TRC is research project co-participant • The purpose is to assist in implementing the principles of Tsawalk and specifically to assist: • in developing research project accountabilities • participate in priority setting • build awareness in the community • and to provide guidance, feedback and advice to researchers on analysis, and interpretation DOING INDIGENOUS RESEARCH Traditional Resource Committee as a response to Transitioning to Community-based knowledge production the requirement for 3 layers of reflexivity in • Research Protocol indigenous research methodologies: • Liaison • Traditional Resource Committee 1. 1st Person Reflexivity – power & privilege • 4 students through the TRC 2. Inter-personal Reflexivity - positionality, • non-academic research (salmon rebuilding plans) developing rapport Next Steps 3. Collective Reflexivity – sense making as a group • Digitizing Research (Source: Nicholls, 2009) • Centralizing Tla-o-qui-aht research Novel product from research: Film with • Evaluating previous research with TRC • Developing a community research plan through the knowledge Commentary production process PRELIMINARY FINDINGS FISH WIKS EPIC4 • Hahuppa contains the aspects of • Ontological focus, what sorts of worlds knowledge systems (use, value, there are, how do they come into being, transmission) and more, it tells us about eschewing an epistemic focus important concepts like: • What is salmon? • Quu?as (human) • How the First Salmon Ceremony • Isaak (sacred respect) illustrates values (held, assigned, • Tsawalk (all is one) desirable) CHU.