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Centring partnerships and relationships in research

About Reckoning with Colonialism

Curious about decolonizing fisheries?

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Transdisciplinarity is generally described as a method that extends inter or multi-disciplinarity work outside of the academy, to include governments, communities, and/or civil society actors in the work. Max-Neef emphasizes that transdisciplinarity is not a methodology per se, but rather an epistemology – a system that approaches knowledge production at the boundary between knowing and being.

 

Using this broader notion of transdisciplinarity as a research paradigm allows us to centre partnerships and relationships in the work. Because an increasing amount of our work has been focused on partnerships with Indigenous communities, governments, and representative organizations, we see the concept of relational accountability as key to doing this transdisciplinary work in a good way. In his book Research is Ceremony, Cree scholar Shawn Wilson emphasizes that relational accountability is about walking a (research) journey together. Thinking about the emphasis Max-Neef places on knowing and being, partnership-driven transdisciplinary work allows us to do good research (pushing the boundary of what we know) in a good way (centering relationships and people in how we go about that research). 

 

Doing work in this way reckons with colonialism. It reckons with the coloniality resent in research processes and practices. It asks us to confront what we study, how we study it, who we study it with. It asks us to confront whose stories we are told and we tell. Because much of our work centres on fisheries, this work also reckons with colonialism in governance institutions and management regimes relating to local, regional and international fisheries (Jones et al. 2024, Cadman et al., 2024a). Some of this work provides empirical insights on what community engagement (Seidler et al. 2024) and data sovereignty (Ortenzi et al. 2024) look like in the context of work in Nunatsiavut.  With partners we have synthesized principles of knowledge co-production (Zurba et al. 2022, Petriello et al. 2023), described partnership-driven approaches to future visioning and capacity-sharing research methods (Cadman et al. 2024b  and b), and confronted how positionality and power manifest in transdisciplinary work (Cadman et al. 2024c). And as a research group we dove deep into articulating some of the work we have to do as non-Indigenous scholars working in fisheries science (Cadman et al. 2024a).

 

We hope to contribute to emerging questions around when and where transdisciplinarity and knowledge-co-production lead to reinforcing colonialism in academic partnerships and where these ways of doing work can work in anti-and decolonial ways.

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Key papers:

 

Cadman R, Bodwitch H, Hamelin K, Ortenzi K, Seidler D, Sinan H, Kim A, Akinrinola G, Sheike Heile A & Bailey M. (2024). Working towards decolonial futures in Canada: First steps for non-Indigenous fisheries researchers.  Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 81(9). https://doi.org/10.1139/cjfas-2023-0235

 

Cadman R, Snook J, Goudie J, Watts K, Broomfield T, Johnson R, Winters J, Dale A & Bailey, M. 2024. We don’t have a lot of trees, but by God, do we have a lot of fish”: Imagining post-colonial futures for the Nunatsiavut fishing industry. AlterNATIVE: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples.  https://doi.org/10.1177/11771801241249920

 

Cadman R, Syliboy A, Saunders M, Denny S, Denniston M, Barry E, Bishop B, Landovskis S & Bailey M. Using positionality to support equity in partnership researcher. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences. 81(9): 1319-1328. https://doi.org/10.1139/cjfas-2023-0235

 

Jones R, Doubleday N, Bailey M, Paul K, Taylor F, and Pulsifer P. 2024. Reconciliation and Indigenous Ocean Management in Canada: Current Status. Chapter 2 in Sumaila UR, Armitage D, Bailey M, and Cheung WWL (Eds) Sea Change: Charting a Sustainable Future for Oceans in Canada. UBC Press.

 

Ortenzi KM, Flowers VL, Pamak C, Saunders M, Schmidt JO, Bailey M. Good data relations key to Indigenous research sovereignty: A case study from Nunatsiavut. Ambio. 2024 Sep 3. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-024-02077-6

 

Petriello MA, Zurba M, Schmidt JO, Anthony K*, Jacque N*, Nochasak C*, Winters J*, Winters J*, Bailey M, Oliver ECJ*, McCarney P, Bishop B, Bodwitch H, Cadman R, and McLaren M. 2023. The power and precarity of knowledge co-production: A case study of SakKijânginnaniattut Nunatsiavut Sivunitsangit (the Sustainable Nunatsiavut Futures Project). In S Gómez, and V Köpsel (Eds). Transdisciplinary Marine Research: Bridging Science and Society (pp. 127-148). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003311171-9.

 

Zurba M, Petriello MA, Madge C, McCarney P, Bishop B, McBeth S, Denniston M, Bodwitch H, and Bailey M. 2022. Learning from knowledge co-production research and practice in the twenty-first century: Global lessons and what they mean for collaborative research in Nunatsivut. Sustainability Science 17(2): 449-467.

 

Seidler D, Zurba M, McCarney P, Saunders M, Bailey M, and Bodwitch H. (In press). Reshaping Research Paradigms: Insights From a Large-Scale Project Based in Nunatsiavut, Labrador Canada.  Arctic.

Reckoning with colonialism in fisheries: First steps for researchers (Rachael Cadman, PDF)

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This was a workshop held at the World Fisheries Congress in Seattle WA (3rd March 2024).The workshop brought together people from around the world to reflect on how colonialism structures fisheries governance, management, and sciences. The day began with presentations from Indigenous leaders in fisheries governance and research, coming from all over North America. Presenters shared stories of their experiences with their fisheries, and how colonialism has affected their relationships with fish and fisheries. 

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​Workshop attendees were also invited to provide their own stories or experiences. All of these stories provided a strong picture of the importance of fish for many Indigenous Peoples, and of the barriers and violence many have faced in trying to maintain that relationship. 

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In the second half of the workshop, participants were invited, in breakout groups, to discuss a better future for fish & fisheries. They were asked to reflect on what they love about fish, and what a “decolonial” or “Indigenized” fisheries governance system would look like. â€‹These conversations were captured using collage, with each group creating a large image that reflected their alternative vision for the future of fisheries.

 

​The event was organised in collaboration with Andrea Reid and her team at the Centre for Indigenous Fisheries. We are grateful for their leadership and guidance.​

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Caught in Translation: Exploring Mi’kmaw Representation in Nova Scotia Fishery Disputes (Kali Hines, MMM)

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Mainstream media has the unique ability to rapidly reach an extensive audience, informing the public on local and global events. Although reporting intends to remain unbiased, the language, tone, and focus of mainstream media can easily bias the general public to certain conclusions. The acknowledgement of this fact is especially important in light of the 2020 fishery conflict in Saulnierville, NS, between Mi’kmaw and non-Mi’kmaw commercial lobster fishermen. The conflict was rife with racism and confrontations on- and off-water. Notably, media communications of the Mi’kmaw fishery conveyed a sense that Mi’kmaq were doing something “illegal” or “unauthorized” despite the 1999 Marshall decision that upheld treaty rights. This research will explore the representation of Mi’kmaq fishing in breaking news media. It is hypothesized that Mi’kmaq fishing is represented inaccurately in breaking news media through biased language, false narratives, and racist rhetoric. 

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This research will focus on Nova Scotia’s 2020 Saulnierville lobster dispute as a case study, looking to determine how power dynamics and marginalization contribute to who is featured in communications and when. Through relationality of words and narratives present across breaking news articles from mainstream media, this research asks how the language used in breaking news about lobster fishery disputes between Mi’kmaw and non-Mi’kmaw harvesters frames the narrative presented to the public.

Through exploring relationality and narratives across articles, this research will look to determine how power dynamics and marginalization contribute to who is featured in communications and when. Specifically, this research asks how the language used in breaking news about lobster fishery disputes between Mi’kmaw and non-Mi’kmaw harvesters frames the narrative presented to the public. This research aims to contribute and guide larger conversations surrounding the importance of accurate and respectful portrayals of Indigenous peoples in media, demonstrating the importance of the language used and how it can shift the larger narrative.

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How GIS can Support Indigenous Storytelling Traditions: Mapping Significant Areas for FSC Fisheries in the Bras D'or Lake (Tamara-Lee M. Joseph, MMM)

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Fisheries have always been an important component of Mi’kmaq culture, livelihood, and food security as they provided sustenance for thousands of years. The Mi’kmaq people devoted centuries in developing fisheries management protocols based on cultural significance. However, over time Western Science has dominated fisheries management in Canada, and now current research and management methods often unintentionally overlook culturally significant marine areas, leading to misleading and incomplete fisheries data.

 

The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between Mi’kmaq knowledge systems and Geographic Information System (GIS) using the Two-Eyed Seeing Approach. In doing so, this work, contributes to the development of protocols to improve Food, Social, and Ceremonial (FSC) fisheries management between the Mi’kmaq nation and the Canadian government. A map of the Bras D’or Lake, located in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, will be created to highlight the culturally significant areas using GIS layers provided by both Western and Indigenous Knowledge Systems. By including storytelling, legends, and other culturally significant knowledge systems as data layers and as a communicative tool within GIS, this study presents a Mi’kmaq story with academic referencing and mapping to braid the two perspectives together, further demonstrating how Two-Eyed Seeing can be effectively used in science.

 

The objectives for this study are to successfully incorporate the Two-Eyed Seeing Approach into marine management and determine gaps in current research, knowledge, and data collection in FSC fisheries.

Contact the Bailey Lab

Faculty of Science, Marine Affairs Program

Life Sciences Centre, 1355 Oxford St.

Halifax NS, Canada

Bailey Lab

Logo and species illustrations by Alex Sawatzky

The Bailey Lab (Dalhousie University) is located on the unceded territory of the Mi'kmaq and has long been inhabited by the African Nova Scotian peoples. We are all Treaty people.

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