Cultural experience colors
environmental perceptions
By Kate Wilhelm
Native Canadians feel a closer relationship with the environment than their non-native counterparts do, say researchers.
Former geography undergraduate Jeremy Shute, now a master's student at Carleton University, and College of Social Science dean David Knight have studied how members of the Teme-Augama Anishnabai band and non-native inhabitants relate to the environment in the Temagami area of Northern Ontario.
"Our concern was to clearly identify that indigenous and European Canadians have different knowledge and perceptions of like environments," says Knight. "We found that the Teme-Augama Anishnabai perceive the land in a more complex, more detailed way than do the non-indigenous people."
The study focused on members of the Wendaban Stewardship Authority (WSA), which consisted of both native and non-native people. The WSA was established in the Temagami area as a joint council of non-native government appointees and local natives to address land-management issues.
As part of the study, the participating WSA members explained the nature of their approach to the environment through the use of mental mapping and informal discussion rather than through structured interviews. This unique approach revealed many important differences between native and non-native views of the local environment.
The Teme-Augama Anishnabai members, for example, viewed local rivers and waterways as sources of both food and transportation; the government appointees viewed them primarily as a source of recreation. And although the clear-cutting of old-growth forest in the area was a concern to all WSA members, natives spoke in more intimate terms.
"The Teme-Augama Anishnabai talked about learning from the old people in their community, hearing stories from elders and parents about the land and the people who had lived on it, and of learning from their own travels on the land," says Knight.
The non-native concern for the forests was more political. Government appointees learned about the area through sources such as meetings or books. But both native and non-native members of the WSA were concerned with maintaining the environmental integrity of the Temagami area.
Shute and Knight's study demonstrates both similar concerns for the environment and important differences between native and non-native approaches to the land and the environment.
"Members of the WSA must explore these differences as they seek to come to new levels of understanding," says Knight.
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