Conservation group teams with Anishinaabe

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This article was published 29/09/2023 (967 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

NEAR SHILO — A new agricultural and conservation partnership between the Nature Conservancy of Canada and a local Anishinaabe group was announced on the banks of the Assiniboine River, just south of Shilo yesterday.

The 305-hectare area of land known as Waggle Springs was renamed Wabano Aki during a naming ceremony with Anishinaabe cultural support worker Ken Norquay, who works for West Region Treaty 2 and 4 Health Services, Gordon Bedomme, the owner of the land, and representatives from the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC).

Wabano Aki translates to “tomorrow’s land” in Anishinaabemowin, the language of the Anishinaabe people. The land is important both culturally and agriculturally, as well as for biodiversity conservation, the NCC says. It features fresh-water springs, mixed-grass prairie, wetlands and forest habitats, and is home to many wildlife and plant species, including the northern leopard frog and the round leaf monkey flower, and at-risk birds such as Sprague’s pipit and the eastern wood-pewee.

Over the past five years, the groups, who refer to themselves collectively as the Stewards of Wabano Aki, have worked together to build relations, trust and understanding while working to conserve the land, the NCC says.

Norquay and others he works with will be holding different ceremonies and teaching events on the land, especially ones that will help young Indigenous people reclaim their roots.

“Our focus is on young people,” he said. “They’re rediscovering who they are. Some generations have been lost, and a lot of negative impacts are out there.”

A plan for managing the property includes collaborative approaches to access and different uses of the lands and traditional Indigenous knowledge and practices as well as best conservation science and practices. Portions of the property will also be leased by one of the previous landowners and other renters for grazing cattle and goats.

Anishinaabe people will be able to share their wisdom and knowledge of the land with the NCC, Norquay said.

“There’s more to just a plant than what you see out there. There’s a spiritual aspect to that plant.”

In the Anishinaabe world view, Norquay says that the phrase “all of our relations” includes not just humans but all lifeforms, including plants, animals and other creatures, which Norquay says is an essential part of conservation.

The NCC is honoured to collaborate on the joint use of the land with the Anishinaabe, and how that collaboration can be a part of reconciliation, making use of both Indigenous tradition and science to monitor and manage the land and its species, said NCC’s natural area manager in Manitoba, Josh Dillabough.

”We are all one people and have an obligation to work together.”

The project is a model on how to increase opportunities for sharing knowledge, shared land use for cultural and educational opportunities and care of the land and species, Dillabough said.

Bedomme, who first met Norquay when he was harvesting native plants on the land, said working with the NCC and the Anishinaabe leaders that are part of the project has been a wonderful experience that has taught him what reconciliation is all about.

“It’s to reduce the misunderstanding between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. Everything [we’re doing here] has been positive, and I think it always will be.”

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