“We monitor by living here”: Indigenous harvesters and researchers co-develop methods for ecological monitoring
The territory of the Gitga’at First Nation located on the north coast of what is now called British Columbia has aspects of its ecology monitored by government scientists, academic researchers, and the Gitga’at Guardian Watchmen Program. To enhance understanding of change in their territory, the Gitga’at First Nation solicited the collaboration of researchers from the University of Victoria to help design a monitoring program based on the knowledge and observations of their harvesters and Elders.
Researchers, Elders, and harvesters worked together to establish the following community monitoring objectives: documenting ecological change to inform stewardship and adaptation planning, encouraging youth to learn about their territory and traditional foods, strengthening the case for Gitga’at rights and title to their territory and resources, and informing health and wellness programming.
Read this open access paper on the FACETS website.
Over the course of two traditional food harvest seasons, researchers and harvesters designed and revised two methods to document their observations and ecological change. These were a semi-structured interview guide and a harvesters’ logbook. The interviews were conducted by University researchers and Gitga’at community researchers after each harvest season, and the logbooks were completed by harvesters at their convenience.
To meet community objectives, the information collected included observations of changing quality as well as factors such as abundance of traditional foods harvest locations, the number of harvesters, preservation and preparation of food, changes in weather patterns, ecological abnormalities, sharing and trading networks, and whether needs for traditional foods were met.
Conversations that were facilitated through the semi-structured interviews were most successful in meeting the multiple community objectives. However, as suggested by younger harvesters, the logbook has the potential to be turned into a digital app to facilitate participation in the ongoing monitoring program.
Tools that were developed are available to other groups to adapt to their own social, cultural, and ecological contexts. This detailed account of co-developing monitoring methods can serve as a guide to others interested in developing similar programs to leverage the knowledge of land and (or) sea users.
Read the full paper — “We monitor by living here”: community-driven actualization of a social-ecological monitoring program based in the knowledge of Indigenous harvesters by Kim-Ly Thompson, Nikkita Reece, Nicole Robinson, Havana-Jae Fisher, Natalie C. Ban and Chris R. Picard.
