Content area
Full Text
Introduction
Historically the Mi'kmaq, one of the Indigenous people of Eastern Canada, governed natural resources of their traditional territory of Mi'kma'ki (Figure 1), known today as parts of Maritime Canada and Quebec (Paul, 2000; Prosper, McMillan, Davis & Moffitt, 2011). To ensure a mutually beneficial relationship with natural resources, understood to be gifts from the Creator, the Mi'kmaq had their own governance (Davis, 1997). Ladner (2005) summarizes Mi'kmaq governance as a "complex system of territorially defined relations and responsibility, multilevel governance, ethics and law [that] was and remains an effective means of managing a people, a territory and the relationship with other beings" (p. 941). Distinct political districts within Mi'kma'ki sustained a certain number of families and allowed for intimate knowledge about animal movements and resource status (Berneshawi, 1997; NCNS, 2007). The Mi'kmaq interacted with the availability of gifts in the area, often moving between districts that ensured renewal of the land and gifts. Their philosophy and way of life, referred to as Netukulimk, is aimed at ensuring the availability of all animal and plants that contributed to the survival of the Mi'kmaq people for generations to come (Berneshawi, 1997).
Today, Mi'kmaq philosophy remains much the same despite centuries of assimilation...