Abstract
The Cree of Northern Ontario, Canada, have proved resilient and adaptable to social and environmental changes. However, the rapidity of climate change impacts in the Hudson Bay Lowlands of the Canadian sub-Arctic is challenging this resiliency. A collaborative project conducted with the Weenusk First Nation at Peawanuck and researchers at Lakehead University used the concept of wellbeing to explore the impact of climate change on current subsistence activities, resource management, and conservation strategies, while considering the implications of globalization on climate change awareness. This article describes the analysis of 22 interviews conducted with members of the Weenusk First Nation at Peawanuck. Findings indicate that residents are concerned with a variety of changes in the environment and their ability to use the land. For example, they noted changes in travel routes on water and land, often attributing these to geomorphic changes in the coastal landscapes along Hudson Bay. They also noted the disappearance of particular insects and bird species, and variations in the distribution of particular fauna and flora. Possible impacts of these changes on the community's wellbeing and resiliency are examined. Another major theme that arose from the analysis was the impact of traditional modes of communication (eg traditional knowledge, radio, newspaper) and newer forms (eg satellite television and the internet) on Indigenous people's understanding of climate change. Given that few researchers have acknowledged or recognized the globalization of the moccasin telegraph (ie the traditional mode of communication between First Nations), a discussion of this phenomenon and its significance for understanding emerging knowledge systems in small, remote First Nation communities is central to this article.
Highlights
Change has always been a fact of life for people in the Canadian North[1]
‘more than 70% of northern Aboriginal adults harvest natural resources through hunting and fishing and, of those, >96% do so for subsistence purposes’[11]. The importance of these activities is being affected by the rate of such ecological change
In the findings and discussion section we present the salient themes from the analysis; these include climate change, adaptation and resilience, health and wellbeing, and the transformation of the moccasin telegraph into the moccasin network
Summary
Change has always been a fact of life for people in the Canadian North[1]. Since the 19th century, the social context of northern communities in Canada has changed from preindustrial nomadic and semi-nomadic lifestyles, due to the centralised settlement of industrial resource exploitation in the mid-20th century[2,3], to the mobile, inter-connected, globalised world of the present[4,5]. Issues of concern for Northern peoples today include climate change, individual and community wellbeing[6], bio-magnification of toxins, erosion of traditional skills and knowledge, emerging intergenerational segregation, increasing dependence on technology, issues of self-governance, and reliance on outside financial support[7]. The importance of these activities is being affected by the rate of such ecological change (the greatest being increasing temperatures and precipitation already affecting the Hudson Bay region[8]). These changes are severely challenging the flexibility that has traditionally sustained Northern communities[12,13]
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