Fish-hood: Environmental assessment, critical Indigenous studies, and posthumanism at Fish Lake (Teztan Biny), Tsilhqot’in territory

Abstract

This article is about how fish are regulated through environmental assessment. The theoretical frame used is nested between critical Indigenous studies and posthumanism which allows for an interrogation of how fish are very formally produced as disposable through mining regulatory procedures, such as environmental impact statements, that form the basis of the environmental assessment processes in Canada. The site of analysis is Fish Lake on Tsilhqot’in lands in the interior of British Columbia. I look at the corporate-scientific foundation of Canadian federal environmental assessment and an amendment within the federal Fisheries Act that allows fish bearing lakes to be turned into mining waste areas. An analysis of the use of these regulations illuminates part of the story about a twice-rejected copper–gold mine proposal at Fish Lake. In light of how Canadian regulations can produce fish as disposable, I explore if the value of fish can be explained externally from capital accumulation and technical representations in scientific studies within environmental assessment. The article reveals the environmental assessment process largely negates what I refer to as “fish-hood.”