Paddling the Biigtig: Mino biimadisiwin practiced through canoeing

Abstract

The land is critically important for the health of Indigenous peoples, as it is the place where Indigenous Knowledge originates to form strong and healthy relationships. In the wake of unprecedented processes of environmental dispossession, Indigenous communities around the world are revitalizing the land-based cultural practices and knowledge systems that have kept them strong and healthy. For the first time in a century, Biigtigong Nishnaabeg canoed the length of the Biigtig Ziibii (Pic River). With a greater purpose of reclaiming places (e.g., mountains, rivers, portages) along the route in Anishinabemoen (the Ojibway language) and restoring community history of the river and its meanings, this canoe journey was also developed to restore land-based learning about healthy relationships and mino bimadisiwin, or “the good life”. Four adults and five youth participated in this journey. Framed theoretically by the concept of environmental repossession, this paper examined participants' perceptions (n = 9) of the canoe journey, with emphasis placed on the ways in which it fostered health and well-being. Specifically, this canoe trip supported spaces for learning and practice of Indigenous Knowledge, nurturing of social relationships and, stronger connections to the land. Participants defined the canoe journey as an important space for sharing intergenerational and ancestral understandings of Indigenous Knowledge, and for broadening understandings of the land as part of the community's history, culture and well-being. As other communities search for ways to both assert their Indigenous rights and identity, this case provides an important example to build from.