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ISBN: 9780865719095-07

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Beautiful Protest

From: Changing Tides

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This chapter will draw on the parallels between BC’s coastal First Nations and other Indigenous groups who have been integrating the traditional and the modern (including science) to reclaim the resources that define their culture. The chapter then examines examples of the relationships between access to wild food, cultural identity, and holistic health in Indigenous communities; this chapter does this by highlighting the example of the Dungeness crab. The chapter highlights how the Kitasoo/Xai’xais, Wuikinuxv, Heiltsuk,and Nuxalk nations of the Central Coast used Indigenous knowledge and traditional fishing practices to reconstruct past population trends in Dungeness crab which had been in decline since the early 1990’s. Due to the practices and laws of the DFO the crab population was being decimated so the Nations who lived there turned to their traditional laws to bring back the longevity and sustainability of this food resources. By protesting and fighting with the DFO, the nations were able to bring back the crab population and recently had their work credited and respected by the DFO making for a long but “beautiful Protest” which helped return the crab population and provides a key example of how Indigenous laws and their application to a modern management/conservation context can be crucial to preserving local ecosystems.

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Alejandro Frid

Alejandro Frid, Ph.D., an ecologist for First Nations of British Columbia’s Central Coast and Adjunct Assistant Professor at the University of Victoria, has for over two decades inhabited the worlds of science, modern Indigenous cultures, and climate activism. He lives on Bowen Island, British Columbia.