Indigenizing Water Governance within Treaty Lands and Territory: Development of Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation Water Framework
Year: 2021
Type: dissertation
Abstract: This research asked 'how can water governance be Indigenized within a social justice framework'?' in response to Canadian water governance injustices for Indigenous peoples. It applied this question to the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation’s (MCFN) need for developing a water framework to Indigenize water governance within its treaty lands and territory, as a partial resolution to its 2016 Water Claim (Aboriginal Title Claim to Waters within the Traditional Lands of the Mississaugas of the New Credit). Through an emergent MCFN context-specific research methodology adapted from Kovach’s Indigenous research framework, this research explored MCFN’s water values and how they related to MCFN’s Water Claim to develop a water framework; and it aimed to decolonize constructs of social justice and western water governance. Using qualitative community-based participatory research methods, the key findings, underpinned by a literature-based conceptual framework, were: 1) MCFN’s water values were multi-faceted and interdependent within plural and intersecting Indigenous identities shaped by historical and contemporary colonial influences and Indigenous resistances; 2) The meanings of MCFN’s Water Claim, correlating to their water values, were: Healing Ourselves by reconnecting with our Anishinaabe culture; Protecting the water: having a say; and Sustaining Ourselves by reclaiming our inherent, Aboriginal title and treaty rights; 3) MCFN’s multi-dimensional Water Framework, based on the Water Claim meanings, centralizes Water is Life and embraces principles, objectives and suggested actions for MCFN’s implementation; 4) MCFN’s Water Framework as social justice for reconciliation related to MCFN’s agency in reclaiming and reconstituting its rights, culture and voice within respectful relationships and social transformations rather than Fraser’s model of economic (re)distribution, political representation and cultural recognition; and 5) MCFN’s Water Framework supports the reconceptualization of the resource-based Canadian water governance to values of interconnectedness, respect, and responsibilities. This is how MCFN sees itself Indigenizing water governance within its treaty lands and territory; and contributing to the larger water governance Indigenizing movements. The research was significant because it directly addressed a community need, expanded on Indigenous research methodologies, and decolonized western constructs to shift the power hierarchy between the colonizer and Indigenous peoples towards respectful relationships.
Author: Renee Goretsky
Language: English
Subfield: Law
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funder: National Research Foundation
OpenAlex ID: W3161813719