Abstract
The co-management of Natural resources, and in particular living resources, is increasingly being promoted as providing the means by which aboriginal groups could contribute to the overall management of natural resources in northern Canada. The concept of co-management has gained increased credibility in recent years due to the increasing awareness of the value of indigenous ecological knowledge and the reality of what might be called indigenous self-management of natural resources or the self-regulation of indigenous land based livelihood pursuits. Based on several years of field work with Anishinaabe "harvesters", this essay explores the problems and prospects for the sharing of resource management responsibilities between the state and aboriginal groups on lands customarily occupied by the latter. This exploration reveals that there are significant challenges confronting the sharing of resource management responsibilities that will have to be resolved if "co-management" is to become effective. This essay reveals these challenges as they are reflected in the cross-cultural incommensurability that divides Anishinaabe and non-aboriginal relationships to land in Northwestern Ontario. This essay employs the following methodology to arrive at its conclusions: Customary Anishinaabe relationships to land are examined from the perspective of local aboriginal descriptions and categories of land and "resources", as well as the reflection of this Anishinaabe presence in the land itself. The implications of Anishinaabe relationships to land are then explored from the perspective of the non-aboriginal discourse of "land use" and "resource management". The analysis is carried further in the context of an examination of normative Anishinaabe values that govern their livelihood activities on the land. Building on this analysis, the idea of co-management is then explored from the perspective of state assumptions concerning aboriginal relationships to land in natural resource law and management policy. It is also explored from the perspective of a specific "pilot project" that was designated as a "co-management" initiative. Finally, the idea of co-management in relation to aboriginal custom is examined from the perspective of internal aboriginal responses to it and the possible impacts this could have on Anishinaabe people who derive their livelihood from the land. The analysis of this essay examines the challenges confronting the practice of co-management from several perspectives. It reveals the severely limited extent to which Anishinaabe relationships to land in Northwestern Ontario are known to or appreciated by the Government of Ontario and the non-aboriginal residents of the region. This problem persists in terms of a limited awareness both about the character of Anishinaabe relationships to land and how they are reflected in Anishinaabe landscapes. An assessment of the character of Anishinaabe relationships to land also reveals the incommensurability which divides them from the discourse of co-management as it has developed in recent years. This is highly problematic in terms of the assumptions of the province of Ontario concerning the practice of resource management which would be applied to co-management processes. These assumptions are culturally foreign to Anishinaabe people who work on the land in accordance with their customs. This essay concludes that the dynamics of customary Anishinaabe relationships to land necessitate that the principle of co-existence should be rigorously applied in the establishment of any cooperative relationships on land use issues in the region. Two discourses concerning relationships to land must be reconciled in a manner where customary aboriginal relationships to land are recognized, affirmed and protected. Otherwise it is unlikely that the value of customary Anishinaabe relationships to land can play any significant role in generating meaningful cooperation on the land.