Anishinabek Women’s Nibi Giikendaaswin (Water Knowledge)

There is growing acknowledgement that the material dimensions of water security alone are inadequate; we also need to engage with a broader set of hydrosocial relationships. Indeed, more holistic approaches are needed to explain Indigenous peoples’ relationships to water including the use of traditional water sources such as mountain creeks and springs. In this paper, we seek to reimagine water security through a case study of Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in’s relationships to both treated and traditional water sources throughout the First Nation’s traditional territory in Yukon, Canada. Through community-based research including interviews with Elders and other community members, we examine the importance of traditional water sources for meeting important health requirements including physical, spiritual and cultural wellbeing. This intervention contributes to ongoing debates about what it means to secure safe and affordable water in three key ways: First, we argue that Indigenous water relations invite a shift towards more a holistic understanding of water security; second, we contend that settler colonial politics should be understood as a root cause of water insecurity; finally, we explore how Two-Eyed Seeing can be applied as an alternative to the ‘integration’ of Western scientific and Indigenous approaches to drinking water.

Section: Chuu: Tr'ondëk Hwëch'in Relationships To Watermentioning

confidence: 99%

Water is Medicine: Reimagining Water Security through Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in Relationships to Treated and Traditional Water Sources in Yukon, Canada

Wilson

Harris

Joseph-Rear³

et al. 2019

“…N'bi has had a profound effect on my life. I understood as a young person how N'bi is "an important source of healing" and "during times of difficulty is the time to get healing from the water" [10,24]. I understood that water is regarded as "sacred" and is a "powerful medicine" with "life giving properties" [10,11,[24][25][26].…”

Section: N'dakenjigwen Approach Methodology and Positionalitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The intent of this paper is to provide my understanding of the importance in working with Elders and language speakers through the lens of Anishinabek ontology-epistemology when conducting research [10]. I will argue the importance including Anishinabek women in water governance and will convey the ndakenjigwen approach utilized in ndod-ne-aah-non chi-kendaaswin with a specific focus on Anishinaabek g'giikendaaswinmin (knowledge) from the Great Lakes Region.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Indigenous Research Methodology That Employs Anishinaabek Elders, Language Speakers and Women’s Knowledge for Sustainable Water Governance

Chiblow

2020

Indigenous research paradigms are congruent to Indigenous worldviews and have become more dominant in areas such as Indigenous policy and education. As Indigenous research paradigms continue to gain momentum, the historical legacy of unethical research is addressed as more Indigenous communities and organizations develop their own research protocols. There is a plethora of articles explaining Indigenous research methodologies, but few examine the inclusion of the knowledge from Elders, language speakers, and Indigenous women in sustainable water governance. My Indigenous research methodology draws on the works of Indigenous scholars Shawn Wilson, Linda Smith, and Margaret Kovach, with specific focus on Wendy Geniusz’s Biskaabiiyang. My Indigenous research methodology is specific to the Anishinaabe territory of the Great Lakes region and includes Anishinaabek Elders, Anishinaabemowin (Ojibway language) speakers, and Anishinaabek women. This article seeks to contribute to Indigenous research paradigms and methods by elucidating the importance of engaging Anishinaabek Elders, Anishinaabemowin speakers, and Anishinaabek women in sustainable water governance.

“…Another contribution by Chilbow (Ogamauh annag qwe) [74] reframes water governance according to Anishinabek relationships to water. In particular, she engages Indigenous research methods, including interviews with Anishinabek Elders and reflections on her lived experience, to outline how Anishinabek understand and construct giikendaaswin (knowledge) based on Anishinabek ontology-epistemology which includes nibi (water) giikendaaswin.…”

Section: Indigenous Water Governance and Politicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We also see considerable value, illustrated in the pages of this volume, regarding the important learning that can occur across disciplines and geographies, whether from bringing realities of First Nations into conversation with the situation elsewhere, or by linking political ecology with urban studies, planning, anthropology, and other approaches. Here we can break new conceptual and analytical ground, whether that relates to the concept of "unmapping" [54] or thinking about the implications of nibi (water) giikendaaswin (Ogamauh annag qwe, see Chiblow) [74], or through understandings of Indigenous wellbeing as connected to territory and the relationships that are forged with and through water [76]. We find such critiques and learnings to be of vital importance.…”

Section: Conclusion: Re-theorizing Politicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Re-Theorizing Politics in Water Governance

Wilson

Harris

Nelson

et al. 2019

This Special Issue on water governance features a series of articles that highlight recent and emerging concepts, approaches, and case studies to re-center and re-theorize “the political” in relation to decision-making, use, and management—collectively, the governance of water. Key themes that emerged from the contributions include the politics of water infrastructure and insecurity; participatory politics and multi-scalar governance dynamics; politics related to emergent technologies of water (bottled or packaged water, and water desalination); and Indigenous water governance. Further reflected is a focus on diverse ontologies, epistemologies, meanings and values of water, related contestations concerning its use, and water’s importance for livelihoods, identity, and place-making. Taken together, the articles in this Special Issue challenge the ways that water governance remains too often depoliticized and evacuated of political content or meaning. By re-centering the political, and by developing analytics that enable and support this endeavor, the contributions throughout highlight the varied, contested, and important ways that water governance needs to be recalibrated and enlivened with keen attention to politics—broadly understood.