For many Indigenous Peoples across North America water is sacred. Water is also at the core of the six pillars under CEC’s Strategic Plan: water management, water cleanliness, ecosystem health, marine pollution, and supporting economic sectors heavily reliant on the sustainable management of water.
The Indigenous Approaches to Freshwater Management in North America project aims to document diverse Indigenous approaches, challenges and relationships to fresh water and to provide policy recommendations to decision-makers on how to better consider and respect Indigenous rights and Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK). The CEC’s Traditional Ecological Expert Group (TEKEG) is mandated to provide expert advice on opportunities to apply TEK to the CEC’s operations and policy recommendations. In 2020, the TEKEG requested greater leadership opportunities and autonomy in the work of the CEC. The TEKEG has also identified the importance of protecting Indigenous Peoples’ rights and relationships related to fresh water. In response, the CEC agreed to a TEKEG-led initiative focused on documenting Indigenous Peoples’ and communities’ approaches and TEK related to freshwater management.
With support from the CEC Secretariat, the TEKEG led the design and implementation of all components of the Indigenous Approaches to Freshwater Management in North America project.
Additional project details can be found in the Project Description.
Three case studies, one each from Canada, Mexico, and the United States, were compiled to examine the various freshwater contexts, issues and approaches of Indigenous Peoples across North America. These studies involved site visits to Indigenous communities, ensuring their active participation in gathering feedback and synthesizing information. Each case study resulted in the production of a video that captured the perspectives of the Indigenous communities on fresh water, emphasizing their deep connections to the land and water. The videos also explored the impacts of European contact, colonialism, settlers, resource development, and climate change, and highlighted the communities’ resilience through the preservation of TEK and self-determination in protecting their rights related to fresh water.
Freshwater Case Study
This video examines the Manitoba Métis Federation’s (MMF) efforts to protect freshwater river ecosystems, highlighting the Métis connection between water and traditional practices such as commercial fishing and trapping, which both sustain life and tend to the environment. It also highlights MMF’s environmental monitoring and youth stewardship programs, including a spawning study and waterway restoration projects, while emphasizing the value of Métis self-governance and the need for continued consultation by all sectors.
Freshwater Case Study
This video explores the deep connection of Indigenous Peoples in the Alaska and Yukon, primarily the Gwich’in people, to fresh water for sustenance and cultural identity. It focuses on the impacts of climate change on freshwater ecosystems and traditional food sources, central to their identity as Caribou people. It also highlights the role of water in Gwich’in oral histories and teachings, while showcasing the importance of self-determination through the community’s successful water clean-up efforts.
Freshwater Case Study
These five videos feature interviews with Mayan knowledge keepers on the importance of fresh water, found in jaltunes, for critical subsistence tasks in the region, such as growing food, eating and drinking. They also address a rise in water quality concerns, as well as traditional methods for purifying water using local foliage.
22 November 2022 – The CEC online Knowledge Dialogue, Application of Indigenous Knowledge in Water Management: Best Practice Models, presented examples of the use, application, and significance of Indigenous knowledge systems (tools, approaches, and methods) within the context of freshwater management. The Knowledge Dialogue served as a space for Indigenous Peoples across North America to share their priorities, experiences and relationships with fresh water, with each other and with government officials.
27–28 November 2023 – The Indigenous-led Trinational Forum on Indigenous Approaches to Freshwater Management in North America took place on 27 and 28 November 2023, in Oaxaca, Mexico. Fully led by Indigenous Peoples, the event focused on Indigenous perspectives and stewardship practices on freshwater management, including how to integrate TEK into CEC operations and freshwater management across North America. Indigenous and non-Indigenous Peoples from the three countries shared their diverse perspectives, contexts, and experiences by participating in-person or virtually as both panelists and attendees.
By supporting Indigenous Peoples to showcase their priorities, rights and relationships to freshwater, this project fostered dialogue and interactions among Indigenous Peoples, Crown/State governments and other key actors for freshwater management. Approaches to freshwater management differ not only in each country, but often from community to community. Despite the diversity and unique contexts of Indigenous Peoples in North America, this project demonstrated that Indigenous Peoples often view water as a sacred and central part of life. The recommendations developed by and with Indigenous Peoples for this project consistently noted that when Indigenous Knowledge Systems, stewardship practices, and rights to freshwater are considered from the outset and incorporated throughout freshwater management, Indigenous Peoples can be leaders in helping to keep water clean and safe for generations to come.