Twin threads

Along with the conservation goals, there is a second thread woven into the IPCA process: reconciliation. IPCAs prioritize Indigenous rights and livelihoods, Indigenous leadership, Indigenous knowledge and Indigenous management. In this case, the watershed is the ancestral territory for the Sayisi Dene as well as the three other First Nations in the Seal River Watershed Alliance: Northlands Denesuline First Nation, Barren Lands First Nation and O-Pipon-Na-Piwin Cree Nation.

Despite their deep ties to these lands and waters, in 1956, the federal Department of Indian Affairs forcibly removed the Sayisi Dene from the land on baseless grounds that they were overharvesting caribou. Overnight, they went from a self-sustaining nomadic existence across northern Manitoba to being dumped on barren ground outside of Churchill with only tents, shacks and, later, substandard government housing to live in.

Two decades of disease, hunger, deaths, abuse and further displacement followed, before the first surviving Sayisi Dene nation members headed back out onto their land. As more joined them, they established a community on Tadoule Lake, on the south arm of the Seal River. That’s where many Sayisi Dene live today. In 2016, the federal government made a formal apology and paid the band more than $33 million in compensation.

“Despite all that trauma, our community is now leading the effort to protect the watershed. Not only for our nations, but for all people. I’m always proud to be Sayisi Dene, but today I’m extra proud,” Thorassie said at the announcement, followed by a joyous burst of applause.

Outreach and dialogue

The quest for an Indigenous-led solution to protect the watershed began as an ad hoc process soon after that federal apology. Spearheaded by Ernie Bussidor, a former Sayisi Dene chief, it also coincided with the national efforts of the Indigenous Circle of Experts whose 2018 report, We Rise Together, laid out a blueprint for the creation of IPCAs in Canada.

The four First Nations formalized their alliance in 2019 and held their first leaders meeting in early 2020 in Winnipeg. The following year, Thorassie succeeded Bussidor as executive director. Their work has blended outreach, dialogue, fact-finding, strategizing, forging alliances and lobbying. Much of the dialogue has been internal, with alliance and community representatives traveling the watershed to visit the four nations, interviewing Elders and land users, compiling stories, mapping traditional territories and building new ties between the groups.

In 2022, the alliance was one of 80 Indigenous communities to receive federal funding to launch a Land Guardians program. Community representatives who had already been on the ground building support for the IPCA were brought into that program, including a strong youth contingent. Along with taking up a core Guardians role as land stewards, they’ve done much of the legwork by gathering data to support the IPCA effort. This has drawn on traditional knowledge, as well as Western science for aspects such as GIS mapping and using autonomous recording devices (in partnership with the National Audubon Society) for bird monitoring.

The Guardians program has also given the youth first-time opportunities to experience the land and learn outdoor skills. As well as reconnecting with their traditional culture, this work will also help equip them to participate in the Indigenous eco-tourism economy the alliance hopes to develop once the IPCA is finalized.

On one trip out onto the land, said Chief Shirley Ducharme of O-Pipon-Na-Piwin Cree Nation, the youth experienced shooting the rapids, “which they hadn’t done in their lives,” and learned that it can take a week to travel a distance by water that only takes two hours by car. “[Previously], they couldn’t imagine how our [ancestors] relied on the waterways as transportation and to connect with other communities. So that was a great learning experience…and really touching and overwhelming for them,” she said.