Applying Two-Eyed Seeing to Adaptation in New Brunswick

In New Brunswick, Mi’gmawe’lTplu’taqnn Inc. (MTI) is “a L’nuey leadership body that protects our people by asserting and implementing our Inherent, Aboriginal and Treaty Rights throughout Mi’gma’gi” (quote obtained from the MTI Mission Statement). In a practical example of Etuaptmumk, or Two-Eyed Seeing, MTI asserts Mi’gmaq treaty rights by conducting Indigenous Knowledge Studies to determine the impact that infrastructure and resource development projects will have on its community members. MTI has conducted Indigenous Knowledge Studies for the following: a proposed pipeline, provincial park expansions; peat extraction operations; mines; energy projects, such as wind turbines or solar farms; infrastructure projects, such as bridge construction and harbour dredging; and heavy industrial projects, such as an iron manufacturing facility or smelter decommissioning. Interviews with community knowledge holders are conducted using a standardized script and GIS technology to capture and catalogue geographic information. As a result of these projects, MTI has compiled a geodatabase of community knowledge recognizing environmental changes that have occurred over the past few generations.

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