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The Ashkui Project: Linking

6 Western Science and Innu
Environmental Knowledge
in Creating a Sustainable
Environment
Trudy Sable with Geoff Howell,1 Dave Wilson2
and Peter Penashue
Special thanks to Julia Sable

Intuitively, it seems impossible to talk of development without the inclusion and

consultation of the people whose lives will be affected, aboriginal or not.
Furthermore, aboriginal populations have a wealth of knowledge accumulated
over centuries of living in their regions that can enhance government efforts to
protect the environment. The obligation to protect and include aboriginal com-
munities as part of environmental conservation and sustainable development ini-
tiatives is enshrined in several international declarations, including the Rio
Declaration and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), as well as
Canadian legislation and declarations (Canadian Environmental Protection Act
1999). However, the relationship between scientific research and community
involvement and capacity building is still a much debated issue. This debate is
not just among scientists in regard to the validity of aboriginal peoples’ environ-
mental knowledge, but among aboriginal peoples themselves who are asking how
scientific research can serve their needs given its long association with coloniza-
tion and industrial development projects (Marzano, this volume). The legacy of
colonisation, and the subsequent institutions and development projects that
have accompanied it, has often served to dislocate aboriginal peoples from their
lands and discount their environmental knowledge as inferior (Bieder 1986). As
110 Trudy Sable et al.

a result, an atmosphere of distrust exists among aboriginal peoples toward social

and natural scientists. This paper will examine a collaborative project called the
Ashkui Project (a.k.a. the Labrador Project). The Ashkui Project is an example
of how scientists and aboriginal communities can work collaboratively to redress
this legacy, and build trust, with the ultimate goal of building capacity among all
stakeholders around a common vision.
Since 1997, the federal department of Environment Canada has collaborated
with the Innu Nation (First Nation) of Labrador and social scientists from the
Gorsebrook Research Institute (GRI) at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax, Nova
Scotia to incorporate social sciences and community involvement into environ-
mental research. The initial goal was to develop comprehensive baseline ecolog-
ical data of the Labrador landscape from both Innu and Western scientific per-
spectives. To provide an initial focal point for research, consultations were held
with members of the Innu community to identify an aspect of the landscape that
was deemed culturally significant and distinct. The landscape feature the Innu
chose is ashkui, giving rise to what was referred to as the Ashkui Project in
Labrador, Canada.
Ashkui have been defined by Innu elders (tshishennuat) as early openings in
the water. The importance of ashkui comes in the springtime when an abun-
dance of waterfowl, fish and animals are attracted to the newly opened water.
Innu families set up camp near these sites and stay for weeks and months at a
time to exploit and celebrate the rich and varied resources of the land and water.
These sites are still of importance to Innu for their livelihood and psychological
well-being. Conveniently, ashkui were also the home of the Harlequin duck, an
endangered species that Environment Canada was mandated to study.
Conducting research at these sites would allow for Environment Canada’s con-
tinued focus on waterfowl inventories and hydrometric research.
GRI social scientists, working closely with tshishennuat and Innu co-
researchers/Guardians, have documented some of the complex knowledge of
those Innu who grew up on the land, and whose lives were inextricably linked to
the ashkui sites. Based on this research and the identification of a number of
ashkui sites that were in current use or had been regularly used in the past by
Innu families, Environment Canada scientists in the spring of 1999 set up a
325 km ashkui research network comprising fifteen stations. These sites were
used to sample and analyse three freshwater systems – clear, coloured and brack-
ish. Over the last three years, the project has expanded to include the Innu
Environmental Guardians Program, an initiative to assist in training members of
the Innu community in ecosystem management in preparation for self-govern-
ment. The project has a commitment to incorporate Indigenous Ecological
Knowledge (IEK) and to work with the Innu Nation in the overall project design
and structure.
The Ashkui Project: Western Science and Innu Knowledge 111

We will discuss some of the crucial aspects of this research effort in docu-
menting and working with the different perspectives of the landscape, Innu and
Western scientific, and setting up cross-cultural dialogues. In particular, we will
focus on the concomitant capacity building and shifts in thinking that, by neces-
sity, had to occur among all stakeholders in order for the research to serve both
the needs of the community and the mandate of Environment Canada to mon-
itor and protect the environment.

Background and Innu Perspective

The tshishennuat commonly speak of their ancestral lands, Nitassinan, as medi-
cine.3 They often complain of the mental and physical sickness that has afflicted
them since government settlement programmes in the 1960s isolated them from
their traditional lands. The food they eat is no longer ‘medicine’ because it does
not come from the land. Even the animals they used to hunt are confused and
sick, and do not always follow predictable migration routes. Furthermore, the
tshishennuat say they can no longer communicate with their youth, who are
being educated in unfamiliar ways and in a foreign language. Within their com-
munities, there is concern that the Innu youth no longer have the same rela-
tionship to the land as the tshishennuat, and are losing the language of the land.
This is worrying because tshishennuat are the holders of a complex and spe-
cialised knowledge of the environment, which has been passed down orally
through centuries. They are the speakers and holders of the language of the land
and carry the Innu ‘library’ of knowledge in their heads. Because of their knowl-
edge and relationship to the land, they are the best to advise and define the needs
of any environmental development. This library will be lost with their passing.
The loss of such an extensive body of knowledge has become a global issue
that is gaining widespread advocacy in the fields of conservation and bio-diver-
sity as the link between cultural diversity and biodiversity becomes evident
(Davis 2002). Indigenous peoples, such as the Innu, intimately understand the
fragility of their local ecosystems, whether it be the boreal forest of Labrador or
the Himalayan mountains of Bhutan. Their language, songs, dances and legends
reflect and express its many aspects, creative and destructive. With the loss of
more than 3,000 languages within the last fifty years, the languages that have
articulated this environmental knowledge is lost, and the language of science is
increasingly being used to replace it (Davis 2002; Maranzo, this volume).
Metaphorically speaking, finding the medicine again has been the challenge
of the last seven years of collaboration with the Innu. Due to the many pressures
facing their communities from development projects, the Innu have hired scien-
tists, anthropologists and a variety of consultants to help in their quest for self-
determination. In addition, the Innu Nation received First Nations Status in
2002, the last First Nations group in Canada to do so. The gaining of status has
opened up negotiations for self-government (right of use to Innu), but has also
112 Trudy Sable et al.

increased the need for educated and skilled Innu negotiators, lawyers and scien-
tists, and sound ecological information.
The Innu have considerable self-interest in facilitating scientific research in
Labrador. They are in the process of negotiating a land claims agreement with
the federal government for which they have to do extensive documentation of
their own land use. As they win a voice in environmental assessment and
impact–benefit agreements for specific development projects, they need rigorous
baseline scientific data. From the perspective of the Innu Nation, part of the
challenge has been finding scientists and researchers willing to work with Innu
priorities, not the other way around. In the words of Peter Penashue, past
President of the Innu Nation, it has been a ‘long hard road’ toward achieving
self-determination since the formation of the Innu Nation twenty-five years ago:
From the start, we worked closely with anthropologists and other scientists to help
us build our case. As many of you know, Canada takes the position that Aboriginal
people who wish to negotiate land claims must prove that we were here first, before
the Europeans.
Now, what seems like common sense to us is obviously hard for governments
to understand, so we had to hire experts to work with our tshishennuat to conduct
interviews in order to make the maps that were finally accepted by governments in
1989. Throughout this process, we had to explain to our governments why Innu
were the ones who had to make the maps, not the governments . . . That kind of
relationship also exists between Innu and many scientists.
We’ve anticipated many environmental assessments, and we’ve often been puz-
zled by the certainty of some of the experts that governments and companies bring
up from the south to tell us about our land and the animals that we have studied
for thousands of years. It was frustrating to listen to some consultant who maybe
had spent a summer in our territory, or more likely had read a few reports about
it, think he understood our land better than our tshishennuat who had spent their
entire lives there. It shouldn’t be surprising, then, to hear that many of our people
started to think that some scientists would say anything if they were paid well
enough. These kinds of scientists would descend on our communities every sum-
mer and leave them again in the fall. They were kind of like flies. They buzzed
around, getting into people’s hair, but we thought that they were mostly just an
annoyance. This is until we realized that governments took these scientists seri-
ously, and used their findings to approve developments like low-level flying.
What scientists often forget is that Innu, like everyone else, have priori-
ties….We spend so much of our time trying to come to terms with the White
man’s world that many of our people have lost touch with their own. Regaining
control of our lives, our communities, and restoring our culture are among the
most important goals. (Penashue 2001: 4–6)
From the Innu view of the world, Western science is based on a mechanistic con-
ception of the universe. It views the world as composed of discrete entities and
processes, and is biased towards studying things that can be quantified and meas-
ured (Sillitoe, this volume). The Innu worldview, as with many aboriginal peo-
The Ashkui Project: Western Science and Innu Knowledge 113

ple, features a more holistic approach to the world, inclusive of the people who
inhabit it. They see themselves as an integral part of the landscape, and are wary
of their knowledge being used in a way that betrays this fundamental principle.
‘Science’ is not seen as a neutral framework, but rather as highly political.
Considerable power lies in the hands of those who decide what information will
be gathered and how it will be used (Innu Nation 1999: 2–3).
Over time, the Innu Nation has developed its own agenda and determined its
goals in accordance with their needs. What has made the Ashkui Project unique
has been that it is Innu driven and conducted in dialogue with the Innu Nation.
As noted by Peter Penashue:
Today, most of the researchers who come to our communities are invited by the
community itself. They generally work as part of the agenda the Innu have helped
to develop. This has allowed us to deal with developers on our own terms, and
challenge their science with our own science . . .The Ashkui Project was developed
out of the dialogue about these issues that has taken place for several years between
researchers and members of our community. This is a reversal of the usual research
relationship between Aboriginal communities and researchers, where the
researchers would come in from the outside with a project already conceived, and
attempt to sell it to the Innu. (Penashue 2001: 5–6)
While the Labrador Project has been sensitive to Innu priorities, e.g., the Ashkui
Project was based on the Innu Nation’s suggestion of ashkui sites as a research
focus for Environment Canada, it has still been a challenge for both sides. To
access IEK, western scientists have to appreciate a whole different way of con-
ceiving of the world. It requires scientists to open up their scientific paradigm to
accommodate Innu knowledge, and vice versa. From the Innu side, it is difficult
to translate scientific concepts into their language when no corollaries exist. For
instance, when various scientists from the federal government explained their
mercury research at a community meeting in the Innu community of
Sheshatshiu, Labrador, it was pointed out by an Innu Guardian working with
Environment Canada that the Innu had no concept of mercury or its relevance
to their community. The scientists had assumed they were speaking in universal
language and that mercury was a commonly shared concept.
At all stages, the entire project depends on translating from one knowledge
paradigm to another without losing the integrity of either. An inevitable knowl-
edge hybridisation will occur, but this can be a positive outcome if it is a chosen
and conscious process rather than a choiceless ‘mental colonization’ (Battiste
1998: 20) and the process involves all parties (Dove et al., this volume). To set
up this dialogue has required a shift in thinking and in practice on the part of
Environment Canada staff as well as the Gorsebrook Research Institute social
scientists. The shift is not only in who drives the agenda, but also in who con-
trols the knowledge, and how that knowledge is collected, archived, published
and made meaningful to the Innu.
114 Trudy Sable et al.

Environment Canada
Environment Canada, Atlantic Branch has been interested in Labrador since the
early 1990s. The area represented a gap in the agency’s knowledge of ecosystems
in Atlantic Canada, and accounts for over 53 percent of the region’s territory
(approximately 286,000 square kilometres). The ecosystem in Labrador is threat-
ened by a number of anthropogenic activities, including clear-cutting, nickel-
mining, low-level flights from a NATO air force base, hydroelectric projects,
commercial fishing and climate change. Environment Canada wanted to gather
baseline ecological data in order to monitor the environmental impact of these
activities and to ensure compliance with environmental agreements and legisla-
tion on the local, national and international level. As well, the relatively pristine
conditions provided a natural laboratory to monitor environmental change.
Initially, Environment Canada had a narrow interest in wetlands classifica-
tion. It attempted to gather information using satellites, airplanes and a crew of
scientists on the ground, without consulting the local community (Wilson
2004). When this approach proved unsuccessful in obtaining community buy-
in, Environment Canada sought input from the community. At the suggestion
of an Innu contact, four staff members went on a cultural orientation trip ‘in-
country’ during the winter of 1997, tenting for five days in –25°C weather. This
camping experience fostered a profound appreciation of the Innu culture and
their relationship with the land. From these early consultations with members of
the Innu community, ashkui sites were identified as culturally significant to the
Innu way of life, particularly in the springtime when families camped in tents
near ashkui for weeks at a time. Research at these places would benefit both par-
ties. As mentioned previously, the sites allowed for Environment Canada’s con-
tinued focus on water quality and waterfowl inventories and seabird research.
And it could answer Innu concerns about changes in the environment from
development projects, e.g., NATO low-flying jet corridors over ashkui sites; acid
rain from the south; mercury levels in the water, mammals and fish from indus-
trial developments; and climate change, to mention a few.
Following these initial consultations, Environment Canada invited social sci-
entists at the Gorsebrook Research Institute to join the project to help ‘develop
the capacity to recognize the intrinsic values of Northern landscape and peoples’
(Environment Canada 1999: 3–1). The agency needed assistance in translating
between IEK and Western scientific knowledge, an area with which researchers
at the GRI had experience. In May 1998 the first GRI social scientist went up
to Sheshatshiu, Labrador and spent over three weeks in the community with
tshishennuat and Innu co-researchers/Guardians and translators documenting
environmental knowledge. Eight days were spent at an ashkui site at Lake
Shipiskan with an Innu family who had camped there for generations.
The research conducted during this initial and subsequent field trips not only
served to document extensive land use practices of the Innu (subsequently
The Ashkui Project: Western Science and Innu Knowledge 115

included in Environment Canada’s on-line maps) but also identified a number

of ashkui sites that were in current use or had been used in the past by Innu fam-
ilies. Environment Canada scientists proceeded to set up the ashkui research net-
work stations in the spring of 1999 and hired an Innu co-worker (and future
Environmental Guardian) to assist in the research, testing and presentation of
results to the community. This network was designed to provide information on
ashkui formation and behaviour across a latitudinal gradient. The sites were sam-
pled for eighteen parameters (major ions, metals and nutrients) from the first
opening in the spring until the summer or early fall. Along with conducting
water quality sampling to establish seasonal patterns, questions of particular
importance to the Innu people were addressed, such as site productivity, sensi-
tivity to acid rain and drinking water quality.
Environment Canada found this nascent partnership beneficial. It noted in its
1999 evaluation report that the Innu were able to add new insights into the
description of the environment, and that they could decrease the cost of field-
work by directing and focusing the research (Environment Canada 1999: 5–6).
This laid the groundwork for the inclusion of local human resource capacity
building in the project mandate, an evolution that met with some initial resist-
ance within Environment Canada because of the shift from its normally man-
dated scientific responsibilities towards the inclusion of social science work
(Wilson 2004). Including the Innu also had a significant effect on the project’s
philosophy and direction. For instance, the 1999 Environment Canada report
discusses the shift towards a more holistic, ecosystem-based approach and accept-
ance of the principle of ‘biological integrity’ as a result of Innu participation
(Environment Canada 1999: 4–5, 6). Unexpected spin-offs, such as NATO low-
level jets altering their flight corridors to avoid the waterfowl staging areas, result-
ed from the tshishennuat identifying productive ashkui sites, which, in turn, led
to Environment Canada designating these sites as waterfowl staging areas.

Why are Ashkui Important?

When asked what ashkui means, most Innu say it refers to open water in the ice
(literally, clear water). But rephrasing the question to ask, ‘What do people do
when they camp at ashkui in the springtime?’ opened up a description of a way
of life that involved a web of relationships between people, animals and the land-
scape. These descriptions involved the worldview and personal histories of Innu
families. These histories are embedded in the landscape where Innu have camped
and lived for generations. Sites associated with legends throughout the landscape
further attest to the inseparability between the Innu psyche and the land. It is for
this reason that Innu speak of the land as ‘medicine’, and liken ashkui to super-
markets and pharmacies, where you can get everything you need.
This intimate and personal relationship with the land is borne out further in
the tshishennuat description of ashkui as ‘like a father because it provides every-
116 Trudy Sable et al.

thing’. Many tshishennuat also talked of ice as a living being. It has its own
sounds, and a person has to learn how listen to, talk to, and make offerings to
ice in order to survive and travel safely. The legends of ‘ice person’ inevitably
ended in misfortune if people abused ice. Some people had been told stories as
children that the ice would grab them if they got too close to it. Drownings were
always a concern near ashkui sites, especially for children playing too near the
thinning edges of the ice in the springtime while their families camped near
ashkui sites.
Because of their longstanding relationship to their ancestral landscape, the
tshishennuat are sensitive to the many environmental factors that affect the break-
up of ice and the opening of water. These conditions vary from one body of
water to the next, from one day to the next. Ashkui can occur on any body of
water – lakes, rivers, ponds, and even puddles. Winds, rain, currents, depth of
water, the presence or absence of rivers and brooks flowing in and out of lakes,
the weather, as well as man-made alterations to the environment, are all factors
that affect the formation of ashkui. Ashkui are present in the fall as ice forms, and
in the spring when ice begins to break up. In some places, perennial freezing over
never occurs because of the continual shifting of ice caused by the fast currents.
During the initial research, three types of ice were mentioned in discussing
the formation of ashkui. The first was white ice, or solid frozen ice. The second
was black ice, also called rotten ice, which appears as the ice begins to melt and
push up from below the surface. The third was the ‘nail’ ice or a crystal-type ice
that has the appearance of nails or crystals as the ice begins to melt. The ice
below darkens as it begins to melt, and then pushes upward, or pops up. This
occurs after the edges of the lake open and ashkui have begun to form. At this
point, the winds play a crucial role in moving it off the lakes. It is the winds that
move the ice back and forth on the lakes causing it to break up and move off
down rivers if present. Another impact of the movement of ice by the winds is
the piling up of the ice on the lake shores.
The ability to predict weather is obviously important. Winds, rain and sun all
affect the ice conditions and the ability to travel on land and water, as well as the
presence of animals around ashkui. Three birds were mentioned as weather indi-
cators: the loon, the robin and a bird the Innu refer to as the rain bird. When
the loon sings, it forecasts winds and storms. The robin foretells rain. The rain
bird, which has the appearance of a swallow and arrives in the spring, forecasts
rain when it sings. Others spoke about using the stars, the sky colour, and the
way smoke rises as methods of predicting the weather. Other indicators are
shooting stars, which tell which way the wind will blow from the direction they
fall, and the redness of the sky at night and in the morning. Although most peo-
ple do now have two-way radios in their camps to keep posted on news and
weather, reading the weather from environmental indicators remains significant.
Ashkui sites are associated with the first arrival of flocks of waterfowl in the
spring drawn to the open water. Later in the spring, the birds will pair off for
The Ashkui Project: Western Science and Innu Knowledge 117

mating and the laying of eggs in the nearby marshes, woods and islands. These
wetlands, islands and wooded areas are also a significant part of the overall
ashkui ecosystem. It is near these ashkui sites that Innu families set up camp and
live for weeks and months at a time to exploit the rich and varied resources of
the land and water. The sites are also significant for the fish that come to the
newly open water and the numerous animals that come near ashkui to eat fish or
feed off the plant material washed down by the fast spring flows of the rivers. The
smaller openings at the mouths of brooks are where animals come, and are
favoured places for trapping a number of small mammals; they are also favoured
caribou crossing points. During interviews, people were shown the pictures of
waterfowl and were asked to discuss when they arrived, special characteristics,
eating habits (vegetation vs. fish, deep divers vs. dunkers or swimmers), their
habitats, and the uses to which different parts of the birds were put. Each pic-
ture was labelled with the Innu name for the waterfowl, and informants were
asked the meaning of these names, and to make corrections.4
Inevitably, climatic and environmental changes have affected the formation of
ashkui. Many tshishennuat mentioned that ashkui were opening earlier, or that
springs are shorter at their camping areas than in previous years. At these places,
ashkui would usually form in the first week of May, although one estimate was
that ashkui were opening one month earlier than twenty years ago at one lake.
Ducks and geese are also arriving sooner with the earlier opening of ashkui. One
tshishennua5 estimated that thirty-five years ago there was still ice in May and
even June, and people would not go to camp near ashkui until early June. Now
there is no ice by the end of May. Further, increased in rainfall creates more
weight on the ice as it collects on the surface, which presses down on the ice thus
expediting the popping up of the ice from below the surface.
Others attributed earlier spring break-ups to the Churchill Dam. One couple
who camped in the Churchill Falls area mentioned that the ice sits higher on the
water, no longer touching it, and that it is really dangerous for people who do
not know about ashkui. There are now more ashkui everywhere. Sightings of
Harlequin ducks had also diminished, according to one woman, and had not
been seen since the building of the dam. Another couple complained that envi-
ronmental changes are reflected in less fat on the animals because they work hard
looking for food to eat, and the food is not quite right in the winter. A once pro-
ductive ashkui site at Northwest River was destroyed by the building of a bridge.
This site used to be rich in seals, ducks, and fish, including salmon. Seals came
up onto the ice edge as the water opened. Seals were once of major importance
to the Innu, used for medicine, food and clothing. They would cook the fat and
drain it into a bottle or can and take it as medicine. Sealskin boots were espe-
cially good in ashkui when there was slush because the water did not penetrate
the hide.
Low-level flying from the NATO air force base in nearby Goose Bay was men-
tioned during a number of interviews. People had first-hand experience of low-
118 Trudy Sable et al.

flying jets and described the effect on animals and fish, and how frightening the
sound was to people and animals. Stories of children and women running scared
during an overhead pass were told by a number of people. Dead fish also started
appearing in the water. And beaver were hesitant to come out for their night-
time feeding during night-time flights. Many tshishennuat also spoke of how the
taste of the meat from animals had changed particularly when hunted near
industrial development sites, and mentioned observations of enlarged hearts, or
other malformations in animal and fish.
The collaborative research effort has amassed a large body of information, now
digitised and incorporated into maps and environmental assessments. As an
unexpected spin off, this research assisted the Innu in their much publicised bat-
tle to change low-level NATO air force flight-testing corridors passing over
ashkui sites, upsetting the life below. Currently the construction of an extension
of the Trans-Labrador highway through Innu lands is further focusing interest on
a specific area of wetlands and migratory bird habitats, staging grounds and
moulting sites in a unique baseline study of environmental impact of the high-
way.

Western Scientific Perspective – Making it Relevant

and Addressing Concerns
The objective of the Western science research was to undertake water quality
investigation. The first objective was to develop a basic understanding of the
water quality and general limnology of Labrador freshwater ecosystems. The sec-
ond objective was to evaluate the trophic status of ashkui and to relate produc-
tive potential of these sites to the Innu observations of them as areas which are
important for fish and waterfowl production. The ashkui sites are sampled year-
ly starting from initial open-water formation, through the summer period and
into the autumn. At each ashkui, field measurements of water temperature, spe-
cific conductance, dissolved oxygen, turbidity and pH are taken. The water is
also tested for ultra-trace mercury.
The focus of the Ashkui Project on the value and importance of different cul-
tures, activities and perspectives on the Labrador landscape requires a dedicated
emphasis on reporting results in ways that have meaning across cultures. In an
effort to make the water chemistry research at ashkui meaningful to the Innu
people, Environment Canada scientists endeavoured to answer some of the basic
questions that the tshishennuat and other Innu asked them. The following are
some of the questions that Environment Canada Scientists attempted to answer
about water quality at ashkui sites. These questions came from the immediate
concerns voiced by the Innu regarding the changes they were experiencing in
their environment and issues fundamental to their way of life.
The Ashkui Project: Western Science and Innu Knowledge 119

Will it make good Tea?

Tshishennuat often talk about ashkui water from the perspective of the taste of
tea. The ability of the ashkui water to make good-tasting tea could be evaluated
using a variety of water quality measures. Most of the ashkui had good quality
water although some sites with high water colour (e.g. Susan River) or marine
influence (e.g. Carter Basin) would be less suitable for making good tea; for
example tshishennuat camping at the Susan River ashkui talked about poor tast-
ing tea there. (Figure 6.1 indicates answers to questions.)

Will it make good tea?

No Yes

Is it good for fish?

No Yes

Does it have chemicals?

No Yes
120 Trudy Sable et al.

Is it coloured?
No Yes

Is it salty?
No Yes

Is it acidic?
No Yes

Figure 6.1 Assessment of ashkui water quality.

The Ashkui Project: Western Science and Innu Knowledge 121

Is it Good for Fish?

The ability of an ashkui to support healthy populations of fish and other animals
can be predicted from simple measures of primary production. In general, all of
the ashkui have low production which suggests that they will support small but
healthy communities of aquatic plants and animals. Tshishennuat have remarked
that the concentration of fish at ashkui is thought to be related to high water
movement and available light at open areas. The low production estimates also
suggest that physical aspects may be responsible for high fish abundance at ashkui.

Does it have Chemicals?

One of the major concerns expressed by the Innu is whether or not the water is
safe to drink. The metal concentrations at ashkui are low, suggesting that in gen-
eral the water is safe for human consumption. In the more highly coloured
waters, concentrations of metals such as aluminum are higher but this is to be
expected and is not a health concern. The chemical analysis does not include
evaluation of bacterial contamination, although given the remote location of
these sites, elevated bacterial populations are not expected.

Is it Coloured?
Waters which drain bogs and other wetlands are often coloured brown by decay-
ing plant materials. As decaying plant material produces fulvic and humic acids,
these tea-coloured waters often provide less favourable habitat for fish and other
aquatic animals and are less appealing as a source for drinking water. The ashkui
in the Grand Lake area are the most highly coloured while the northern and
southern sites are generally clear.

Is it Salty?
Tshishennuat appear to have considerable capacity to identify changes in salt con-
tent of fresh waters. These changes in salt have a profound influence on percep-
tions of the use of water for drinking. For example, several tshishennuat have
talked about Grand Lake water near the Susan River being saltier now than in
the past. Interestingly enough, sodium and chloride are often the dominant ions
at the Susan River site. Several sites (Grand Lake Outflow, Carter Basin and
Kenemu River) have salt influence from Lake Melville.

Is it Acidic?
Tshishennuat have expressed concerns about acid rain. The dilute nature of
waters in Labrador makes most sites sensitive to acid rain, as they have limited
ability to counteract incoming acids. However, none of the sites have as yet expe-
rienced major acid rain impacts. Excluding the sites influenced directly by salt
water from Lake Melville, the potential for acid rain effects is more pronounced
122 Trudy Sable et al.

in the southern sites. This makes sense as these sites are located closer to the
industrial sources of acid emissions.
In essence, bringing the research back to the community is a way of reaffirm-
ing the Innu’s practical knowledge from a scientific perspective, and showing the
importance of their roles as collaborators in the project design and assuring that
their knowledge features in and is passed on to policy makers. It gives Innu
Knowledge political credence and significance which is central to them achiev-
ing a degree of autonomy in their own country. In turn, this will aid Innu in
addressing increasing resource management responsibilities emanating from land
claims negotiations and related co-management and benefit-sharing agreements,
such as ones recently signed with the province of Newfoundland and Labrador
Department of Forestry Resources and Agrifoods and with the Voisey’s Bay nick-
el-mining operation taking place within Innu ancestral lands.

Labrador Project Evolution:

Innu Environmental Guardians Program
A rich and comprehensive body of knowledge has been compiled that is of
mutual benefit to the Innu community and environmental scientists. The work
has evolved into assisting the Innu with a community capacity-building project
referred to as the Innu Environmental Guardians Program (IEGP). The aim of
the programme is to develop an educational path to train Innu in the manage-
ment and protection of their ancestral lands based on Innu traditional values and
current community needs. The program requires education not just as it is
defined by Western scientists, but as it is defined by tshishennuat, custodians of
Innu environmental knowledge and worldview. The Environmental Guardians
concept recognises the importance of both the longstanding and substantial
body of environmental knowledge held by the Innu, and the need for the
Guardians to develop competency within Western scientific and technical disci-
plines concerned with environmental protection, management and resource use.
Incorporating these two ways of knowing requires Innu Environmental
Guardians to acquire a unique set of skills and competencies that can reflect both
Innu knowledge traditions, and the disciplines and skills that are recognised by
formal Western educational institutions. At its core, however, the programme is
based on Innu values, needs and concepts of well-being.
The key to the programme’s success is incorporating on-going community
concerns, with which the Guardians are involved daily. Some of the programme’s
key components are:
● Courses offered in 2–3 week modules and delivered within the communi-
ty or at field sites where projects are underway.
● Learning is related to on-going projects, e.g., a forestry co-management
agreement with the provincial government, the monitoring of waterfowl
The Ashkui Project: Western Science and Innu Knowledge 123

and wetlands in relation to the building of the Trans-Labrador Highway

extension, monitoring the Voisey’s Bay nickel-mining activities, etc.
● Modules are scheduled around ‘real’ life situations, e.g., seasonal work,
family obligations, and time at camps in the country.
● Training crosses disciplines, Guardians receiving training in all aspects of
environmental monitoring.
● Programmes are bilingual (Innu Aimun and English) when tshishennuat
are present.
● The programme is Innu-driven, which means the community decides the
priorities, and learning is geared towards the preservation of their own land
use and cultural practices. This knowledge is then used as the basis of deci-
sion-making processes in any development project.
● Tshishennuat are involved as advisers and as teachers.
The Guardians play a key role as translators and communicators to and from
their communities, and within their own communities between different gener-
ations. Many government agencies, educational institutions, businesses and non-
profit organisations are approaching the Innu for a variety of research and devel-
opment projects. The Guardians are responsible for communicating their cul-
tural beliefs and values to these various outsiders, and then relate what is dis-
cussed back to their community in a meaningful and comprehensible way. This
translation process back to the community involves the creation of new termi-
nology for scientific concepts that have no equivalent in Innu Aimun (Innu lan-
guage) since many of the tshishennuat speak only Innu Aimun. In short, the
Guardians provide access to information often inaccessible to community mem-
bers, particularly tshishennuat, and also create intergenerational bridges. This
communication helps unify the community as well as address the loss of knowl-
edge that will occur with the passing of the tshishennuat.
As a team, they support one another, share knowledge, offer different
strengths to solve problems, and so forth. In turn, the community is beginning
to regard them as a team of experts with a mandate to manage and protect their
lands and cultural heritage. This includes the tshishennuat, who through their
involvement are respected as teachers, but who are also learning the new way of
looking at the environment through Western scientific eyes, and being able to
compare it to their own ways. Increasingly, a hybridiation of knowledge occurs
and the question that can only be answered in time is how this knowledge will
be carried forward to serve the well-being of the community in the generations
to come, given changing political winds and new generations yet to born.
During the autumn of 2002, some members of the Saint Mary’s University
faculty joined in the effort to develop a curriculum, offering formal academic
accreditation to the training modules as a way to open up a university path to
the Guardians. There was no requirement for any Guardian to take the two
modules offered for credit – the intention was to train the Guardians, whether
124 Trudy Sable et al.

or not credit was gained. However, during the first of a two-module accredited
course, all fourteen participants signed up with the University. This is a unique
and historic move. Saint Mary’s University faculty acknowledged the role of the
tshishennuat as the legitimate authority on their own knowledge and teachers of
equal stature on the modules. During the first accredited course, the tshishennu-
at were involved in the evaluation of the Guardians.
The tshishennuat are co-evaluators with the module instructors. The
Guardians are required to present their learning to the tshishennuat, who then
evaluate according to their criteria. In so doing, the tshishennuat are learning
about such concepts as ecosystems, watersheds, urbanisation and pollution, as
well as the use of instruments such as the GPS, clinometers, and compasses.
Anecdotally, during an evaluation where the Guardians were displaying the use
of various instruments they use on the land, a tshishennua said, ‘We carry GPS
in our heads to find locations.’ This was a poignant remark because it showed
both his understanding of how the GPS worked as well as the changes occurring
in how environmental knowledge is studied and stored.
Some of the faculty at Saint Mary’s University also recognises the need for
people to write and present in their first language within the Western educational
system. Faculty working with the Innu Environmental Guardians Program are
attempting to broaden the definition of literacy to recognise different languages
as unique and enriching to the educational process. Doing so does not overlook
the necessity to learn English as a requirement for dealing with contemporary
issues, but English does not have to be exclusive of other languages. Recognising
the importance of including the tshishennuat as well as responding to communi-
ty needs, especially by traditionally established educational institutions, is part of
the process to develop trust across cultures.
Although these are steps towards redressing the legacy of distrust brought by
settlement and colonisation, there is still much more ground to till. Some of the
Guardians, succumbing to social pressures and the recent influx of money into
the commuity from Voisey’s Bay, have been laid off, while Environment Canada
itself has been undergoing reorganisation, shifts in priorities and funding cuts
that are impacting on the programme. With the death of Geoff Howell, a cru-
cial player in and protector of the project from the beginning, the value of the
project began to be questioned by people with Environment Canada regarding
the role of capacity building within scientific research.

Conclusion
Capacity building has to involve all stakeholders. Putting Western scientific and
Innu knowledge in dialogue provides a much more comprehensive understand-
ing of the Labrador landscape, and has raised Environment Canada’s awareness
of the significance of culturally valued areas. Through enhancing the role of the
Guardians, they, in turn, can provide the community with access to information,
The Ashkui Project: Western Science and Innu Knowledge 125

allowing for greater community in-put for decisions affecting their ancestral
lands. Working with tshishennuat as advisers and professors bridges intergenera-
tional divides that have arisen since settlement, and assists in the incorporation
of Innu environmental knowledge into resource management, stemming the loss
of knowledge with the passing of the tshishennuat. Further, the incorporation of
Innu knowledge and the use of Innu Aimun within the educational process
expands the notion of literacy, including scientific literacy, commonly held with-
in university settings. This recognition of Innu Aimun adds further credence to
language preservation efforts as an integral part of resource management and
environmental sustainability. The tshishennuat involvement with the learning
process of the Guardians makes them privy to the information exchange, and
empowers them as professors of their knowledge equal to that of university pro-
fessors. The offering of the choice for academic accreditation by the university
opens a pathway to higher education that many Innu have rejected, or have been
rejected from, entering in the past. Further empowerment of the Guardians
came through the dedication of an Environment Office from the Innu Nation,
giving the Guardians a distinct space from which to operate, again fostering an
identity as a team of people versus individuals hired independently by various
government agencies, as had been the case in the past.
In a preliminary way, we suggest six indicators for wholeness or wellness of
the people in relation to any project. Each of these questions could be developed
into an indicator, or a measurable value.
1. Have all the people been engaged in defining the motivation to undertake
the project?
2. Does the research serve the community as well as the investors? Who is the
ultimate beneficiary of change?
3. Who is defining the knowledge that is being gathered and documented? Is
it inclusive of all stakeholders?
4. Who is governing the decision-making process and to what ends?
5. To what extent have avenues of communication, e.g., different languages,
been included and respected?
6. To what extent have cultural land use practices and values been included
in co-management agreements?
The true significance of the research is in the relationship between the collabo-
rators, and the way research is conducted so that Innu priorities are respected and
their needs for building capacity met. It requires a holistic view of the landscape,
an integrated, interdisciplinary approach to knowledge,6 and a deep appreciation
of the ‘translation’ process and role of the ‘translators’. It has shown that com-
munities are willing to take on these roles, develop a hybridised language to work
with issues, and step forward into decision-making roles to bring about policy
changes.
126 Trudy Sable et al.

Notes
1. Geoff Howell died unexpectedly in 2003, leaving the Askhui Project as part of his legacy. It
was his initial vision to work collaboratively with the Innu Nation and social scientists at the
Gorsebrook Research Institute to create a new paradigm for scientific research. Since his
death, many changes have occurred in the project.
2. Dave Wilson, former project manager for the Ashkui Project at Environment Canada, Atlantic
Region, retired in the spring of 2004. The Innu Nation, in gratitude for his years of dedica-
tion to the project, presented him with a gift. The gift was a painting of one of their respect-
ed tshishennua, Matthew Penashue, now deceased, accompanied by the story of Matthew’s life.
The picture was painted by Mary Ann Penashue, wife of the past Innu Nation president, Peter
Penashue.
3. Anthropologist Frank Speck in writing about the Innu (formerly referred to as the
Montagnais-Naskapi) stated, ‘No wonder, then, the proper food of the tribe being either
directly wild fruits or indirectly vegetable through the diet of game animals, that with their
food in whatever form consumed, the Montagnais-Naskapi are “taking medicine.” Thus the
native game diet is prophylactic to mankind. A deep significance lies beneath this doctrine’
(Speck 1935: 81).
4. Much has been written about the methodological weakness of using pictures as a research tool
for developing indigenous taxonomies (Sillitoe 2003). In this case, a respectable body of
research had already been developed regarding Innu taxonomies, e.g., Clement (1995) and the
ongoing work of linguists, José Maillhot and Dr Marguerite MacKenzie, and my research
interest was not in Innu taxonomic systems. The emphasis in the interviews was on the habits,
conditions and characteristics of the different species of waterfowl that came to ashkui, the
relationship of these species to ashkui in terms of the Innu way of life and worldview, and
changes over time that could be identified in their behaviour.
5. tshishennua is the singular form of tshishennuat, according to José Maillhot, linguist and recog-
nised authority on Innu Aimun (Innu language).
6. I recognise that there is a body of writing relating to interdisciplinary research (Sillitoe 2004)
and the challenges involved. This is a topic that needs further consideration in the work we
are undertaking, particularly with some shifting political and funding structures that are cur-
rently affecting our project.

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