Paleolimnological contributions to Indigenous Reconciliation in Canada

Paleolimnological perspectives offer important insights regarding key environmental questions that require long-term perspectives, such as: Have ecosystems changed? If so, when and to what degree? How important have human influences been relative to natural changes? What were pre-disturbance conditions, and, therefore, what are realistic mitigation targets? Our retrospective “western science” approaches share many similarities to Traditional Environmental Knowledge (TEK), where a key focus often includes historical information on local ecosystems.  A question posed by an Indigenous Elder at one of our recent consultations summarizes the synergies between these “different ways of knowing”.  We were asked: Can you tell us what our territorial lakes were like before our ancestors signed the Robinson Huron Treaty of 1850?. Using our multi-disciplinary approaches, we can indeed provide this critical information, and also show how lakes, and the ecosystem services that people depend on, have changed since that time due to anthropogenic and natural stressors. This presentation will summarize several projects showing how we have applied paleolimnology to address key questions posed by our Indigenous partners. When combined with information provided by Indigenous knowledge holders, a stronger case can be made for evidence-based remediation efforts and the ongoing negotiations regarding reconciliation.  

Presentation Preference: Oral

Primary Presenter: John Smol, Queen's University (smolj@queensu.ca)

Authors:

John Smol, Queen's University  (smolj@queensu.ca)

Emma Graves, Queen's University  (16elg2@queensu.ca)

Evan Jones, Queen's University  (18eaj@queensu.ca)

Neal Michelutti, Queen's University  (nm37@queensu.ca)

Michael Pisaric, Brock University  (mpisaric@brocku.ca)

Julia Paton, Queen's University  (16jrp4@queensu.ca)

Jamie Would, Queen's University  (17jaw2@queensu.ca)

Andrew Paterson, Ontario Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks  (Andrew.Paterson@ontario.ca)