Dr. Andrea Reid appointed Tier 2 Canada Research Chair with additional awards for research on Indigenous fisheries conversation
Published on August 29, 2023 on the Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries’ webpage
Written by Solana Pasqual
Dr. Andrea Reid of the Nisg̱a’a Nation is one of UBC’s newest Tier 2 Canada Research Chairs (CRC), and will receive a grant through the Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI) John R. Evans Leaders Fund (JELF) for work on Indigenous fisheries approaches to finding sustainable fishing solutions in a changing world.
““Indigenous fisheries conservation in a changing world””
Dr. Reid launched, and leads, the Centre for Indigenous Fisheries at the IOF, working to build an inclusive environment for the study and protection of culturally significant fish and fisheries. She is also an assistant professor at UBC, and along with her research team and Indigenous community partners, is focused on bringing together Western and Indigenous sciences and tools for the benefit of all. The CRC and CFI JELF supported project — “Indigenous fisheries conservation in a changing world” — runs real-world fisheries experiments and uses modelling tools to learn more about the state and future of Indigenous fisheries.
“This project is an amalgamation of a lot of what we have going on in the Centre for Indigenous Fisheries,” said Dr. Reid. “It is centred on how we can bring back and/or strengthen Indigenous fishing technologies so that we can turn to them at this time of profound change in our ecological and social systems.”
Indigenous fishing technologies have been in place in our oceans, rivers, lakes and streams for millennia, and in many instances, were forcibly removed and outlawed through Canadian legislation and British Columbian law. This forced removal created many constraints on Indigenous fishing activity — it has impacted people’s lived experiences with their waters, their communities, fishing technologies, and the fish themselves. The project revolves around a core ambition to work with Indigenous fishing communities to help bring back their own technologies and to (re)connect fish, people and place through science.
“Indigenous fishing gears and traditional fishing sites have been forcibly taken away by the Canadian government as a means to abolish Indigenous livelihoods,” said Kahsennaró:roks Maddy Deom, who is Kanien’kehá:ka and a staff member at the Center for Indigenous Fisheries. “While this practice remains today at various levels of government, Indigenous Peoples across Canada and America are fighting for and reclaiming their treaty inherent rights. Dr. Andrea Reid and the CIF team have continuously brought research on Indigenous fishing rights and histories to the forefront in academic spaces. Dr. Reid and her work are greatly important for Indigenous well-being and sovereignty throughout Turtle Island.”
Indigenous fishing technologies were and are often built with fish wellbeing in mind, with deeply selective abilities that allow fishers to make real-time decisions about catching and releasing females and/or larger-bodied organisms, as examples, and to avoid bycatch in the first place. Dr. Reid and her team’s project is one of several that are underway within the CFI CRC-JELF five-year grant period. They also strive to honour the teachings of Etuaptmumk — Two-Eyed Seeing or the gift of multiple perspectives in the Mi’kmaw language — which brings together the strengths and knowledge from both Indigenous and Western ways of knowing, as they examine and address fisheries-based conflicts on Canada’s East and West Coasts and aim to identify long-term solutions for fisheries sustainability and equitability in Canada and beyond.
“Returning Indigenous, selective, gears to the waters of the Lower Fraser addresses a critical need to expand fishing opportunities for Nations under increasingly restrictive ecological and management landscapes,” said Jared Connoy, PhD student at the Centre for Indigenous Fisheries.
“We have a main arm of this project that is just getting underway in stálə̕ w̓ – the Fraser River – with the Lower Fraser Fisheries Alliance and many partnering Nations,” said Dr. Reid. “Where we are working together to bring back weirs, traps, nets, and wheels to the water. Over the months and years ahead, we will be working alongside their fishers, employing their gears, knowledge, and practices. Together we will look at how these technologies are being used, how they’re impacting fish under different conditions like rising water temperatures, and how they ultimately might be beneficial for fish populations.”
“Indigenous fisheries conservation in a changing world” is a project in response to stated community needs and interests on the part of various Indigenous community partners up and down the coast as well as upstream. “Ultimately, this work recognizes that Indigenous knowledge systems are science and that there is so much that we can learn from Indigenous knowledge holders and systems,” said Dr. Reid. “But we can’t work with these knowledge systems without working really well with the people – respectfully and reciprocally – and being in good relations with the land and water. None of that is separable.”
Fisheries support food systems, livelihoods and economies, health and well-being, culture and identity, and so much more. As climate change and adverse world events disrupt fisheries and fish, the consequences can be far reaching and complex. Dr. Reid, her team, and their Indigenous community partners are looking to the past and present to build an inclusive and equitable approach to science and our shared future.
