Abstract
Language of the Land: Protecting and Promoting Traditional Ecosystem Knowledge Track: Archaeology Author(s): David Mackett The Northern Ontario land-base has many values such as nesting and spawning sites, wildlife habitat, and other features that hold ecological, economic, and personal significance. Equally important, Aboriginal traditional and contemporary values must be collected, acknowledged, and appropriately integrated into any land management process. Lake Superior First Nations Development Trust, a not-for-profit organization, has nurtured a decade-long partnership with First Nations and through friendships, communication and respect has established a process for collecting Traditional Ecosystem Knowledge (TEK). This partnership allows traditional values to be documented and synthesized using GIS and Internet mapping technology to build applications for the preservation, promotion, and protection of the knowledge. TEK collection is built through a cooperative human approach incorporating communication and trust as principles to celebrate the cultural identity and relationships a First Nation has with the landscape. Accordingly, a common ground between technology and traditional knowledge has guided the course of this work. David Mackett Lake Superior First Nation Development Trust 1186 Roland Street, 2nd Floor Thunder Bay, Ontario , null P7B 5M4 CA Phone: 807-628-8330 E-mail: dmackett@tbaytel.net |
|||||
