Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) might be at the brink of transformative change. After a long history of colonial approaches to fisheries management, the department is signalling a willingness to become more inclusive of Indigenous Peoples and their knowledge. 

“We’ve been waiting 150 years for this,” our colleague Doug Neasloss, stewardship director of the Kitasoo Xai’xais First Nation, often states when discussing these matters with DFO’s executive leadership. His words encapsulate the outcome of hard work and goodwill by many people from Indigenous communities and DFO. The moment is worth celebrating. Yet it is also at risk of a potential backslide that could ensue from workforce reductions in the federal public service by the Liberal government. This risk must be mitigated.

From grim history to “bright spots”

The history leading to this moment contains many instances of DFO undermining Indigenous knowledge. For example, as commercial fisheries and salmon canneries expanded in British Columbia during the 1800s, Indigenous fisheries for salmon — which used weirs, intertidal stone traps and other methods to target only strong runs as they entered spawning creeks — became scapegoats for poor salmon returns in the commercial fishery. 

Soon after, DFO banned Indigenous fishing methods. The real culprit for salmon declines was overexploitation by commercial fisheries, which target migrating schools at sea where weak stocks that should be left alone mix with stronger stocks that can withstand fishing. That is, the disruption of Indigenous practices was coupled with ecological havoc perpetuated by those who overfished and saw themselves as benefitting from the erasure of Indigenous fisheries. 

Yet societies are dynamic, capable of social change. In 2019, Canada's Fisheries Act was amended to better uphold the rights of Indigenous Peoples. Released the same year, the DFO Reconciliation Strategy calls for the department to “involve Indigenous groups in the development and implementation of new policy, program, and operational initiatives in relation to fish and fish habitat conservation and protection” and to “Increase Indigenous involvement in the prioritizing, conduct, and communicating of science and survey activities.” Additionally, measure #40 of the 2023 United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act Action Plan commits DFO to “develop and employ mechanisms that respect and incorporate Indigenous Knowledge as a distinct knowledge system in the management of fisheries.” 

Fisheries and Oceans Canada is on the brink of transformative change as it signals a willingness to tap Indigenous peoples and their knowledge. But workforce reductions by the Liberal government could undermine it, write Alejandro Frid and Ken Cripps

Regional agreements have also increased the potential for positive change. Among them, the 2021 Fisheries Resources Reconciliation Agreement between eight First Nations from coastal British Columbia and DFO is intended to support ecosystem-based management “using all available information including Indigenous Knowledge, scientific information, best practices, and Indigenous laws and principles (including respect for the natural world, balance and intergenerational equity, intergenerational knowledge transfer, and reciprocity).”

These and other shifts in policy and legislation have led to “bright spots”— emerging, yet still rare, cases of positive change — in which Indigenous knowledge and governance are meaningfully paired with Western science to improve fisheries management. They include a rebuilding plan for Pacific herring and a management plan for sea cucumber, both co-developed and co-governed by the Haida Nation and the federal government, as well as the design and ongoing implementation of a network of marine protected areas in British Columbia, co-developed and co-governed by 17 First Nations with federal and provincial partners. These are the types of processes and outcomes that — Neasloss reminds us — Indigenous Peoples have been awaiting for 150 years.

Yet the sobering fact is that, by definition, bright spots are still rare. The inclusion of Indigenous Peoples in Canadian fisheries' management cannot be taken for granted. Its progress requires decades of collaboration to build and, potentially, mere moments to backslide.

A risk to hard-earned progress

Collaborations between Indigenous Peoples and DFO are consistent with Canada’s domestic and international obligations to uphold Indigenous rights. They are also valuable to everyone. Western approaches to acquiring knowledge and making decisions have limited capacity to solve many of today’s environmental problems, and the pairing of different knowledge systems can illuminate new understandings and solutions, increasing the resilience of societies and ecosystems and long-term economic benefits. 

These collaborations require trust. They involve meeting physically in the same space and working together through challenges and disagreements. Collaborators must see each other as individuals, not as components of institutions. Meetings that take place in Indigenous communities and include shared time on the land and water, rather than in boardrooms or online, are essential. 

For DFO to live up to its own commitments to the inclusivity of Indigenous Peoples in fisheries management, DFO staff must be supported. Relationship building — and continuity — should be viewed as critical work components requiring adequate funds for unstructured interactions with Indigenous Peoples. 

Institutionally, DFO already shows a nascent understanding of these issues. Otherwise, bright spots would not exist. Yet DFO programs designed specifically to engage in meaningful collaborations with Indigenous Peoples — including those that support activities inherent to the Fisheries Resources Reconciliation Agreement — are among the federal programs at risk from reductions in the federal public service under consideration by the Liberal government. 

Maintaining hard-earned momentum 

Collaborations between Indigenous Peoples and DFO have generated bright spots that embody Canada’s potential for social change in the right direction. They have strengthened trust between Indigenous and Crown governments which, in turn, enhances management efficiencies and economic benefits. 

Indigenous participation in fisheries management increases the range and depth of knowledge sources, availability of personnel with diverse skill sets and capacity to leverage government and private funds, as well as the quality of rebuilding and management plans. They are a superior alternative to the disruptive conflicts and costly court cases that tainted Crown-Indigenous relationships in recent years.

It is Canada’s responsibility to sustain, not impede, further progress in the inclusivity of Indigenous Peoples in fisheries management. Federal programs that support DFO personnel in collaboration with Indigenous peoples should not be cut or diminished. Instead, they must be expanded and financially strengthened. 

Alejandro Frid is an ecologist and adjunct faculty at the School of Resource & Environmental Management, Simon Fraser University, and the School of Environmental Studies, University of Victoria. 

Ken Cripps is technical staff for the Kitasoo Xai'xais First Nations. He has been working directly with coastal First Nations on fisheries and marine conservation for over 30 years. 

© National Observer