INTRODUCTION
Read and watch the introduction, then click “NEXT” at the bottom of the page
Welcome to Experience 1 in our Guided Journeys!
This experience’s theme is Relationships and Stories.
Relationships are central to every process and across every spectrum of life. Stories are still the technology used most successfully by human beings when attempting to transform data into a format that aids good decision making. Without relationships and stories, data is just meaningless noise. Contrary to its trending status in Western society, data is not a knowledge system. Without relationships and stories, we lose our ability to know what to do.
Experience Navigation Map
- Pehqinaqsiyin! (“s/he is a welcome sight”)
- Wewomotomon (s/he remembers the feel of it)
- Samaqan (“Water”)
- Tolihtehson (“Heartbeat”)
- Mace-kselomal (“s/he starts to love”)
- Ice-Breaker: Learn How to Pronounce “Peskotomuhkati”
- Beginning in a Good Way with Chief Hugh Akagi, Lynn Mitchell, Fred Page, and Harvey Millar (video, 55+ min)
- Knowledge Check-In (20 min)
- Reflection on Transformative Relationships (30+ min)
- Stories with Donald Soctomah (55+ min)
- Knowledge Check-In (20 min)
- Reflection on Stories that Keep Getting Told (30+ min)
- Fly Through Peskotomuhkatikuk (5 min)
- Qapit PLK
The Story of a Relationship
The Peskotomuhkati have a relationship with Canada which was formalized in the Peace & Friendship Treaties with the British Empire in 1725 and 1760, a relationship which was then transferred from England to Canada beginning in 1763 and completed in 1867, when Canada one day began to exist. These treaties are still the core shared knowledge system between the Nation and Canada today.
The Peace and Friendship Treaties have been honoured by the Peskotomuhkati, but they have not been honoured by the British Crown nor the Government of Canada, who have taken transgressive actions against the Nation, including erasing three Peskotomuhkati Nation reserves in order to sell the land, removing the Peskotomuhkati Nation from Canada’s list of First Nations in 1952, and building the Point Lepreau Nuclear Generating Station in the territory without discussion or consent in 1975. These transgressions of peace and friendship are unresolved, outstanding, and ongoing.
It is impossible to understand the Peskotomuhkati story, and its leadership in restoration across time, without understanding the story of the historical and ongoing marginalization of the Peskotomuhkati by the British Crown and the Canadian government. The Peskotomuhkati remain, against all odds or Western understanding, open to a renewed relationship that is good for all in the territory (fish and people, Indigenous and non-indigenous communities).
The Keys to Restoration
Relationships and Stories are two pillars in the traditional knowledge system of the Peskotomuhkati culture. These practices are celebrated as foundational in their successful stewardship and co-relationship with land and waters prior to European presence on Turtle Island.
To restore Passamaquoddy Bay, the Peskotomuhkati practices of Relationships and Stories need to be included alongside Western science in the forefront of all regional restoration work and policy-making, and should recognized and utilized as the effective cultural and scientific tools that they are.
This is the experience you are being invited into now, one of relation and narrative. We slow the pace of information in the coming sections to allow you to enjoy what’s being shared.
Click “START” to begin your journey.
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