Perspectives (text, 2 min)

Just like the timelapse video of the tides, every vantage point on Passamaquoddy Bay is achieved through some tool or natural capability (LIDAR or a traditional story about the tides), and each is a perspective in the same way that direct experience (being physically present) or scientific observation is a perspective.

In this Experience, you’ll hear from an ocean physicist about how we need to think about our technological tools, scientific methods, and traditional knowledge as being “perspectives.” Whether it is the perspective of innate human sensory faculties, thousands of years of stewardship tradition, or new scientific technologies and frameworks.

In the enormously complex task of restoring the Bay and its many creatures (people included), each perspective is needed. This is because each perspective is a tool for a specific kind of job. Each brings a unique value to the extent that its powers and limitations are understood and applied. But a danger must be avoided: each perspective will fall into error–destructive error with real world consequences–if it is considered by its users to be sufficient for making decisions or rendering judgements.

That is why the Peskotomuhkati call for a true co-management with Canada of their shared space of Peskotomuhkatikuk (the portion that exists within Canada’s borders). Empower the Peskotomuhkati to bring the Bay back to what it once was, a place of abundance for all who live here, in equal measure. The Peskotomuhkati want to provide the essential help they have to give, tools which Canada does not have (the Bay would be healthy if it did).

The Nation will give essential insight in restoration strategy. With the long memory of the Bay’s ecosystem encoded in stories, songs, and Elders, exceptional judgement is produced in those who have been listening for a long time, and in those who are just beginning (we see you). We know these perspectives are crucial for restoring our region, becuse they have kept it as a paradise for 14,000 years.

The powerful perspectives of Peskotomuhati tradition and process can join with the perspectives of marine science, grass roots economics, and Canadian regulation bodies to create a resilient and nutritious shared future for the homeland. The Nation will build together with Canada a more relational approach to decision making about the Bay, based on an agreement older than Canada itself, and yet new every morning to those who see its relevance: the Treaties of Peace and Friendship.