Cultures and Ecologies: A Native Fishing Conflict on the Saugeen-Bruce Peninsula

In 1993, an Ontario Court decision recognized Native rights to harvest fish in the waters around the Saugeen-Bruce Peninsula, sparking sometimes violent confrontation between Native and non-Native fishers about how these rights would be translated into equitable resource access for all.

In Cultures and Ecologies, Edwin C. Koenig applies ethnohistorical and ethnographic approaches to the conflict, exploring both historical and recent fisheries activity in the region. In an effort to clarify particularly contentious issues, he provides insights into how the conflict was entangled with cultural perspectives on the definition of ‘conservation’ and how each side had various interpretations of the conservation mandate.

Based on substantial ethnographic fieldwork and featuring rich interviews with First Nations members, Cultures and Ecologies links perspectives on fishing conflict issues to local community revitalization efforts, where there is also a strong interest in articulating traditions and traditional knowledge. It encourages an open dialogue on this and other aboriginal resource conflicts.