{This article is reproduced from Peace Brigades International (PBI)
Project Bulletin, April 1995. It was written by PBI volunteers as
part of a report on a fisheries conference held over March 11-12.
Reproduction and re-use is encouraged, as long as credit is given to
PBI for the text, and your intentions are good. For more
info about PBI's North America Project, contact:
Alan Dixon
27 Third Ave.
Ottawa, ON K1S 2J5
e-mail: adixon@web.apc.org}
Over the weekend of March 11-12, four Peace Brigades International
(PBI) volunteers attended a fisheries conference organised by the
Nawash First Nation, acting as non-partisan reporters on the proceedings
of the conference. The PBI team consisted of Jim Smith and Alan Dixon
from Canada, Paul Kuppinger from the USA and Anne Harrison from England.
In August 1994, a PBI team spent a week with the Nawash, who
together with the Saugeen First Nation have been involved in a
dispute over fishing rights in Lake Huron. The Nawash and Saugeen
First Nations are Ojibwe communities located on the Bruce Penninsula
that divides Georgian Bay from the rest of Lake Huron in Ontario,
Canada.
The Nawash invited all parties involved in the fishing dispute to
attend the recent conference. Plenary sessions were addressed by
academics, government fishery managers, and native elders and
fishers. Workshops allowed participants to explore in greater
depth the different approaches to fisheries management, and ways
of bridging those differences (see separate reports "Summary of a
Conflict" and "Traditional Environmental Knowledge", posted as responses
to this topic).
Our presence was requested as an independant party to report in a
non-partisan way on the proceedings of the conference. During the
conference, various parties sought us out to make their feelings
clear to us, and our presence was generally felt to be useful.
Copies of a conference report based on our notes will be distributed
to participants of the conference.
For a copy of the final report, contact:
Chippewas of Nawash
RR5
Wiarton, Ontario
N0H 2T0
ph: 519-534-1689
fx: 519-534-2130