For The Love Of A'se'k: Piktukowaq's (Re)Assertion Of Autonomy In Pursuit Of A Healthier Community, Lands, Waters, And Future Generations
Abstract
Pictou Landing First Nation (PLFN) has experienced the impacts of being exposed to the effluent treatment facility for a pulp mill for decades, but in 2020, it was announced that the treatment facility would finally close. In my research, I will investigate and compare two sets of PLFN health data from 2014 and 2019 to answer the following research questions: 1) Does community health for the PLFN improve over time when community members have more autonomy over environmental decision-making?; and 2) Does Pictou Landing First Nation's relationship to place improve with more autonomy in environmental decision making? I will use the lens of environmental dispossession, repossession, and the Piktukowaq environmental health cultural framework as a guiding theoretical framework to position PLFN relationships to land, autonomy, and each other. I will use community-based participatory research (CPBR) as a guiding methodology to emphasize the relationship between researchers and community and employ quantitative methods comparing secondary data from the 2014 and 2019 surveys. Through my findings, physical health, mental health, and relationship to place improve when Piktukowaq have more autonomy over their environmental decision-making.