Reclaiming Ancestral Territory in Biigtigong Nishnaabeg: Applying Strategies Of Environmental Repossession For Indigenous Decolonization
Abstract
Relationships to land are foundational for nurturing knowledge systems, identities, and wellness among Indigenous peoples. As Indigenous peoples resist enduring structures of colonialism and rebuild self-determination, they are pursuing diverse strategies to reclaim and reconnect with their lands and land-based practices. While this movement is growing globally, few empirical studies have explored why particular strategies are developed nor how they are operationalized in place. In partnership with Biigtigong Nishnaabeg, this dissertation applies the concept of environmental repossession to document the spatial strategies being implemented to reoccupy, reconnect with, and reassert Biigtigong’s rights to its ancestral territory. Drawing from Indigenous and participatory methodologies, this dissertation examines individual and community meanings of environmental repossession and considers the long-term implications of these efforts for decolonization.
Taking a case study approach, this dissertation explored the perceptions of Biigtigong Nishnaabeg community members who participated in the reclamation of Mountain Lake. Thematic analysis of interviews (n=15) with Elders, youth, and band staff suggests that Biigtigong is practicing environmental repossession as a multi-step process. Alongside reoccupation of territory, repossession in Biigtigong involves reintroducing community members to the land and remaking community relationships to reclaimed places. The findings reveal that the reclamation of Mountain Lake created the space for community members to gather and revitalize the roles, values, and relationships that connect them to their Nishnaabeg identity.
In Biigtigong, the everyday work of environmental repossession is supported by the Department of Sustainable Development. Narrative analysis of interviews (n=7) with staff members demonstrates that the department has evolved as a place-based structure to facilitate repossession efforts across multiples scales and over the long-term. The results illustrate how repossession is part of a broader departmental vision to decolonize Biigtigong’s economic, political, and social relations with the land and renew Nishnaabeg governance.
Taken together, this research suggests that environmental repossession is a place-based mechanism of decolonization through which Biigtigong is asserting self-determination over its territory, wellness, and future as Nishnaabeg. While Indigenous communities may have shared goals or experiences of dispossession, what land reclamation looks like, how it is practiced and what it means will vary across places, spaces, and scales.