TAKING CHARGE OF THE BRAS D’OR: ECOLOGICAL POLITICS IN THE ‘LAND OF FOG’

• Main Authors: William T. Hipwell, Carleton University
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Canada; Mi’kmaq
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.132.1648; http://www.victoria.ac.nz/geo/papers/staff/hipwell_taking_charge_of_the_bras_d_or_final.pdf

The central Bras d’Or Lakes watershed on the island of Cape Breton/Unama’kik, Canada is experiencing severe ecological degradation, including siltation, septic contamination, and declining biodiversity. These problems are the result of a number of things. At the most general level, Cape Breton/Unama’kik has historically been treated as a resource extraction zone for “Industria”, the global system of political and economic power, knowledge and technology which is feeding parasitically on “Gaia”, the wild, living Earth. In addition, hegemonic Industrian ontology and epistemology have ensured that managers have failed to recognise the Bras d’Or watershed as an ecological “whole” which is itself part of larger “wholes ” up to the planetary level. Government managers operate isolated from one another, attempting to deal separately with different aspects of human interactions with the rest of the natural community in the region. The result has been jurisdictional overlap, inefficiency, and continuing ecological decline. Local communities, including the Mi’kmaq nation and non-Mi’kmaq “Cape Bretoners ” have responded to these problems with a number of proposals and initiatives.