Literature Review Local and Traditional Knowledge In the Athabasca River Watershed

• Main Authors: Parlee, Brenda, D'Souza, Amabel
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Published: 2019
• Subjects: Athabasca Watershed; Local and Traditional Knowledge; LTK; Tracking Change; Athabasca River
• Online Access: https://era.library.ualberta.ca/items/4aba2930-3663-4ad8-bba3-75b99069aa60; https://doi.org/10.7939/r3-7120-vn97

Given the limits of resources and time established for this project, this report should not be considered a comprehensive overview of all available documented Traditional Knowledge for this watershed. The Athabasca River Watershed comprises both Treaty #8 and Treaty #6. There are at least nine Aboriginal groups with historic or contemporary connections to this watershed. Many of these groups relocated to British Columbia with the settlement of Alberta in the 19th century. Definitions, methods, and formats of documented Traditional Knowledge vary significantly. While libraries, the internet, and scholarly journals house some sources of knowledge, there are many kinds of reports prepared by and for Aboriginal communities that are not available to the public for political, cultural, and socio-economic reasons. There are many kinds of Traditional Knowledge indicators of ecosystem health and ecological change; some of these indicators are synergistic with Western Science. Other kinds of indicators are unique to Traditional Knowledge and may be difficult to integrate into a standardized ‘State of the Watershed Report.’ There is significant spatial differentiation related to where such knowledge is documented; some communities in the lower Athabasca have been more active in documenting Traditional Knowledge due, in part, to the resources and pressures to do so that have come with planning, assessment, and monitoring of oil sands mining and its impacts.