Literature Review: Local and Traditional Knowledge in the Peace River Sub-Basin

• Main Authors: D'Souza, Amabel, Parlee, Brenda
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Published: 2016
• Subjects: Peace River Wateshed; Local and Traditional Knowledge; Tracking Change; First Nations
• Online Access: https://era.library.ualberta.ca/items/c9762afc-3b4f-43f0-bb6e-b6d307cd756f; https://doi.org/10.7939/r3-a7j4-y871

The Peace River Watershed is home to many Aboriginal peoples of the Treaty 8 region who have lived in the area since time immemorial. The Peace River and its tributaries have always been an important travel corridor for First Nations, Metis, and other settlers and was a foundation for subsistence fishing for many generations. The watershed has undergone significant change in recent decades as a result of resource development, including hydro-electric (e.g., WAC Bennett Dam), forestry, and petroleum industries. Although there is some documentation of the combined social and ecological changes, much local and traditional knowledge has not been documented. This report was developed for the Tracking Change… project with the aim of synthesizing existing documented local and traditional knowledge about social and ecological change in the Peace River Watershed. The identification, synthesis, and reporting on Traditional Knowledge for this region is complex, owning to the large number of Aboriginal groups who have documented historical and contemporary land and resource use and interest in the region, the absence of documented Traditional Knowledge research conducted, as well as the socio-economic and political inequities and tensions that exist between regional and provincial governments and many Aboriginal communities.