Mount Allison president Jean-Paul Boudreau and the Mount Allison Students’ Union have released statements condemning the anti-Indigenous violence in Mi’kma’ki (Nova Scotia).
Second year voice student and Indigenous student support group (ISSG) secretary/treasurer Rowan White says the statements are appreciated, but more work needs to be done.
White, who is from the Qalipu Nation of Ktaqm’kuk in Mi’kma’ki, visited the Saulnierville wharf with the ISSG and Divest Mount A volunteers to provide support.
RW: So our group has been going down in person to help organize move supplies, document what’s going on. We’ve also been gathering financial donations, donations of physical goods and storing them and bringing them down, as well as pressuring both the student union and university administration to put out statements and in support, both of which have been done.
MC: Do you have any thoughts about either of those statements?
RW: I was super touched that we are the first university and the first student union to actually make a public declaration about what is currently going on all through Nova Scotia. So I was really proud. The student union has been working directly with us to be super, super helpful and we really appreciate that. And of course, there’s always things to be done. But it’s a great first step.
MC: What can those who live on the unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq people do to support the fishers at the moment? What could somebody like me who’s not involved in the Mount Allison community or a neighbor do to help out?
RW: Oh, there are lots of ways. One of the most important is knowing about whose land you occupy. Knowing about their traditions, their treaties, and their current struggles. So being up to date is part of that, watching what’s going on and understanding why it’s so important to us as people is huge to all of us. Of course, there are lots of ways of finding this out through people on the ground through different organizations and through the media, but each of those are going to have their flaws, of course. There are lots of channels for physical and financial donations, we’re still handling them through the Mount A ISSG. And to share our story and our struggles and our excellence as well, with the more mainstream audience. A lot of Indigenous spaces are very cut off in terms of the groups that we can reach. So we need allies to be able to help spread what we’re saying.
MC: Do you have any recommendations for educational resources for people who want to learn more and engage?
RW: Absolutely, you can always reach out to any Indigenous organizations that might be around you. There is one website called Four Directions Teachings, which has a specific section on the Mi’kmaq people. Seven Generations talks about the ways of lineage and the way different teachings are passed down. There are lots of other resources through all three of those that you can check out.
MC: Is there additional action you would like to see from either the local government or perhaps federal government that has not happened yet, as of today, October 23rd, for context for listeners?
RW: That’s a really big question. But I would love to see more strict regulations placed on how people can interfere and interact with livelihood fishery. There’s been a lot of questions as to defining a livelihood, but that is really not something that we have ever done before. So now that it’s become a question of commodities, we need to have some direct protection of our treaty rights, have it redefined that these are still in place, and have, harsher consequences towards the people who are trying to violate them. The DFO has still been seizing traps of Mi’kmaq fishermen up in Cape Breton, which is a current issue happening alongside Digby, but it’s the same root causes. We want to have our fishery be in our control, like our treaty says. Not only does it guarantee us our livelihoods, it says that the signing of these treaties guarantees no change in how the Mi’kmaq have traditionally used this land. Our fishery is at the center of that.
MC: Do you have any thoughts about the media coverage of the issue as of today?
RW: Oh, absolutely. A lot of media has been trying to be unbiased, which is impossible for any media organization to do. A lot of it has been very, let me try to find a good word, noncommittal to how our treaties are written, how they are supposed to be honored. Like an article will read “the Mi’kmaq say that this is part of their rights,” when it is part of our rights. We don’t say it, we have the laws to back that up. We have the surrender of the English to form these treaties to back that up. So the media doesn’t cover the whole story, especially in regards to what the treaties say and what the treaties mean. Rarely ever do they discuss the peaceful side of the camps. When we go down, all of the land defenders and the warriors have been so open to receiving our help and giving us teachings and giving us support when we go down to help them. That’s part of the narrative that escapes the media is the calm before the confrontation.
MC: Okay, thank you. Is there anything further you would like to say about the conflicts that I haven’t given you the opportunity to talk about yet.
RW: I would like to see Mount Allison follow through on its statements of support in other facets. There’s always things that the university can do, and that the students can do to improve the structures that we operate within. So I suppose just following those through having closer collaboration with Indigenous people as we go forward, because now, these issues of long-standing colonialism have been brought to the surface for the second time in this decade, after shale gas, which is making people realize exactly how deeply these things go.
MC: This might be a loaded question, but I’m just thinking out loud. Would one of those things the university could do would be to divest from fossil fuels as Divest Mount A has pushed for, or is that unrelated?
RW: That is entirely related. I am quite involved with endowment funds at Mount Allison, and we have millions of dollars invested in fossil fuels. Of course, fossil fuels are one of the main driving forces behind treaty violations. Like we’re still watching what’s happening in Wet’suwet’en with TC Energy [formerly known as TransCanada], the owner of the pipeline, are planning on deviating from their path to drill under a river. TC Energy is invested in by Mount Allison. So Mount Allison is directly involved in providing resources to this company to tear up our lands. The two are inextricably linked, and all Indigenous people are linked. So you can’t support one, one group without supporting the others. We are all kin.
MC: Okay, so in order to follow up on its declared support, then perhaps the divesting from fossil fuels would be a start.
RW: Oh, absolutely. There are lots of ways that the university could go about that, but divestment would surely be one.
MC: Okay. Are there any other things? That’s just what I happen to know about and I don’t want to monopolize on the only thing that I know. Is there anything else specifically that you would like to see from the university other than the statement they put out?
RW: That’s always hard to answer. Of course, there is always the option and financial support, but university budgets rarely allow for that. Divestment, working on better anti racism policies… As I’m sure you know, a lot of racist issues have sort of flown under the surface here at Mount Allison. Better protections for women… We have a huge epidemic of sexual assaults and general assaults that have flown under the radar because we don’t have any boards to count them, to talk about them. All of these are Indigenous issues.
Mount Allison’s climate change and responsible investing statement says “there are opportunities to take environmental, social and other factors into account when managing the University’s investments but it does not support embracing a binary choice — to hold or not to hold fossil fuel securities.”
More details on Mount Allison’s response to divesting from fossil fuels can be found in this memo.
The Mount Allison Indigenous student support group is on Instagram @mta_indigenous, which shares educational resources and updates regularly.
Those who would like to make a donation to the ISSG can reach out to Mount Allison’s Indigenous Affairs Co-ordinator, Patty Musgrave-Quinn at indigenous@mta.ca.
