Land and Water Stewardship as Decolonizing Practice: A Case Study of Dehcho K'éhodi

Indigenous peoples’ conservation efforts are usually undertaken in contexts where their inherent rights to territory and self-determination continue to be challenged by colonial institutions and legal orders. Our paper... [ view full abstract ]

Indigenous peoples’ conservation efforts are usually undertaken in contexts where their inherent rights to territory and self-determination continue to be challenged by colonial institutions and legal orders. Our paper grapples with this reality by drawing discussions of environmental stewardship and conservation into relation with scholarship on decolonization and Indigenous resurgence. We approach these questions from a socio-ecological perspective embedded in Indigenous philosophy, where stewardship and land-based livelihoods are closely interwoven. Our aim is both to advance understanding of Indigenous approaches to environmental stewardship and to chart the potential contributions of such efforts to broader individual and collective struggles for decolonization.

In pursuit of these objectives, we share the example of the Dehcho K’éhodi program, an initiative launched by Dehcho First Nations (DFN) in 2014. The Dehcho is a Dene and Métis territory located in the Mackenzie Valley, in the southwest corner of Canada’s Northwest Territories. In the midst of ongoing land claim negotiations, as well as various processes for land-use and protected areas planning, DFN decided to build their own land and water stewardship program based on Indigenous knowledge, worldview and land-use priorities. The Dehcho K’éhodi program involves the participation of eleven member communities in a series of activities that span from language revitalization to environmental monitoring. On the basis of fieldwork completed for a Dehcho K’éhodi community needs and assets inventory in 2017, we draw out the way that environmental stewardship connects with the ability of the Dehcho Dene and Métis to secure the future survival of their cultures and ways of life.

Our analysis highlights the most important dimensions of Dehcho K’éhodi, charting the ways it contributes to processes of Indigenous resurgence as a process of decolonization. It also reflects on the challenges of achieving the program’s objectives (and broader decolonizing effects) within the contemporary legal, political, economic and social context faced by DFN’s member communities.