Overview
Responding
to
the
past
century
of
mining
in
Timmins,
Ontario,
Martin
Millen,
Traditional
Practitioner, Mary
Boyden,
Indigenous
Community
Relations
Manager
for
Porcupine
Gold
Mines,
and
a
group
of Indigenous
Knowledge
Guardians
from
across
Canada,
have
formed
Anishanaabe
Maamwaye
Aki Kiigayewin
-
an
Ojibwe
phrase
that
means
all
people
coming
together
to
heal
the
Earth.
This
emerging partnership
is
the
result
of
approximately
three
years
of
meaningful
collaboration
between
Indigenous Knowledge
Guardians
from
across
Canada,
a
team
of
university
researchers
and
a
major
mining company,
all
working
to
build
trust
and
develop
a
shared
meaning
of
environmental
reclamation.
The Indigenous
Knowledge
Guardians
at
the
centre
of
Anishanaabe
Maamwaye
Aki
Kiigayewin
recognize there
is
a
need
to
develop
a
new,
collaborative,
Indigenous-led
model
for
mine.
This
new
model
is
founded
on
a
holistic,
intercultural
approach
that
seeks
to
promote
physical,
mental,
emotional
and spiritual
health
on
individual,
community,
intercultural
levels
while
healing
the
land.
Intercultural learning
is
a
critical
component
in
moving
forward
as
it
is
viewed
as
an
integral
step
in
achieving respect
and
understanding
of
Traditional
Knowledge
(Regan,
2005;
Duran
&
Duran,
2000). This initiative
has
been
described
as
a
social
innovation,
unique
in
its
design,
scope,
scalability
and
potential impact.
Purpose
The
over-arching
purpose
of
this
proposed
partnership
development
project
is
to
support
and document
the
emergence
and
continued
development
of
Anishanaabe
Maamwaye
Aki
Kiigayewin
in Timmins,
Ontario
as
an
Indigenous-led
social
innovation.
Therefore,
the
goal
of
the
research
is
to
explore
models
of,
and
approaches
to,
mine
restoration
and
rehabilitation
that
integrate,
in
a meaningful
way,
traditional
indigenous
knowledge
and
practice
that
helps
to
foster
decolonization and
promote
constructive
intercultural
relationships,
especially
Indigenous-corporate
relations
in
the mining
industry.
For
the
purposes
of
this
research,
we
define
decolonization
as
a
process,
as
yet unrealized,
to
enhance
intercultural
understandings,
actively
address
the
structural
inequalities
in
power, opportunity
and
equity
flowing
from
colonization,
and
promote
freedom
and
sovereignty
for Indigenous
Peoples
(Alfred,
2008;
Kohn
&
McBride,
2011;
Smith,
1999).
Social
innovation
and resilience
can
provide
a
useful
theory
of
change
for
fostering
the
kind
of
social
change
that decolonization
calls
for.
We
define
social
innovation
as
an
initiative,product,process
or
program
that
meets
a
critical
social
need
and
fundamentally
changes
the
underlying
values
and
beliefs
or
the
flows
of resource
and
authority
within
a
social
system
(Westley
&
Antadze,
2011;
Westley,
Zimmerman,
&
Patton,
2006).
Objectives
The
proposed
partnership
development
project
will:
1)
Employ
critical
Indigenist
research methodologies
that
question
colonial
planning
and
research
practices
(i.e.
decolonizing
practices)
in order
to
explore
and
foster
meaningful
intercultural
partnerships;
2)
Investigate
how
social
innovation and
resilience
can
be
used
as
tools
to
describe,
and
stimulate,
the
social
change
required
to
foster decolonizing,
Indigenous-corporate
relations
in
mining
practice;
3)
Develop
innovative,
collaborative models
of
mine
reclamation,
based
on
Traditional
Knowledge;
4)
Explore
innovative
models
of
social enterprise
that
will
allow
Anishanaabe
Maamwaye
Aki
Kiigayewin
to
be
a
self-sustaining
and
autonomous
entity;
and,
5)
Disseminate
our
conceptual
and
practical
research
findings
to
Indigenous, academic
and
corporate
audiences.
The
founding
motivation
of
this
proposal
was
to
build
on
the existing
base
of
trust
among
Indigenous,
academic
and
corporate
partners
to
ensure
that
Anishanaabe
Maamwaye
Aki
Kiigayewin
continues
to
foster
innovative
and
constructive
intercultural
relationships.