For Mi'kmaq fishers working within Ottawa's baby eel rules, it's a ‘peaceful' season
GOLD RIVER - Some Mi'kmaq harvesters say working within Ottawa's quotas for the contentious baby eel fishery is helping calm the tense atmosphere in their river workplaces.
In the shallows of the Gold River last Friday night, as the tiny, translucent eels known as elvers emerged from the mud, Jay Pennell — a member of the nearby Wasoqopa'q First Nation — swept his nets back and forth through the water and recalled past confrontations.
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CTV News
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Nova Scotia chiefs say province needs to improve consultation on natural resources
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CBC
23-05-2025
- CBC
"Fire is not inherently bad" says Fire Archeologist
Social Sharing Chief Joanne Miles of the Flat Bay Band says people in her community have practiced low-intensity controlled burning for as long as she can remember. When done correctly, she says this can prevent devastating wildfires. The knowledge of how this is done has been passed down through generations. "Education is a big component to, you know, the Mi'kmaq and the way we live," Miles said. "Hopefully we can … pass that awareness and that prevention on to our youth." Several factors are considered before starting a low-intensity controlled burn, Miles said. Elders in her area have learned the seasonal patterns, the moisture levels of the ground and plants, and how to recognize wind changes. Miles said this practice is the reason the Flat Bay area has hardly seen any major forest fires. People head out onto their land as soon as the snow melts for this annual activity. But she said they don't just start lighting random fires everywhere, and emergency preparedness is always kept in mind. "Traditionally, it's our land that we've been watching, and taking care of it as stewards," Miles said. Fire is a natural system - Hillary Renick Hillary Renick, President of the California Indian Land Institute, is a member of Sherwood Valley Band of Pomo Indians located in Northern California. She also protects cultural values at risk during wildfire events as a Fire Archeologist. She recently travelled to St. John's, NL, to speak to students at Memorial University. Renick says fire is surprisingly helpful for many plant and tree species, and some are actually fire resistant. There are even trees with seeds that need a slow burning fire in order to germinate, she said. She also said wildfires can clear an area of invasive species, allowing native plants to grow back. "Fire is a natural system, it is not the enemy of the earth," said Renick. "It's part of a system that's tied to the soil health, to weather and climate. There's a rhythm." Some tribal nations have retained knowledge of the burning connection they had with the Earth, Renick said. The knowledge of others was decimated through colonization, she said. Some tribes still have elements in their language or songs that refer to taking care of the land. But not everyone is able to use the knowledge they have, she said. "Especially with displacement, it's hard to do things when you don't have access to the land, when the land is owned by, you know, the federal government, or the crown, or the state," Renick said. She said we need to stop looking into forests only for recourses, and start using Indigenous knowledge to help save them. "We're all part of this whole system," Renick said. "Fire is not inherently bad, it's just a different way of looking at the world."
CTV News
17-05-2025
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Foraging for fiddleheads: A springtime tradition in the Maritimes is in full swing
Sarah Plowman has the story of the long-standing Maritime family traditions and secrets of foraging for fiddleheads. Just off a road in a wooded area that hugs a river, dinner is sprouting. Some fiddleheads, the curled greens that have been a staple in New Brunswick for generations, are waiting in plain sight. Sometimes, they're hidden under the brush. With a bag in his hand and his eyes on the ground, Andrew MacLean explains how to forage the ostrich fern. 'There's only a two-week window where these things are ripe, so you have to be pretty quick on the ball,' he said. 'If they grow too large, they're bitter.' Some people like to boil the fern and add vinegar, explains MacLean, but he says they taste best sauteed with lemon and garlic. MacLean first went fiddleheading with his grandparents in Tide Head, N.B., which bills itself as the world's fiddlehead capital. It's a tradition he continues every spring. 'This is kind of a major thing for my family, but not just my family, but New Brunswickers from all over, all ages,' he said. 'You can just kind of tell the story of New Brunswick based on fiddleheads.' Fiddleheads through history 'In the beginning, the Wolastoqiyik, Mi'kmaq, and the Passamaquoddy really loved the fiddlehead. When the Acadian population came over in the 1700s, they were taught about the fiddleheads by the Indigenous peoples,' said Maclean, a historian and author who tells stories of Canada's past in his books and on his website . 'And then, very soon after the English arrived with the Loyalists, they didn't have much food in the beginning. And they went for the fiddleheads, which grew very early in the spring.' Maclean says, in the 1980s, Vermont tried to make the fiddlehead its official vegetable, sparking an angry response from people in New Brunswick who protested with poems. Vermont ultimately didn't go through with it, he says. Maclean's family freezes the fiddleheads and eventually cook to add to Christmas or Thanksgiving dinner. A quirky tip to wash them is to use a bingo cage. 'If you put that in shallow water and the fiddleheads inside them and use it to wash them, it's way less of a fuss, Maclean said. 'Since time immemorial, we've picked fiddleheads' On Tobique First Nation, Shane Perley-Dutcher carries a traditional woven basket through a grassy area next to a stream. He's on the lookout for fiddleheads and doesn't want any that have overgrown. 'You want to get them when they're nice and curled up,' he said. Like MacLean, Perley-Dutcher has been doing this since he was a kid. He grew up picking with his aunts, uncles and grandmother. 'We always had spots. 'Our secret spots' they would say,' he joked, pointing out people are protective of the areas where they forage. As he quickly spots, picks and throws fiddleheads into his basket, he leaves one in the bunch he picked from – a lesson he learned from his family to leave one for the next person. Perley-Dutcher says fiddleheads are a traditional staple and medicine because of their nutritional benefits. 'It's like the first medicine of the spring, of the year,' he said. 'Since time immemorial, we've picked fiddleheads. And it was always known as part of our diet, our traditional diet, along with salmon.' He washes his fiddleheads in the stream in the traditional basket he brought to remove any brown, papery scales. Jamie Simpson, author of Eating Wild in Eastern Canada, points out how the ostrich fern likes to grow along riverbanks, particularly riverbanks that get flooded in springtime. It grows into a full-size fern with a big frond that kind of looks like an ostrich feather, he says. Eating them safely According to the government of Canada, fiddleheads can cause food poisoning if they have not been stored, prepared or cooked properly. Health Canada recommends cooking fiddleheads in a generous amount of boiling water for 15 minutes or steaming them for 10 to 12 minutes until tender. The water used for boiling or steaming the fiddleheads should be discarded after. What's the best fiddleheads recipe? It depends on who you ask. 'A little bit of butter, some salt, a little bit of lemon juice, a little bit of vinegar, and they're just perfect,' said Simpson.
