Paper short abstract:

While waiting for an official designation, the Pessamiulnuat believe that the joint revitalization of the culture and the landscapes which support it is a necessary approach for reaching their goal of establishing a protected area that is anchored in their own land values and ontology.

Paper long abstract:

In the winter of 2021, the Quebec government announced the creation of a new category of Indigenous protected area that would give greater control to Indigenous peoples at the provincial level. Around the same time, the Innu community of Pessamit learned that their protected area project, aimed at curbing the decline of woodland caribou around the Pipmuacan Reservoir, would not be part of the conservation areas selected to achieve the protection target of 17% of the province’s land environments. Like other communities in Quebec, Pessamit faces a major challenge: that of trying to protect a territory located in the heart of the commercial forest.

While waiting for an official designation, the Pessamit Innu Council is stepping up its actions in the hope of raising public awareness concerning the destruction of forest caribou habitat and its impact on biodiversity, but also on the preservation of Innu culture, which is largely dependent on the survival of this sacred animal. Among these actions is the promotion and occupation of important cultural sites along the riverscape leading to Pipmuacan. The Pessamiulnuat believe that the joint revitalization of the culture and the landscapes which support it is a necessary approach for reaching their goal of establishing a protected area that is anchored in their own land values and ontology.

In order to highlight the undeniable role of culture in nature conservation, our presentation will focus on an event held in the summer of 2021 at an ancestral gathering site located south of the Pipmuacan.