Paper short abstract:

This paper analyzes Rocky Cree efforts to recover traditional place names in a hydro-developed landscape in central Canada. Challenges involved show the complexities of recovering past environments using oral history and the entangled politics of colonial reconciliation and environmental justice.

Paper long abstract:

This paper investigates the use of oral history to recover Indigenous environmental knowledge to inform just transitions in Northern Manitoba, Canada. Since time immemorial, the Asiniskaw Ithiniwak (Rocky Cree) used place names to carry messages about how to use and care for the land and resources in accordance with the teachings of the Creator. While many names were lost to them through successive eras of settler-colonial remapping and development projects, the Rocky Cree at Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation are now embarked on a project to recover the names by studying oral histories recorded from Elders in their community. Recovering and using names is viewed as a precursor to a just energy transition for First Nations people that includes reconciliation and healing, culture and education, movement to self governance, and observations of traditional sovereignty over resources. Conversely, a major driver behind the original oss of the names was the crown-corporate redevelopment of Treaty 5 lands by Manitoba Hydro, part of an ongoing social welfare energy plan established in the 1950s justified as bringing clean and affordable power to the southern part of the province. The resultant watershed changes in the north relocated communities, altered familiar ecological patterns and watercourses, and completed submerged or destroyed large areas - upsetting the reference point for many of the Rocky Cree place names. The challenges involved in recovering the names reflect the complex nature of reconstructing lost environments using oral history, as well as the entangled politics of environmental justice in energy and resource use.