56 Kelly Bannister
another and interdependent with all forms of life within creation. According to
Blackfoot scholar Dr. Leroy Little Bear, “In the Indigenous world, everything is
animate and has spirit. All my relations refers to relationships with everything in
creation” (Little Bear, 2009, p. 7).
In the video How UNDRIP Recognizes the Sacred Relationship with Nibi (Water),
Anishinaabe-Métis lawyer Aimée Craft explains that Article 25 of UNDRIP
ensures protection of a longer-term “spiritual relationship between Indigenous
people and their waters, lands, territories, in a way that allows for protection of
that water, or that land or that territory, for future generations” (Craft, 2019).
She goes on to say:
UNDRIP is not recognizing water as a resource to be owned or managed,
or controlled like most Western legal systems do, but it is actually saying, as
Indigenous people, there is something further to that relationship, there is
something that is deeper that emanates from your relationship with water,
and that you have a right to preserve and maintain that.
(Craft, 2019)
To complement the general biocultural rights-based focus of this book for
protecting culture and environment, this chapter offers a biocultural ethics perspective, where biological and cultural rights and responsibilities are understood
as inextricably interlinked and situated within relationships across generations and species in ways that honor past, present and future. It highlights the
important role that ethics have played in supporting biocultural rights of Indigenous peoples in Canada
2 over the last couple of decades, focusing on ways that
national research ethics policies and guidelines have evolved to address historical
injustices to Indigenous peoples by prioritizing relational dimensions of research
involving Indigenous peoples. Notably, these ethics initiatives took place years in
advance of the Canadian government’s commitments of this nature, which have
been articulated recently through new principles, laws and policies as part of a
national agenda of reconciliation with Indigenous peoples.
The chapter also points to hard-won existing efforts – and ongoing efforts still
needed – to evolve our institutions, policies and practices to secure Indigenous
rights more wholly as they extend to cultural responsibilities and spiritual
relationships with the natural world. This involves awareness and respect for
Indigenous worldviews, customs and legal systems, particularly with regard to
how Indigenous knowledge is accessed and used outside of the Indigenous communities and traditions where the knowledge originated. As Anishinaabe legal
scholar Dr. John Borrows points out in the Preface to Genetic Resources, Justice
and Reconciliation (Borrows, 2018):
Today, our knowledge and relationships with the genetic diversity of our
territories is threatened by governments, corporations, scientists and other
bodies and individuals. Biopiracy and cultural appropriation abound. […]
another and interdependent with all forms of life within creation. According to
Blackfoot scholar Dr. Leroy Little Bear, “In the Indigenous world, everything is
animate and has spirit. All my relations refers to relationships with everything in
creation” (Little Bear, 2009, p. 7).
In the video How UNDRIP Recognizes the Sacred Relationship with Nibi (Water),
Anishinaabe-Métis lawyer Aimée Craft explains that Article 25 of UNDRIP
ensures protection of a longer-term “spiritual relationship between Indigenous
people and their waters, lands, territories, in a way that allows for protection of
that water, or that land or that territory, for future generations” (Craft, 2019).
She goes on to say:
UNDRIP is not recognizing water as a resource to be owned or managed,
or controlled like most Western legal systems do, but it is actually saying, as
Indigenous people, there is something further to that relationship, there is
something that is deeper that emanates from your relationship with water,
and that you have a right to preserve and maintain that.
(Craft, 2019)
To complement the general biocultural rights-based focus of this book for
protecting culture and environment, this chapter offers a biocultural ethics perspective, where biological and cultural rights and responsibilities are understood
as inextricably interlinked and situated within relationships across generations and species in ways that honor past, present and future. It highlights the
important role that ethics have played in supporting biocultural rights of Indigenous peoples in Canada
2 over the last couple of decades, focusing on ways that
national research ethics policies and guidelines have evolved to address historical
injustices to Indigenous peoples by prioritizing relational dimensions of research
involving Indigenous peoples. Notably, these ethics initiatives took place years in
advance of the Canadian government’s commitments of this nature, which have
been articulated recently through new principles, laws and policies as part of a
national agenda of reconciliation with Indigenous peoples.
The chapter also points to hard-won existing efforts – and ongoing efforts still
needed – to evolve our institutions, policies and practices to secure Indigenous
rights more wholly as they extend to cultural responsibilities and spiritual
relationships with the natural world. This involves awareness and respect for
Indigenous worldviews, customs and legal systems, particularly with regard to
how Indigenous knowledge is accessed and used outside of the Indigenous communities and traditions where the knowledge originated. As Anishinaabe legal
scholar Dr. John Borrows points out in the Preface to Genetic Resources, Justice
and Reconciliation (Borrows, 2018):
Today, our knowledge and relationships with the genetic diversity of our
territories is threatened by governments, corporations, scientists and other
bodies and individuals. Biopiracy and cultural appropriation abound. […]