Three Indigenous natural resource professionals say activist environmentalists are paternalistic when they claim to speak for Indigenous groups and oftentimes hold priorities at odds with the best interests of those communities. 

On Jan. 23, John Desjarlais, Isaiah Robinson and Dakota Kochie joined Ken Coates of the MacDonald-Laurier Institute (MLI) for a webinar entitled Eco-colonialism and Indigenous involvement in the natural resource sector.

“The external, often non-Aboriginal experts, tend to get a lot of attention, particularly from the media. People think that that's what Indigenous people believe,” said Robinson.

Coates, director of Indigenous Governance at Yukon University, said that a prominent First Nation leader in British Columbia recently told him that “a lot of the environmentalists are the new missionaries. They decide what's best for us and they’re telling us what to do.”

Isaiah Robinson is Deputy Chief Councillor of the Kitasoo Xai’xais Nation located on the edge of the Great Bear Rainforest on the Pacific coast of British Columbia. His community is small, isolated and has historically struggled with high unemployment rates. Thirty years ago, between 90 to 95 per cent of the nation were unemployed. At that point, says Robinson, “Our elders decided there needed to be a breadwinner in every household.”

Today, through a combination of eco-tourism and a successful partnership with the Norwegian salmon farming company Mowi, the community has flipped those numbers and boasts 99-per-cent employment.

“With a $3-million economy, we've been able to prosper as a community,” said Robinson.

But change is afoot. Late last year, the federal government announced a total ban on salmon farming on Canada’s west coast.

“The Liberals have made it a platform to remove this industry; this is politically charged and really supported by activists who, in my perspective, are very different than conservationists,” said Robinson.

Each speaker was careful to draw a distinction between environmental activism and conservationism. The panelists say that conservationism comes naturally to Indigenous communities. 

“I see activists as people who provide problems with no solutions, and I see conservationists in the opposite way, providing solutions and willing to work together and listen,” said Robinson.

He sees this recalcitrance demonstrated in the ban on Pacific salmon farming.

“The irony to me is we hear, well, this is going to help the wild stock. I don't hear any solutions to help solve the wild stock return to the West Coast, which to me is just completely bizarre.”

The paternalism on display is not just a problem for climate activists, but for the federal government’s relationship with Indigenous communities.

“The Canadian government is very comfortable empowering Indigenous groups and communities to give them the power to say no to a project, but they have trouble with giving Indigenous communities the power to say yes to a project,” said Coates.

“We always hear Indigenous leaders say, ‘We're not against development, we're against being left out, we're against being left out of the decision-making process,’ ” said Robinson.

Robinson spoke of the “seven generations” maxim that guides Indigenous thinking about resource and land development.

“Seven generations is something that is persistent and consistent right across Canada. We do it in a way where we practice our rights and we want to develop a resource, but we understand that overall net impact. That's how we do development, that's how we fish, forest, and that's how we practice harvesting.”

Desjarlais said his community is naturally concerned about the environmental impact of resource development.

“I always say, we worry more. Our livelihood, our rights, our ceremonies, everything is tied to that resource. It's not an ideology, it's cultural. It's who we are as people, those resources. I think that needs to be understood and respected more. I think a lot of these environmentalist groups, they speak of pristine conservation. It's almost like you leave the land alone, but every Indigenous group we talk to, they say, you don't leave the land alone. You manage it in terms of forestry. You thin out, you do burns, you do take lumber for ceremony or for infrastructure. There's a relationship. It's not about leaving it alone.”