新作坊

Social and Economic Barriers to Subsistence Harvesting in a Northern Alberta Aboriginal Community

摘要：

For these reasons, it is vital that barriers to subsistence harvesting receive due attention through the types of measures suggested above, and that the bush lifestyle not be relegated to the status of a relic, or a symbolic heritage that exists only in memory. At the beginning of this paper, we illustrated how the basic structure of the subsistence harvesting regime in the LRRCN today mirrors that of the pre-settlement era. Despite changes in frequency and intensity, the essential organizational elements of the harvesting regime remain, including seasonal focus on various species, reciprocal exchange of country foods and organization of harvesting activities along kinship lines. It is equally important to understand that Aboriginal peoples have not become recreational hunters because they have moved into permanent settlements with grocery stores ([Usher, P.J.] 1981). The 2001 harvest survey clearly demonstrates country foods continue to be harvested in significant quantities by LRRCN members, and distributed so as to provide for as many people as possible. Further, the practice of hunting and gathering plays a vital role in maintaining social structures and relationships, a role far beyond mere recreation. The social influence of harvesting is especially important in northern communities like those of the LRRCN, where anyone under the age of 30 is likely just one generation away from a seasonally mobile subsistence lifestyle. The modest number of on-reserve career opportunities or other life-defining roles means that there are few alternatives for many young people who wish to remain in their communities. In such a case, the stability and empowerment offered by the bush lifestyle becomes a vital resource for people who are trying to negotiate a balance between old and new ways. Following the lead of other authors (such as Fienup-Riordan 1986; [G. Wenzel] 1991), this paper examines the causes and effects of barriers to subsistence harvesting, in this instance through a case study conducted in the Little Red River Cree Nation (LRRCN) in northern Alberta, Canada. During the summers of 2001 and 2002, the LRRCN partnered with the Sustainable Forest Management Network1 to undertake a harvest survey and a land-use mapping project in order to document the activities of local harvesters. The harvest survey also posed several questions about people's access to bush resources and factors that may impede their access, which are the focus of this paper. We shall first begin with some background information on the LRRCN and its subsistence harvesting regime before discussing the survey results and the potential (and realized) impacts of a decline in harvesting. While the findings here are unique to the communities in question, they very likely have application in aboriginal communities that exhibit a similar harvesting pattern and settlement history to that of the LRRCN.