Case 3 will take place at Walpole Island First Nation where health and environmental monitoring and activism have been going on since the 1970’s. The project will examine forms of research collaboration within the community and the mobilization of community responses to externally imposed standards (government, industry) in health and environment.

The community sees the environment as an intersection of living beings whose health cannot be understood independently of the whole. Standards assume that risks are acceptable and that levels of toxicity under the standards set do not pose a risk. Public discourse now includes endangerment of traditional culture and impact on ongoing traditional subsistence practices as part of the responsibility of new projects. WIFN is in a position to hone its own practice, illustrated in the case studies our team will be examining, and also to provide a collaborative model for other First Nations communities. The research will explore how this works, what strategies are effective, and offer models for how to move into the future.

Consultation has only recently become a significant part of standards negotiations with First Nations communities. Legally mandated consultation does not, however, guarantee that meaningful communication will occur. WIFN has met science with its own use of science over the last several decades but has done so in the framework of traditional values and protocols for negotiation. This project will document the success of the community in creating a place for itself at the provincial, federal, and industry tables where standards that may affect the community adversely are negotiated. For example, WIFN espouses a zero-tolerance level of toxicity in water (discharges into the St. Clair River), air, and land. They have been monitoring toxins in their environment since the early 1970’s but are also using traditional knowledge in assessing the risks and the damage that has already been done. For example, they have prepared extensive documentation on 56 endangered species of plants and small animals at WIFN (WIFN 2006, Darnell and Stephens 2007). External standards firmly (and artificially from a WIFN standpoint) separate human and non-human risks and consequences.