11,700 years ago, The Old Lady roamed in what is today the Northwest Territories, Canada. She was hungry and asked for food from the people of Łutsël K’é, who had just harvested a giant beaver (Thaidene Nëné – Land of the Ancestors). She was denied because there wasn’t enough to share. So, she stood in that spot, and spoke with the Creator. Her body began to be absorbed by the rock as she had volunteered to the Creator to stay there for eternity, “helping people heal and ensuring an abundance of food and water in exchange for not disturbing her sacred abode” (Thaidene Nëné: Land of the ancestors | Canadian Geographic).
This is the story of The Old Lady, or Grandmother, Granny, Tsankui Theda, who is believed to live in a waterfall along the Lockhart River, or Deshun Bedézé (Granny’s River); she is a central figure to the Łutsël K'é Dene, who believe “her waters will be a sanctuary when the globe reaches peak ecological destruction” (Thaidene Nëné: Land of the ancestors | Canadian Geographic). The Old Lady has been a guiding force for the Indigenous-led conservation in the area as her story makes up the first of three Dene laws that provide the foundations of Thaidene Nëné (Thaidene Nëné: Land of the ancestors | Canadian Geographic).
In 2019, Thaidene Nëné, a 6.5 million acres, or 26,376 square kilometres, Indigenous Protected Area at the transition between boreal forest and tundra, was created using the Dene laws of the Old Lady, Elder leadership of the project, and the support of the Łutsël K’é Dene First Nation (Thaidene Nëné – Land of the Ancestors). Thaidene Nëné, which means Land of the Ancestors in Dënesųłıné, is the traditional territory of the Łutsël K'é Dene First Nation, and is also home to some of the cleanest freshwater in the world and a variety of wildlife, including “some of the last herds of barren-ground caribou” (Equator Initiative UNDP). It is also a considerable carbon sink.
It is no wonder, then, why Parks Canada would want to preserve this area. However, in the history of conservation in Canada, national parks have excluded, and in many cases forcibly removed, Indigenous peoples (Theodore (Ted) Binnema and Melanie Niemi 2006, p.725). Research by Thedore Binnema and Melanie Niemi has shown that “aboriginal people were removed from most Canadian national parks” during their creation in the late nineteenth and early twentieth-century (Theodore (Ted) Binnema and Melanie Niemi 2006, p.725). The authors use the case study of Banff National park to show that Indigenous peoples were barred from national parks, even when tourist towns were created to attract visitors, affecting the livelihoods of ancestors of the Ktunaxa, Stoney, and Niitsitapiksi people, as well as some Cree bands (Theodore (Ted) Binnema and Melanie Niemi 2006, p.725). This history has continued well into the twentieth-century, directly causing the Łutsël K'é Dene First Nation to refuse twice, once in 1970 and then again in 1982, to consent to a national park on their land, as members knew they would be forced out of their territory (Equator Initiative UNDP).
Nonetheless, after much deliberation, in 2000, talks began with Parks Canada about how best to protect the area from the mining and energy industries, that had an interest in the developing there, after diamond mines were opening on nearby lands, uranium prospecting had occurred, and a hydropower dam was proposed on the sacred Lockhart River (Equator Initiative UNDP). It was the advocacy of the Elders that led to the formation of a Thaidene Nëné Advisory Committee, Leadership Team, and Negotiations Team, who, in 2004, used Dene Law to self-designate their land as a Indigenous Protected Area. This led to a guardian programme to “watch over the land” in 2008 and a “strategic conservation financing plan to create an endowment fund that would finance community-managed conservation in perpetuity” in 2015 (Equator Initiative UNDP). Following this, in 2019, the historic creation of Thaidene Nëné through established agreements between the Łutsël K’é, the Government of the Northwest Territories (GNWT), and the Government of Canada set a “powerful new precedent for a different relationship between Crown and Indigenous governments.” (Equator Initiative UNDP). The co-governance structure is built on nation-to-nation relationships between Łutsël K’é Dene First Nation, Canada, and the GNWT where a joint decision-making body called Thaidene Nëné Xá Dá Yáłtı sees decisions regarding the protected area made through consensus (Thaidene Nëné – Land of the Ancestors). This is a groundbreaking feat for environmental justice in Canadian history, and a huge win for the preservation of land, culture, and community.
Source: Pat Kane - Land of the Ancestors
The Łutsël K'é Dene Strategic Plan 2020-2025 outlines the multitudinous ways the community are stewarding the land; from maintaining ecological integrity through keeping land and waters in “pristine conditions, with healthy and abundant fish and wildlife” and sustainable hunting practices, to “working with others to slow climate change”, to revitalising Canada’s critically endangered caribou herds, to exploring how to deal with contaminated sites in the area (Thaidene Nëné – Land of the Ancestors). All of these initiatives are necessary as a wave in the sea towards combating climate change and reducing carbon in the atmosphere through firstly, reduced emissions, in this case by creating a protected area from multiple types of mining and thoroughfare pipelines, and secondly, through protecting the tundra and Boreal Forest that is “the biggest land-based solutions for responding to climate change and sustaining biodiversity on the planet” (Boreal Conservation 2023).
Over the past century, land destruction through oil and gas infrastructure, mining operations, oil spills, nuclear waste, hydropower, and much more has seen Indigenous communities across Canada irrevocably affected, as well as the decimation of key ecological systems and carbon sinks that are key to Canada’s commitments to net-zero and emissions reduction (Government of Canada, Climate Change). The participation of Indigenous Knowledges to sustainably work with the land in Canada is essential; as is shown through Sahtuto'ine Dene of Déline creating the Tsá Tué Biosphere Reserve in 2016, the world's first such UNESCO site managed by an Indigenous community, the Yukon First Nations Wildfire organisation, and Indigenous Guardian programs such as the Innu Nation in Labrador and Prince Albert Grand Council in Saskatchewan (Boreal Conservation 2023). Through Indigenous stewardship, knowledges, and most-importantly sovereignty, we can see vital progress in the fight against climate change.
For further information and resources relating to Thaidene Nëné, please visit:
Author: Sophia Arnold
Bibliography:
Boreal Conservation. 2023. '5 Breakthroughs in Conserving the World’s Largest Forest in 2023'. Available from: https://www.borealconservation.org/stories-1/2023borealbreakthroughs
Government of Canada. 2024. 'Canada's Climate Change Plans and Targets'. Climate Change: Our Plan. Available from:https://www.canada.ca/en/services/environment/weather/climatechange/climate-plan/climate-plan-overview.html
Steven Nitah & Jessica Dunkin & Justine Townsend & Andrew Paul. 2024. 'Thaidene Nëné – Land of the Ancestors'. IPCA. Available from: https://ipcaknowledgebasket.ca/ipca-knowledge-basket/stories/thaidene-nene-land-of-the-ancestors
Thaidene Nëné Land of Ancestors. 2023. 'Thaidene Nëné Press Packet. Available from: https://www.landoftheancestors.ca/uploads/1/3/0/0/130087934/2023_press_packet_digital_version_compressed.pdf
Theodore (Ted) Binnema and Melanie Niemi. 2006. 'Let the Line Be Drawn Now': Wilderness, Conservation, and the Exclusion of Aboriginal People from Banff National Park in Canada. Environmental History, 11 (4), pp. 725
UNDP. 2022. 'Equator Initiatives Case Studies'. Equator Initiatives. Available from: https://www.equatorinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/LKDFN-Case-Study-English-FNL_1.pdf
he IISAAK OLAM Foundation
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