Another Winter is here, and while climate change has given us less snow and warmer weather, there’s no change to the short days and long nights that come with the season. At one time, our people really benefitted from the deep snow. We were able to travel on it easily with our snowshoes and toboggans, while the bear, moose, and caribou that we hunted were slowed down. Nice to have some advantage! Did you know that toboggan is borrowed from the Mi’kmaq word “taba’gan”?
I would like introduce you to Janice Paul, our new Administrative Assistant and to wish Mary Collier, our previous Director of Administration, best of luck in her new position with the Unama’ki Economic Benefits Office in Membertou.
We are very pleased to announce the initiation of a pilot project to train fully-licensed Mik’maq fisheries officers. After three years of training, they will be posted in Unama’ki and have full enforcement powers. We think that this pilot is the beginning of an expanded role for our people in natural resource enforcement.
UINR is working closely with the Mi’kmaq Rights Initiative – Kwilmu’kw Maw-klusuaqn (KMK) about concerns on the environmental impacts of the proposed Lake Uist hydro-electric project. While the project has passed municipal zoning changes at CBRM (despite First Nation’s concerns), the project must undergo a complete environmental impact study before proceeding.
We are pretty pleased with the results of our moose tanning workshop. Unama’ki Mi’kmaq have re-learned traditional tanning skills and will be passing on this knowledge to others.
lisa@uinr.ca