Towards self-determination and resurgence in small-scale fisheries: insights from Batchewana First Nation fisheries

For millennia, Indigenous people across the globe have relied on fisheries and coastal environments as a part of their sustenance, well-being, livelihoods, culture, and spirituality. Despite the ongoing exclusions they face from settler colonial management systems, Indigenous communities continue to exercise their rights to fish and practice their traditional systems of governance. This paper presents insights from a setter–Indigenous research partnership project to document the efforts of Batchewana First Nation (BFN) on Lake Superior to exercise self-determination and jurisdiction over their fisheries. In 2019, twelve in-depth interviews were conducted with fish harvesters, elders, Knowledge Keepers, and community leaders to document their experiences, knowledge, and struggles of fishing and fishing rights in relation to the state and in support of cultural continuity. This paper explores the social, political, and ecological relationships surrounding BFN’s fisheries and their governance, as shared by the interview participants. Written by two settler academics in collaboration with the Chief of BFN, we consider how resurgence is expressed in BFN fisheries and opportunities for political mobilization, including links to movements for Indigenous resurgence, nationhood, and food sovereignty.