Balance on Every Ledger: Kwakwaka’wakw Resource Values and Traditional Ecological Management

Authors

Douglas Deur, Portland State UniversityFollow
Kim Recalma-Clutesi
Chief Adam Dick

Published In

The Routledge Handbook of Indigenous Environmental Knowledge

Document Type

Book Chapter

Publication Date

11-30-2020

Subjects

Ecotheology, Ecology -- Religious aspects, Nature -- Religious aspects

Abstract

This chapter illustrates the core environmental values of the Kwakwaka’wakw (Kwakiutl) people on the Pacific coast of Canada to explore how they manifest in the traditional management of coastal natural resources. The authors’ survey of environmental values is based on the authentic knowledge of Chief Adam Dick, a co-author of the chapter. The chapter argues that talking about Indigenous Knowledge without the broader context of environmental values can lead to serious scholarly misunderstandings and insists that long-term collaborations between academic researchers and specialized knowledge holders from Indigenous communities is necessary in order to represent Indigenous Knowledge accurately.

This chapter illustrates the core environmental values of the Kwakwaka’wakw people on the Pacific coast of Canada to explore how they manifest in the traditional management of coastal natural resources. These communities are world-renowned for their wealth: their abundance of natural resources and resource harvesting skill; their rich artistic and oral traditions; their ceremonials tradition that engages domains both tangible and intangible, seeking balance in the human and natural worlds. Outside of the Kwakwaka’wakw world, in the academic domain, much has been written regarding the connection between traditional environmental values and the resource management practices of Native American communities—a topic of perennial interest to both academic and popular audiences. In turn, these practices are guided by an underlying system of values and beliefs permeating all aspects of Kwakwaka’wakw culture.

Rights

© 2020 Informa UK Limited

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Description

Chapter 10 in the book, The Routledge Handbook of Indigenous Environmental Knowledge

Locate the Document

https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315270845

DOI

10.4324/9781315270845

Persistent Identifier

https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/34497

Citation Details

Deur, D., Recalma-Clutesi, K., & Dick, C. A. (2020). Balance on every ledger: Kwakwaka’wakw resource values and traditional ecological management. In The Routledge Handbook of Indigenous Environmental Knowledge (pp. 126-135). Routledge.