This session will be streamed, recorded, and archived on the site until June 25th, 2023

Curated Track: AAG Specialty and Affinity Group Highlighted Sessions

Description:

This session will feature the screening and short discussion of the film, “Lake Superior Our Helper: Stories from Batchewanaung Anishinabek Fisheries.”

Fishing has been an essential element of Batchewana First Nation’s sustenance, identity, and livelihood from time immemorial. Batchewana First Nation is located on the eastern shore of Lake Superior (Gichigami in Anishinaabemowin). Lake Superior Our Helper follows Chief Dean Sayers through a series of conversations with community members to reveal the cultural, political, and ecological relationships surrounding their fisheries. Inviting us on a journey of Lake Superior, the film shares the messages of Elders, youth, fishers, community leaders, and their visions for the future of Batchewana’s fisheries. It also documents how fishing has changed over time, conflicts with the state around management and regulation, principles of Indigenous law, and the culture and ceremony that are deeply embedded within fishing practices.

The film emerges from an action research project co-led by two settler academics (Kristen Lowitt, Queen’s University and Charles Levkoe, Lakehead University), Chief Dean Sayers of Batchewana First Nation (BFN), and a documentary filmmaker (Sarah Furlotte, 48th Parallel Productions). In 2018, we collectively embarked on a project in partnership with BFN to share stories surrounding historical and current fishing practices, culture, and governance through the co-creation of a feature length documentary film. The film is approximately one hour in length. This session will screen the film followed by a short discussion with two of the film co-producers and researchers, Kristen Lowitt and Charles Levkoe.

See: https://www.batchewanaungfish.ca/

Non-Presenting Participants