Copies of the Consultation Protocol and the Minago Project Environmental Impact Statement Review by the Centre for Indigenous Environmental Resources are available upon request to members only.

Norway House Cree Nation

Traditional Knowledge

Traditional Knowledge, as defined in the Minago Project Consultation Protocol, "is a cumulative body of knowledge held by aboriginal peoples about the relationships between living beings and their environment based upon spiritual beliefs, customary laws, principles, conventions and social attitudes that maintain cultural continuity through forms of practice and behaviour transmitted through oral tradition since time immemorial."

Applying this knowledge in this Consultation and the process of environmental impact assessing requires that this information be documented as it relates to the Minago Project.

Traditional knowledge once collected and documented must be protected. NHCN will take appropriate steps to ensure that this and other information is protected.

The Minago Project Consultation Protocol outlines the requirement for Manitoba and NHCN to protect NHCN information as follows;

"the exchange of information will take into account intellectual property, privacy and confidential considerations, including: the protection of information that may by provided by NHCN or NHCN citizens to Manitoba".

See next as excerpted from the First Nations Environmental Assessment Toolkit, copyright FNEATWG 2009:

Why use TK in an Environment Assessment?

Using TK can be one of the ways you use to identify issues of importance to your community
Conducting a TK study can help you to understand the potential impacts of a project on your community's rights, interests and values and identify accommodation measures and changes to the project that would eliminate or lessen those impacts
Use of TK can result in an improved understanding of community concerns by proponents and regulatory agencies. It can also facilitate relationships between the community and proponent.
TK can contribute to the design of mitigation strategies, monitoring and follow- up programs to improve the management of environmental, socio-economic and cultural effects of the project.
TK research can have positive benefits for the community beyond the environmental assessment process and can be used to identify community values and priorities in responding to referrals education, land use planning, community development and land claims.

Compiling and presenting TK in an environmental assessment process can have advantages regardless of whether your First Nation is opposed to a project, supportive of a project or somewhere in-between.

For more information please view the document, First Nations Environmental