Corey McKibbin

Meaningful lessons about decolonising water infrastructure (social, economic and political) can be learned if we scrutinise existing governance principles such as the ones provided by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development in 2021’s Principles on Water Governance. Instead of using only Western frameworks to think about policy within Indigenous spheres of water, sanitation and hygiene, the Government of Canada can look to Indigenous ways of knowing to complement their understanding of how to govern areas of water, sanitation and hygiene efficiently. In this paper, the term Indigenous encompasses First Nations, Inuit and Métis populations. This paper is presented as a step out of many towards decolonising water governance in Canada, and is intended to show that it is necessary to make space for other voices in water governance. By highlighting the dangers in the case studies, three lessons are apparent: (1) there needs to be an addition of Indigenous Two-Eyed Seeing in water governance; (2) Canada must strengthen its nation-to-nation praxis with Indigenous communities; and (3) there needs to be a creation of space in water, sanitation and hygiene that fosters Indigenous voices. This is necessary such that there can be equal participation in policy conversations to mitigate existing problems and explore new possibilities.

In this paper, I posit a relationship between what I consider to be two distinct views of natural resource management: the reductionist and holistic views. The purpose of this comparison is to highlight the dangers of reducing environmental management to its ability to bolster a nation’s economic status. Part of the problem with this view is that it cannot take seriously the needs and desires of Indigenous persons. As such, I compare the reductionist view with the holistic view. The holistic view does not only consider the economics of natural resources; unlike the reductionist view, it aims to take seriously the needs and desires of Indigenous communities that have used natural resources in their territories since time immemorial. To illustrate the differences between the reductionist and holistic views, I examine at length the case of the James Bay Hydro Development in Quebec, Canada. I then apply these insights to an international context by utilizing the literature from Australia. The literature from both Canada and Australia implies that natural resource management involving First Nations needs to take a holistic approach to water management and policy such that the hopes, needs, and desires of Indigenous communities are not merely placated, but fulfilled.