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Misinipiy Land Use Plan – a living document
 Chief Tammy Cook-Searson presents a painting to Dustin Duncan, minister of Environment,
in celebration of the Misinipiy Land Use Plan. |
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The Misinipiy Land Use Plan – the
plan developed over a 12-year period
covering the use of the Lac La Ronge
Indian Band (LLRIB) traditional territory
was celebrated on Friday, May
18 with a ceremony.
The Plan covers 3,119,793 hectares
of land and includes the designation
of the largest provincially protected
area in Saskatchewan, 333,000 hectares
named the Pink Lake area.
LLRIB elders were the primary
contributors to the plan with two
elder’s gatherings being held over the
years to ensure their input was gathered
and interpreted into the plan.
Dwayne Rinholm, land use planner
for the province, spent one-third
of his career in the development of
the plan.
Dustin Duncan, minister of environment
for Saskatchewan, was on
hand for the ceremony.
“The Misinipiy plan is designed
to balance economic development
and environmental sustainability.
The plan addresses issues important
to residents, interest groups, industry
and government while balancing
ecological, cultural, economic and
social values as land use decisions
are made,” Duncan is reported as
saying in a draft news release dated
May 18, 2012.
Chief Tammy Cook-Searson spoke
of the importance of the plan, acknowledging
the elders, who gathered
at the two events, one at Chad Lake
and one at Youth Haven.
“One of the conditions that the
elders had put on us, as part of the
condition that they participate in
this plan, that it’s a living document,
that it’s not written in stone.” So that
should there be something in the
document, the elders “felt wasn’t
right, they could change it.”
Cook-Searson spoke about the
importance of water as one of the
four elements of the Earth. Misinipiy translates into Big Water in Cree.
Water is “fluid and it adapts to its surroundings,
it’s always flowing. And
this is how the elders have viewed
this Land Use Plan, we can change
it to meet the changing needs of our
community.”
The plan is also legacy document,
which honours elders who “are no
longer with us,” but who contributed
to the completion of the document,
which, Cook-Searson referred to as
a technical document.
The plan was designed to “reflect
our language and our beliefs.
Our language is connected to the
land.” It also reflects how the people
“navigated and survived” on the land
“since time immemorial.”
“As signatories to Treaty Six, we
look forward to the day when we have
self-governance of our territory. Until
that day comes we will work together
with the Province to ensure that our
traditional territories are managed
with our oral history and our oral
traditions, through our elders.”
Duncan said he was happy to be in
La Ronge to celebrate the completion
of the plan, which was held during the
annual Treaty Days.
“Misinipiy Plan is based on an
integrated use to land management
and will provide a solid framework
to guide land resource management
decisions for more than three million
hectares of forested land,” Duncan
said. The plan brings many issues of
land management under one document.
He also noted the plan brought
together a partnership between LLRIB
and the province, which makes
it a “significant achievement.”
He called the 12-year development
period of the plan, at times “complex
and challenging. We remain committed
to a process of active stakeholder
engagement.”
In his remarks, Vice Chief Brian
Hardlotte, of the Prince Albert Grand
Council (PAGC), noted the relationship
to the land of First Nation
people, “we are not really stakeholders,”
he said to Duncan. “As First
Nation people we are traditionally
and naturally attached to the land
and therefore have inherent rights
and power to access and use our
ancestral land. We refer to the land
as our ancestral land.” He reiterated
Cook-Searson’s words referring to
the use of the land since “time immemorial.
It is our belief that the Creator
allowed us to be stewards, and again
that word stewards, we are not really
stakeholders. We’re stewards, we’re
keepers of this land.”
The lands, which Hardlotte said is
a quote from Cook-Searson at the elders
gathering in 2009, “our ancestral
lands are an everlasting heritage from
the past generations and a permanent
legacy for generations to come.”
He spoke about the laws of First
Nation people, which are based on
natural laws, and “it’s the abiding
of such laws that has sustained us
for so long. Without these laws, our
customs, our traditions would not exist
and the respect for Mother Earth
would not exist.”
First Nation people traditionally,
“only take what we need,” and the
traditions “must not be ignored. It’s
on this premise that we must come
together in order to practice sustainable
economic development … First
Nation laws must be the proponent for
sustainable economic gain through
practical harvesting methods of natural
resources.”
He acknowledged that does not
mean all elements must go undisturbed,
but noted the importance
of “traditional ecological knowledge.”
Valerie G. Barnes-Connell
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