The Nova Scotia Nature Trust works to protect ecologically important land in Mi’kma’ki, the ancestral and unceded lands of the Mi’kmaq. We acknowledge and are grateful to them as the past, present and future caretakers of this land. We are committed to strengthening relationships, learning and working together with the Mi’kmaq to advance shared conservation goals, supporting Mi’kmaw-led conservation, and advancing a path of reconciliation through conservation.

Mi’kma’ki is governed by the Treaties of Peace and Friendship signed with the British Crown in the 1700s and the rights of Indigenous peoples described in the Jay Treaty of 1794 between the United States and Great Britain. These treaties recognized Indigenous title to these lands and resources – not the surrender of them – and established rules for the ongoing relationship between nations. For many thousands of years, the Mi’kmaq have inhabited, cared for, and used these lands and waters, guided by Indigenous knowledge, laws and practices.

The Nature Trust is keenly aware that land conservation efforts have historically and continue to contribute to and benefit from colonial policies and practices that have caused fundamental harm to Indigenous peoples, disrupted their ways of life, culture, and relationship with the land, undermined Indigenous knowledge systems, and deprived them of their rights to and on their lands. The work of land trusts relies on a colonial legal framework and concepts of land ownership.

As we continue to advance our core mission of conserving nature on private land in Mi’kma’ki, we are working to better understand how to foster more appropriate, respectful, and equitable conservation outcomes, and to advance reconciliation, alongside Indigenous organizations and other conservation groups.

The Nature Trust has committed to four key reconciliation strategies. We recognize that a long and challenging learning journey still lies ahead and these strategies will continue to evolve.

1. Build our understanding and cultural competency

Reconciliation begins with Truth, through building our awareness and understanding. The Nature Trust is committed to a long-term learning process to better understand the histories, experiences, contemporary values, culture, protocols, and worldview of the Mi’kmaq and Indigenous Peoples across Canada, including perspectives, values and approaches to land, conservation, and stewardship. The Nature Trust prioritizes and encourages staff and board members to participate whenever possible in opportunities to build relationships with and learn from Mi’kmaw elders, experts, and others.

Some examples of our specific actions in this area include:

• We build Mi’kmaw “learning moments” into every staff meeting.
• Team members have participated in the Blanket Exercise and Decolonization Learning Journey webinars, taken Mi’kmaw language lessons, and visited Mi’kmaw sites and programs.
• We were honoured to participate in the Muiwatmnej Etuaptmumk (Honouring Two-Eyed Seeing) Conference and to participate in Mi’kmaw-led land-based learning about species and sites of Mi’kmaw significance within the Pemsɨk Mawa’tasikl Anko’tmu’kl.

2. Build Meaningful Relationships and Collaboration

We believe that together we can achieve important, shared conservation goals, honouring shared responsibilities to the lands and waters and to each other. We are building relationships and advancing collaboration and co-learning with Mi’kmaw organizations working in land conservation and environmental stewardship, including the Unama’ki Institute of Natural Resources (UINR), the Confederacy of Mainland Mi’kmaq, the Sespite’tmnej Kmitkinu Conservancy, Eskasoni Fish and Wildlife Commission, the Pemsik Conservation Mosaic, and others.

An example of our specific action in this area:

• As members of the Canada-Nova Scotia Nature Agreement partners group, we have been working together with Mi’kmaw organizations on removing barriers to land conservation and prioritizing and strategizing on land conservation opportunities. 

3. Support and Celebrate Mi’kmaw-Led Conservation

The Nature Trust acknowledges the Mi’kmaq as the first and ongoing stewards of Mi’kma’ki and we actively support and celebrate Mi’kmaw-led conservation efforts and the advancement of Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas.

Some examples of our specific actions in this area include:

• We were honoured to attend the announcement of an agreement between the Mi’kmaq and the Province to co-govern the Kluskap Wilderness Area—the first IPCA in Nova Scotia.
• We regularly share Mi’kmaw conservation success stories, concepts, values, and language (place names, important species etc.) through our newsletters and social media to help increase awareness, build cultural sensitivity, and promote Mi’kmaw-led conservation.

4. Adapt our Conservation Practices

With regard to our lands and land conservation work, we are committed to greater Mi’kmaq engagement and inclusion of Mi’kmaw values, approaches and priorities in relation to which lands we target, how we care for those lands and where we can collaborate.

Some examples of our specific actions in this area include:

• We have already begun exploring how we can respectfully and appropriately integrate Mi’kmaw placenames into our conservation work and property naming.
•  We are striving to integrate traditional knowledge, values and approaches into our  conservation efforts, including the concepts of Etuaptmumk, Netukulimk and Msit no’kmaq.
• We are currently exploring how we could support traditional uses such as ceremony, gathering medicines, and land-based learning on our conservation lands, and opportunities for shared care of culturally important lands.

Recognition and respect are essential to establishing healthy, reciprocal relations, which in turn are key to reconciliation. As we are all Treaty peoples, we must all be committed to advancing meaningful reconciliation.

Wela’lioq. Thank you.

We encourage you to commit to your own learning journey and offer these resources as a place to start.

Mi’kmaw Conservation Organizations & Mi’kmaw-led Conservation Initiatives

• Unama’ki Institute of Natural Resources (UINR)
• The Confederacy of Mainland Mi’kmaq and Mi’kmaw Conservation Group
• The Sespite’tmnej Kmitkinu Conservancy
• Eskasoni Fish and Wildlife Commission
• The Pemsik Conservation Mosaic
• The Bras d’Or Lakes Collaborative Environmental Planning Initiative (CEPI)

Recommended Learning Resources

• Decolonization Learning Journey (webinars with Mi’kmaw elders/knowledge sharers)
• Conservation Through Reconciliation Partnership
• The Ontario Land Alliance Library of Indigenous Learning Resources
• Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCA) Knowledge Basket