Climate Change Series: “Peskotomuhkati Fisheries: Food Security of a Coastal Culture”

Join Natalie Michelle, PhD and Jasmine Lamb for the fourth talk of 2024’s Climate Change Series. They will discuss community resilience and Wabanaki-led approaches to climate change adaptation.

The Wolunkeyutomuk Kihtahkomikumon Guidebook meaning, “to take care of the land,” is a culturally responsive approach to adaptation includes planning mechanisms of social-ecological and socio-cultural relevance using indigenous perspectives that will empower cultural resilience and guide future generations. The Wabanaki Inter-Tribal Climate Change Adaptation Guidebook (WICCAK) has been developed by the collective effort of tribal environmental professionals, elders, academics, and language carriers from the broader communities spanning the boundaries of the international border systems imposed by Canada and the United States.

The Wabanaki guidebook provides a useful framework that can integrate indigenous knowledge, culture, language and history of Northeastern Tribes and First Nations into its climate adaptation planning process. The workbook will enable placing Wabanaki traditional values into stewardship for tribal environmental professionals that is inclusive of the traditional knowledge carriers with a cultural paradigm of environmental relationship, respect, and reciprocity for ‘tolnapemkuwakk’ All Our Relations (human and non-human) for the next 7 generations. It will provoke greater understanding for non-tribal environmental professions and organizations interested in indigenous approaches to climate change adaptation and fosters the paradigm as co-creator and co-participant, thereby creating a space for a balanced approach to stewardship with the greater ecology to ensure true sustainability.

Natalie Michelle grew up on Indian Island and is a member of the Panawapskwei (Penobscot) Nation. Her parents are the late Dr. Theodore N. Mitchell from Panawapskwei, Old Town Maine, and Eleanor M. Dana-Mitchell from Peskotomuhkati (Passamaquoddy), Perry, Maine. Her diverse background includes nursing and a BS in human nutrition and an MA in public administration, Pi Alpha Alpha, with a concentration in environmental management and sustainability. She was a research fellow with NEST-SSI Program, a regional research project examining coastal areas and shellfisheries in Maine and New Hampshire. The goal of her research studies was to assess climate change impact (human and non-human induced) and environmental trends of Passamaquoddy Bay and its impact on culturally significant food sources for the Peskotomuhkatik. Her interest and concentration have been sustainable practices in natural resources utilizing traditional indigenous knowledge of the environment and bringing Native Women’s voice to the forefront in environmental issues, namely climate change impacts. Her PhD is an interdisciplinary study of ethno-botany and adaptive practices in climate change in Native American studies at the University of Maine at Orono. Her interests are in areas of climate change impacts on cultural practices, food sovereignty, indigenous research methodology, and TEK and language as an adaptive strategy.

Jasmine Lamb is a member of the Passamaquoddy Tribe at Pleasant Point and a current PhD Student at the University of Maine. Jasmine has worked in the space of environmental justice for Wabanaki communities since 2021 and founded the Sipayik Resilience Committee to increase tribal members’ access to energy efficiency and renewable energy technology and to increase climate resilience. Jasmine is also the Climate Adaptation Specialist for the Sipayik Environmental Department.