Abstracts
Abstract
Drawing on the successes of the Mi’kmaq-led struggle against the Alton Gas natural gas storage project from 2014-21, this paper proposes the Peace and Friendship Treaties as the relational framework best equipped to address the worsening climate crisis and build liveable futures in Mi’kma’ki. We argue that existing government and social movement approaches have been unable to adequately arrest climate pollution, and often work to reinscribe the settler-colonial land relations at the heart of intersecting socio-ecological crises. The Treaty Truckhouse movement, which emerged from the successful resistance to Alton Gas, however, builds a resurgent geography capable of addressing both climate change and settler-colonialism in the way that it holds Mi’kmaw and settlers together in evolving relations of care that embrace relational responsibilities to the lands, waters, and climate. The paper draws on both research interviews with people involved in climate action in Mi’kma’ki and on the authors’ own involvement with the movement.
Keywords:
- climate change,
- decarbonization,
- Indigenous sovereignty,
- just transition,
- Mi’kma’ki,
- treaty implementation
Appendices
Bibliography
- Alfred, Taiaiake. 2023. It’s All About the Land: Collected Talks and Interviews on Indigenous Resurgence. University of Toronto Press.
- Alook, Angele, Emily Eaton, David Gray-Donald, Joel Laforest, Crystal Lameman, and Bronwyn Tucker. 2023. The End of This World: Climate Justice in So-Called Canada. Between the Lines.
- Artelle, Kyle, Melanie Zurba, Jonaki Bhattacharyya, et al. 2019. “Supporting Resurgent Indigenous-led Governance: A Nascent Mechanism for Just and Effective Conservation,” Biological Conservation 240: 108284. doi: 10.1016/j.biocon.2019.108284
- Barker, Adam J. 2015. “‘A Direct Act of Resurgence, A Direct Act of Sovereignty’: Reflections on Idle No More, Indigenous Activism, and Canadian Settler Colonialism,” Globalizations 12 (1): 43–65. doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/14747731.2014.971531
- Bartlett, Cheryl, Murdena Marshall and Albert Marshall Jr. 2012. “Two-eyed seeing and other Lessons Learned Within a Co-learning Journey of Bringing Together Indigenous and Mainstream Knowledges and Ways of Knowing,” Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences 2: 331-340. doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13412-012-0086-8
- Battiste, Marie. 2018. Living Treaties: Narrating Mi’kmaw Treaty Relations. CBU Press.
- Battistoni, Alyssa. 2022. “A Green New Deal for Care: Revaluing the Work of Social and Ecological Reproduction.” In The Green New Deal and the Future of Work, edited by Craig Calhoun and Benjamin Y. Fong, 105–18. Columbia University Press.
- Beaton, Sadie. Shades of Green, (Ecology Action Centre and The Community Conservation Research Network: podcast, 2018), https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/shades-of-green/id1337050045
- Beaton, Sadie, “Peace and Friendship on the Sipekne’katik River,” Ecology and Action Magazine, Spring 2017, https://ecologyaction.ca/sites/default/files/2022-05/MagazineSpring2017.pdf
- Beaton, Sadie. 2016. Mi’kma’ki Water Symposium: Summary Notes. Halifax: Ecology Action Centre. https://ecologyaction.ca/sites/default/files/images-documents/file/Coastal/Water/MikmakiWaterSymposium2016Report.pdf
- Bernard, Dorene. 2018. “Reconciliation and Environmental Racism in Mi’kma’ki,” Kalfou 5 (2): 297–303. doi:10.15367/kf.v5i2.214
- Bird, Geoff. 2025. “Maritime Natural Gas Storage Still Entices McKenna,” AllNovaScotia.com, October 23.
- Brooks, Darin, Angela Carter, Eric Pineault, Emily Eaton, and J.P. Sapinski. 2023. Mapping Fossil Fuel Lock-In and Contestation in Eastern Canada. Ottawa: Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. https://www.policyalternatives.ca/news-research/mapping-fossil-fuel-lock-in-and-contestation-in-eastern-canada/
- Byrd, Jodi. 2011. The Transit of Empire: Indigenous Critiques of Colonialism. University of Minnesota Press.
- Christmas, Kevin. 2009. “Treaty Consultation Presentation,” in MAWI'AQNUTMA'TMK: Let us Talk Together. Maritime Aboriginal People’s Council. https://mapcorg.ca/home/wp-media/Mawiaonutmatmk.pdf
- Craft, Aimée. 2013. Breathing Life into the Stone Fort Treaty: An Anishinaabe Understanding of Treaty One. UBC Press.
- Coulthard, Glen. 2014. Red Skins, White Masks: Rejecting the Colonial Politics of Recognition. University of Minnesota Press.
- Danewid, Ida. 2023. Resisting Racial Capitalism: An Antipolitical Theory of Refusal. Cambridge University Press.
- Davis, Heather and Zoë Todd. 2017. “On the Importance of a Date, or, Decolonizing the Anthropocene,” ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies, 16 (4): 761–780. doi: https://doi.org/10.14288/acme.v16i4.1539
- Debert, Raphael and Phillipe Le Billon. 2024. “Green Transition's Necropolitics: Inequalities, Climate Extractivism, and Carbon Classes,” Antipode, 56: 1264-1288. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/anti.13032
- Devet, Robert, “Climate targets will create 15,000 New Green Jobs in Nova Scotia by 2030 – But What about Climate Justice?” Nova Scotia Advocate. September 17, 2019, https://nsadvocate.org/2019/09/17/eac-climate-targets-will-create-15000-new-green-jobs-in-nova-scotia-by-2030-but-what-about-climate-justice/
- Englert, Sai. 2020. “Settlers, Workers, and the Logic of Accumulation by Dispossession,” Antipode, 52 (6): 1647–66. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/anti.12659
- Estes, Nick. 2019a. Our History is the Future. Verso Books.
- Estes, Nick. 2019b. “Indigenous People Are Already Working ‘Green Jobs’— But They’re Unrecognized and Unpaid,” The Intercept, September 23, https://theintercept.com/2019/09/23/indigenous-climate-green-new-deal/
- Fitz-Morris, James, “Justin Trudeau Tells Paris Climate Summit Canada Ready to Do More,” CBC News, November 20, 2015, https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-address-climate-change-paris-1.3343394
- Garnett, Stephen, Neil Burgess, Julia Fa, Álvaro Fernández-Llamazares, Zsolt Molnár, Cathy Robinson et al. 2018. “A Spatial Overview of the Global Importance of Indigenous Lands for Conservation,” Nature Sustainability 1. doi: 10.1038/s41893-018-0100-6.
- Government of Canada, Major Projects Office of Canada: Initial Projects Under Consideration, Sept 12, 2025. https://www.canada.ca/en/one-canadian-economy/news/2025/09/major-projects-office-of-canada-initial-projects-under-consideration.html
- Government of Nova Scotia. 2025. Province Pursues Resource Development With Legislation. Press release, February 18: https://news.novascotia.ca/en/2025/02/18/province-pursues-resource-development-legislation
- Government of Nova Scotia, Environmental Goals and Climate Change Reduction Act, 2021. https://nslegislature.ca/sites/default/files/legc/statutes/environmental%20goals%20and%20climate%20change%20reduction.pdf
- Government of Prince Edward Island, Minister’s Report on Climate Change: Risks and Progress Towards Targets, 2023-24. https://www.princeedwardisland.ca/sites/default/files/publications/ministers_report_on_climate_2024.pdf
- Grossman, Zoltán. 2019. "Native/Non-Native Alliances Challenging Fossil Fuel Industry Shipping at Pacific Northwest Ports." In Environmental activism on the ground: Small, Green and Indigenous organizing, edited by Jonathan Clapperton and Liza Piper, 47-72. University of Calgary.
- HaliFACT. 2020. Acting on Climate Together. https://cdn.halifax.ca/sites/default/files/documents/about-the-city/energy-environment/HRM_HaliFACT_vNew%20Logo_.pdf
- Islam, Faisal Bin, Lindsay Naylor, James Edward Bryan and Dennis Coker. 2024. “Climate Coloniality and Settler Colonialism: Adaptation and Indigenous Futurities,” Political Geography 114. doi: 10.1016/j.polgeo.2024.103164
- Jewett, Chas and Mark Garavan. 2019. “Water is Life – An Indigenous Perspective from a Standing Rock Water Protector,” Community Development Journal 54 (1): 42–58. https://doi.org/10.1093/cdj/bsy062
- Johnson-Castle, Patricia and Jessica Penney. 2021. Not So Grand Plans: The Continued Erasure of Indigenous Rights in Newfoundland and Labrador’s Hydroelectric Development. Toronto: Yellowhead Institute. https://yellowheadinstitute.org/2021/06/10/not-so-grand-plans-hydro
- Klein, Naomi. 2014. This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate. Simon and Schuster.
- Lebillon, Phillipe. 2021 “Reconciling Violence: Policing the Politics of Recognition,” Geoforum 119: 111–121. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2020.12.023
- Lee, Marc. 2021. Dangerous Distractions: Canada’s Carbon Emissions and the Pathway to Net Zero. Ottawa: Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. https://policyalternatives.ca/sites/default/files/uploads/publications/BC%20Office/2021/06/CCPA%20report_Dangerous%20Distractions%20Net%20Zero.pdf
- Liboiron, Max. 2021. Pollution is Colonialism. Duke University Press.
- Mackey, Eva. 2016. Unsettled Expectations: Uncertainty, Land and Settler Decolonization. Fernwood Press.
- Martin, Debbie. 2012. “Two-eyed Seeing: A Framework for Understanding Indigenous and Nonindigenous Approaches to Indigenous Health Research,” Canadian Journal of Nursing Research 44 (2), 20–42. doi: https://www.nosm.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/NOSM-CEPD-Tip-Sheet-2021-November-Two-Eyed-Seeing.pdf
- Martin, Hannah. 2022. “Water Protectors.” Beside Magazine 15.
- M’sɨt No’kmaq, Elder Albert Marshall, Jessica Hum, shalan joudry, Anastasia Papadopoulos, Anastasia, Sherry Pictou et al. 2021. “Awakening the Sleeping Giant’: Re-Indigenization Principles for Transforming Biodiversity Conservation in Canada and Beyond,” Facets 6: 839-869. doi:10.1139/facets-2020-0083
- Monture-Angus, Patricia. 1999. Journeying Forward: Dreaming First Nations’ Independence. Fernwood.
- Palmeter, Pam. “Why Landback Matters.” Interview by Ben and Jerry’s, January, 2022. https://www.benandjerrys.ca/whats-new/2022/01/interview-with-pam-palmater
- Pasternak, Shiri, Hayden King and Riley Yesno. 2019. Land Back: A Yellowhead Institute Red Paper. Yellowhead Institute. https://redpaper.yellowheadinstitute.org/
- Paul, Daniel. 2022. We Were Not the Savages: Collision Between European and North American Civilizations. Fernwood.
- Pictou, Sherry, Janet Conway and Angela Day. 2021. Wolastoqiyik and Mi’kmaq Grandmothers - Land/Water Defenders Sharing and Learning Circle: Generating Knowledge for Action. KAIROS Canada. https://www.kairoscanada.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Grandmothers_Land_Defense_Report_Pictou_2021.pdf
- Pictou, Sherry. 2019. “What is Decolonization? Mi’kmaw Ancestral Relational Understandings and Anthropological Perspectives on Treaty Relations.” In Transcontinental Dialogues. Activist Research and Alliances from and with Indigenous Peoples of Canada, Mexico and Australia, edited by Castillo, R. Aída Hernandez, Suzi Hutchings and Brian Noble. University of Arizona Press. doi:10.2307/j.ctvdjrpm6.6
- Pictou, Sherry. 2015. “Small “t” treaty Relationships Without Borders: Bear River First Nation, Clam Harvesters, the Bay of Fundy Marine Resource Centre and the World Forum of Fisher Peoples,” Anthropologica 57 (2): 457–467. doi: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2635045
- Powys Whyte, K. 2020. “Too Late for Indigenous Climate Justice: Ecological and Relational Tipping Points,” Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews. Climate Change 11(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.1002/wcc.603
- Powys Whyte, Kyle. 2018. “Settler Colonialism, Ecology, and Environmental Injustice,” Environment and Society: Advances in Research 9 (1): 125–44. doi: 10.3167/ares.2018.090109
- Powys Whyte, Kyle. 2017. “Indigenous Climate Change Studies: Indigenizing Futures, Decolonizing the Anthropocene,” English Language Notes 55 (1): 153–62. doi: https://doi.org/10.1215/00138282-55.1-2.153
- Prosper, Kerry, Jane McMillan, Anthony Davis and Morgan Moffitt. 2011. “Returning to Netukulimk: Mi’kmaq Cultural and Spiritual Connections with Resource Stewardship and Self-governance,” International Indigenous Policy Journal 2 (4): 159–167. doi: https://doi.org/10.18584/iipj.2011.2.4.7
- v. Marshall, 1999 CanLII 666 (SCC), [1999] 3 SCR 533, https://canlii.ca/t/1fqkn
- Sable, Trudie and Bernie Francis. 2012. The Language of this Land: Mi’kma’ki. Nimbus Publishing.
- Sanders, Leanne. “Carney’s Major Projects Office already under fire from First Nations, Environmental Groups, August 29, 2025, https://www.aptnnews.ca/national-news/carneys-major-projects-office-already-under-fire-from-first-nations-environmental-groups/
- Sharpe, Christina. 2016. In the Wake: On Blackness and Being. Duke University Press.
- Simpson, Audra. 2020. Mohawk Interrruptus: Political Life Across the Borders of Settler States. Duke University Press.
- Simpson, Leanne Betasamosake. 2025. Theory of Water: Nishnaabe Maps to the Times Ahead. Knopf Canada.
- Simpson, Leanne Betasamosake. 2017. As We Have Always Done. University of Minnesota Press.
- Smith, Linda Tuhiwai. 2012. Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples. Zed Books.
- Snelgrove, Corey. 2022. “Treaty and the Problem of Colonial Reification,” Theory & Event 25 (1): 98-123.
- Snelgrove, Corey, Dhamoon, Rita and Jeff Corntassel. 2014. “Unsettling Settler Colonialism: The Discourse and Politics of Settlers, and Solidarity with Indigenous Nations,” Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society 3 (2). https://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/des/article/view/21166
- Starblanket, Gina. 2020. “Crises of Relationship: The Role of Treaties in Contemporary Indigenous-Settler Relations." In Visions of the Heart: Issues Involving Indigenous Peoples in Canada, edited by Gina Starblanket, David Long and Olive Patricia Dickason, 13-33, Oxford University Press.
- Stein, Sharon, Cash Ahenakew, Will Valley, Pasang Y. Sherpa, Eva Crowson, Wilson Mendes, et al. 2024. “Toward More Ethical Engagements Between Western and Indigenous Sciences,” Facets 9: 1-14. doi: https://doi.org/10.1139/facets-2023-0071
- Stiegman, Martha, and Sherry Pictou. 2023. “We Story the Land: Exploring Mi’kmaq Food Sovereignty, Indigenous Law and Treaty Relations.” The Journal of Peasant Studies 51 (2): 294–317. doi:10.1080/03066150.2023.2223482
- Sultana, Farhana. 2022. “Resplendent Care-full Climate Revolutions,” Political Geography. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2022.102785
- Temin, David Myer. 2025. “Wages for Earthwork,” American Political Science Review 119: 179–92. doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055424000066.
- Todd, Zoë. (@drfishphilosopher). Instagram post. April 24, 2024, https://www.instagram.com/drfishphilosopher/p/C6L35jlLWlS/
- Todd, Zoë. 2017. “Fish, Kin and Hope: Tending to Water Violations in amiskwaciwâskahikan and Treaty Six Territory,” Afterall: A Journal of Art, Context, and Enquiry 43: 102–107. doi: https://doi.org/10.1086/692559
- Tress, Robin. “Capacity Building for Settler Solidarity within Grassroots Mi’kmaq Struggle to Defend the Shubenacadie River: A Case Study,” Master’s thesis, Saint Francis Xavier University, 2021.
- Trudeau, Justin. 2015. Statement by the Prime Minister of Canada after delivering a speech to the Assembly of First Nations Special Chiefs Assembly, December 8: https://www.pm.gc.ca/en/news/statements/2015/12/08/statement-prime-minister-canada-after-delivering-speech-assembly-first
- Waldron, Ingrid. 2018. There’s Something in the Water: Environmental Racism in Indigenous & Black Communities. Fernwood.
- Walia, Harsha. 2015. “A Truly Green Economy Requires Alliances Between Labour and Indigenous People,” Ricochet Media, June 3. https://ricochet.media/climate/environment/a-truly-green-economy-requires-alliances-between-labour-and-indigenous-people/
- Walia, Harsha. 2013. Undoing Border Imperialism. AK Press.
- Wildcat, Daniel. 2009. Red Alert! Saving the Planet with Indigenous Knowledge. Fulcrum.
- Wysote, Travis and Erin Morton. 2019. “The Depth of the Plough’: White Settler Tautologies and Pioneer Lies,” Settler Colonial Studies 9 (4): 479-504. doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/2201473X.2018.1541221.
- Yazzie, Melanie and Cutcha Risling Baldy. 2018. “Introduction: Indigenous peoples and the Politics of Water,” Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society 7 (1). doi: https://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/des/article/view/30378/23031
- Young, Tuma. 2016. "L'nuwita'simk: A foundational worldview for a L'nuwey justice system," Indigenous LJ 13 (75): 75-104. doi: https://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/ilj/article/view/26700/19755

