National Energy Board should let the aboriginal elders speak freely without contraints – Winnipeg Free Press
The National Energy Board has invited aboriginal elders — knowledge-keepers — to give oral evidence of how Enbridge’s proposed pipeline through southwest Manitoba will affect First Nations on the route. But they’ve been told not to stray into the scientific or technical realm in doing that. The elders, understandably, are more than a bit miffed.
In fact, they’ve said thanks, but no thanks. Their view, as explained to the Free Press editorial board Monday, is that the NEB’s conditions on their presentation illustrate how badly out of step the Crown agency is on oral traditional evidence.
That evidence — the world view, experience, wisdom and expertise gained from millennia of living on and with the land — is as scientific as it is spiritual. The scientific and spiritual are indivisible. Don’t ask us to fit holistic wisdom passed down over thousands of years into your regulatory square hole, they say.
Elder Dave Courchene says he and six other knowledge-keepers advising the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs in its submission to the NEB cannot give their oral evidence under the board’s conditions. Hearings are to start Nov. 30.
