We approach our storytelling and research process from a Two-Eyed Seeing (Etuaptmumk) framework, centring reciprocity, iterative co-creation, respect, and relationship-building. We are currently engaged in archival research, community relationship-building and partnership creation, and engaging in interviews with Indigenous Elders, youth, and other knowledge holders. Our hope is that our collaborative research will shed collective light on stories of unjust criminalization of Indigenous fishing and fisheries, serve sovereign Indigenous Nations directly, and consolidate and highlight community visions for just futures on both sides of the colonially-imposed Canada-U.S. border.

Thus far, Dr. Lauren Eckert and Dr. Andrea Reid have participated in semi-structured interviews with Indigenous Knowledge-holders spanning the East and West Coast of (modernly-called) Canada. These interviews, and the depth of knowledge they elicited, are iteratively informing Lauren and Andrea’s research approach and priorities.

Several key themes have arisen in Reid and Eckert’s interviews thus far. All of their interviews to date have included explicit stories of criminalization of participants and broader community/family members while engaging in fishing within their territories. Interview participants have also readily spoken about the deep colonial roots of fisheries criminalization, including a history of laws put in place to erase and restrict Indigenous fishing (and other practices), external ecological degradation caused by other fishing practices, and modern federal ecosystem management schemes that impose Western/colonial frameworks onto Indigenous territories and individuals (among others). Participants have also shared insight into how to transform current systems towards justice and ecological flourishing.

Since beginning this project, the team has experienced broad interest across Nations (and individuals) in participating in our project. We feel that this interest speaks to a widespread appetite to discuss the over-criminalization of Indigenous fishers and fisheries, especially as Nations move towards legal challenges to reassert their rights within their territories. This interest also has provided opportunities to temporally and geographically expand our project, and we expect it will allow us to host exciting, generative, collaborative workshops in the coming year and potentially beyond the Fish Outlaws project.