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In 1967, a pulp and paper mill opened in Pictou County. Its toxic waste water (known in the industry as 鈥渆ffluent鈥�) was directed into an estuary called Boat Harbour alongside Pictou Landing First Nation. This practice has continued, albeit with increasingly sophisticated treatment practices, for the last 45 years.

Today, in 2012, Dalhousie鈥檚 Heather Castleden has been invited by the Pictou Landing Native Women鈥檚 Association (PLNWA) to help them research the effects of Boat Harbour on the health of residents. The lagoon鈥檚 contamination is a longstanding source of concern to the PLNWA, as 鈥淏oat Harbour was a really important Mi鈥檏maq gathering place and has been used for millennia for harvesting food, harvesting medicines,鈥� explains Dr. Castleden.

Dr. Castleden鈥檚 research team and the PLNWA subsequently received two grants鈥攐ne from the Atlantic Aboriginal Health Research Program, the other from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)鈥攖o investigate the toll the contamination of Boat Harbour has taken on residents鈥� health. These three grants combined amount to just over half a million dollars, and the CIHR grant ranked first in its competition 鈥撀爎are for a first-time applicant.

Dr. Castleden hopes that by 2015, Dalhousie and the PLNWA will have a clear picture of the environmental health toll taken on the communities surrounding Boat Harbour 鈥� and how they can finally address problems that have been brewing for almost fifty years.

Community-centred research

What makes Dr. Castleden鈥檚 research so important is not only what she鈥檚 doing, but how she鈥檚 doing it. After only two years at pilipili漫画鈥檚 School for Resource and Environmental Studies, Dr. Castleden is making a career out of redefining the parameters of academic research.

In this case, she aims to include local voices and seek local direction in the community-based participatory research she undertakes: her research process is a shared one, and her research team is composed of non-Indigenous and Indigenous scholars and community members. 鈥淭he greatest honour for me is to be invited by a community to work with them.鈥�

While acknowledging that 鈥渦niversity-based research legitimizes some concerns and clarifies things that are useful to the community,鈥� the research Dr. Castleden鈥檚 team and the PLNWA conduct will not be limited to the conventional academic methods: they will also utilize oral histories, sharing circles, and documentary filmmaking.

鈥淲e鈥檙e using a combination of indigenous and Western methods鈥� we are using Elder Albert Marshall鈥檚 鈥榯wo-eyed seeing鈥� approach to our research to bring the best of western and Indigenous knowledges together to make some sense of the state of health at Boat Harbour.鈥�

Furthermore, the PLNWA will be co-owners of the research. 鈥淲e鈥檙e very clear about sharing ownership of the data, which isn鈥檛 your typical way of going about it by any means.鈥� Such an approach is vital to researchers who are as interested in discovering the emotional, social, and spiritual toll Boat Harbour has taken as the pollution鈥檚 physical effects on residents. 鈥淲hen they talk about sick, they don鈥檛 mean just physically sick.鈥�

Finding environmental justice

The potential environmental catastrophe encapsulated by Boat Harbour is, to Dr. Castleden, troublingly symptomatic of a wider pattern.

鈥淲hen you look at where the industrial dumping grounds are鈥� you鈥檒l often see them beside First Nations communities,鈥� says Dr. Castleden. 鈥淎nd so this becomes a matter of environmental justice. Environmental racism is part of what environmental justice is about鈥� Boat Harbour is not an isolated case.鈥�

She points to the infamous case of Ontario鈥檚 Grassy Narrows, a community poisoned by an upriver chemical plant that supplied an adjacent pulp and paper mill. 鈥淭hey鈥� (the residents of Grassy Narrows) 鈥渁re suffering ill health to this day.鈥� The political aspects of her research do not daunt Dr. Castleden. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a lot of controversy鈥� around Boat Harbour, but it shouldn鈥檛 be neglected just because of that. And I think it has been.鈥�

Now that they鈥檝e received the grants, where do Dr. Castleden and the PLNWA go from here?

鈥淥ur next big step will be to establish a very clear research agreement about how we鈥檙e going to work together in an ethical and respectful way.鈥� Also, 鈥淭he oral histories we鈥檙e inviting elders to be participating in鈥� are getting started sooner rather than later, in the interests of time.鈥� The researchers will also start seasonal monitoring of air and water quality and begin conducting ecotoxicology work.

鈥淓ssentially, we鈥檙e going to be doing independent, scholarly baseline research. And we anticipate the need and desire to continue this for years to come.鈥�