ekimondo – the Directory of Responsible Destinations and Traveling

Quebec’s Aboriginal People – Meeting the Innus: by Inês Lopes

Written by ines January 11th

The Innus - A Few Words on Their History and Territory
Europeans called these inhabitants of the little mountains on the North Shore “Montagnais”. However, they prefer the term “Innus”, meaning “authentic men”. Nomadic hunters, fishermen, pickers, they moved according to seasons. They waited for the salmon spawning run, caribou passing, and geese flights. Hunting was a source of food, clothing, shelter, tools and weapons for the Innus. Their ancestral territory, the Nitassinan, follows the north shore of the Saint-Lawrence River, between the Lac Saint-Jean and Labrador, and continues until Schefferville. In spring, during the fur trade period, the Innus travelled to Tadoussac, one of the most important fur trade spots in New-France. From the beginning of the nineteenth century, their lifestyle changed dramatically, due to logging, which deprived them of numerous hunting territories, mining and dam construction. Private clubs were also built on the best spots of the salmon rivers.

Current Population, Language and Culture
With over 15,500 members, the Innu nation actually has the highest population of all nations in Quebec. Nine Innu communities exist: Betsiamites, La Romaine, Les Escoumins, Uashat-Malioténam (Sept-Îles), Matimekosh, Mingan, Natashquan, Mashteuiatsh (Pointe-Bleu) and Pakuashipi (Saint-Augustin). Over 80% of the nation speaks their ancestral language. The Innu nation was also the first to take charge of its own educational services, and to organize themselves politically and culturally regarding the evolution of Native identity. Innu art is widely diversified: sculptures (in wood, caribou antlers or stone), drawings, paints, carving and crafts (leather, pearls, basketwork), etc.

Tourism Among the Innus: The Example of the Native Museum of Mashteuiatsh
In the Mashteuiatsh community, it is possible to visit the Native Museum, which has existed since 1977, and whose mission is to preserve Ilnu heritage. The museum presents their history, culture and lifestyle; lifestyle which is deeply linked to the territory. In addition to the permanent exhibition, temporary exhibitions are also brought in. It is possible to meet certain artists and to take part in animated cultural evenings. Thousands of years of a people’s memory can thus be discovered, as can their contemporary culture, which continues to evolve. The museum also welcomes school groups and offers a nature interpretation walk to learn about indigenous flora. According to the STAQ (Quebec Aboriginal Tourism Corporation), this museum is a must-see.

 Photo Credit : Zoli-Camonari

References

Quebec Aboriginal Tourism Corporation
Wapikoni mobile – Innu Nation (in French)
Native Museum of Mashteuiatsh

Quebec’s Aboriginal People – Meeting the Crees: by Inês Lopes

Written by ines January 04th

The Crees – A Few Words on Their History and Territory
Originally from western Canada’s plains, the Crees have lived in the Bay James area for approximately 5,000 years. Between the boreal forest and the taiga, this region is not very favourable to agriculture. This people thus developed its hunting, trapping and fishing techniques. Protecting the environment is also very much valued. As many other nations, they took part in fur trade. In the mid-1970s, they had to negotiate with the federal and provincial governments concerning hydroelectric development in the region. This major change, on top of previous compulsory schooling, the construction of permanent housing and the decline of the fur trade, changed their lifestyle.

Current Population, Language and Culture
Nowadays, around 13,000 Crees live in nine communities of northern Quebec. The most recent, Oujé‑Bougoumou, received a UN prize for its architecture combining tradition and modernity. Other Crees live in Ontario, Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Cree is still spoken by the majority of the nation and English is their second language. More teens are also learning French. In Cree art, moose skin clothing decorated with pearls and embroidery, are particularly remarkable. Their larch decoys are also renowned.

Tourism Among the Crees: The Example of the Waskaganish Community

Waskagansih means “little house” in Cree and refers to the description ancestors made of trading posts. A short walk will bring you to the Rupert River and to the original fur trading post, used for almost 300 years. If you are adventurous, it is possible to paddle up to the islands in a canoe, accompanied by an experienced guide who is familiar with the water and the characteristics of the area. Photographers will also find their niche in this place, one of the main migration routes for birds in North America. Whatever activity you want to participate in, it is important to do so in harmony with nature. The Cree tourism Web site suggests the following precautions: do not litter, leave no trace behind, respect people’s private life and ask for their permission before taking their picture, make sure you have permission before entering any territory or practising any activity, and respect Cree objects and historical sites you encounter.

Photo Credits:Quebec Aboriginal Tourism Corporation

Next week, in the last blog entry for this series entitled “Quebec’s Aboriginal People”, we will be meeting the Innus.

References

Quebec Aboriginal Tourism Corporation
Wapikoni mobile – Cree Nation (in French) 
Cree Tourism

Travelling Through Fair Trade Markets - Zoom in on Tea :: by Inês Lopes

Written by ines November 10th

Tea has many great properties: it helps digestion and kidney circulation, stimulates thinking, works as an antioxidant, purifies and fortifies skin, it soothes and even helps out your teeth’s enamel. Amazing attributes for anyone who drinks it. The next step is to integrate the virtues tea can have for the person producing it. When it is fair trade, you can add these benefits: fair salary and working conditions, access to education and to a healthy environment, developing a community… If you are unable to read your future in your cup of tea, at least you’ll be able to read theirs.

Green tea, black tea, white yellow tea, oolong tea, Darjeeling tea, Chinese, Japanese, African or Indian teas…savour them all, but choosing a fair trade tea is once step further on the path towards environmental and social justice. As for me, consuming non-fair trade product simply isn’t… my cup of tea.

Next week, the last post in this series on fair trade takes a look at fair trade cocoa.

Source:
Équita

Websites:

Éric St-Pierre, photojournalist
Équiterre – Fair trade tea
Équita – Fair trade tea

Travelling Fair Trade Markets - Zoom in on Cocoa :: by Inês Lopes

Written by ines October 22th

Ah! Chocolate! Is there anything I love more than chocolate? Yes, but not much!! An avowed chocoholic, I encourage fair trade chocolate. I must admit that from time to time, I’ll buy a chocolate bar that isn’t fair trade, but more often than not, fair trade wins out. I may be a glutton, but I’m a principled glutton!

Once again, we travel on the wings of Éric St-Pierre’s photography. A photojournalist, Éric St-Pierre has helped make fair trade better known. The picture above, showing the growing of cocoa, was taken in the Dominican Republic while Éric was completing a photo report on fair trade and organic cocoa with the members of the Conacado cooperative.

On Équita’s website, I learnt that each Canadian eats on average 6,7kg of chocolate every year (an average that would surely be lower were it not for my above average consumption!)  So if you’re a chocolatarian like me, here are a few arguments to help soothe your conscience. Chocolate has many antioxidant properties and is rich in fibres and dietary minerals (the purer the chocolate, the better it is). And consuming fair trade means you’re also helping farming families live off their work, send their children to school and to favour sustainable agricultural techniques.

Ok, time to reward myself for having finished this series of posts… I think I’ll help out the national chocolate consumption… fair trade chocolate consumption that is.

References
Équita

Éric St-Pierre, photojournalist

Travelling Through Fair Trade Markets – Zoom In on Coffee :: by Inês Lopes

Written by ines September 14th

Éric St-Pierre, Photojournalist
Éric St-Pierre started working as a photojournalist in 1996, when he visited the UCIRI fair trade and organic coffee cooperative in Mexico.  The last few years he’s traveled to Tanzania, Costa Rica, Thailand, India, the Dominican Republic, to name just a few, in order to photograph the many faces of fair trade. In 2007, he was chosen as one of “10 fair trade pioneers in Canada” by Transfair Canada, a fair trade certifier. He already has a few expositions and books under his belt, and now he’s preparing a photography book that presents 12 fair trade products.

Fair Trade
Coffee travels as well. But does it do so in a responsible fashion hmmm?  That depends on whether it follows conventional trade or fair trade’s path. Conventional trade mostly benefits big multinational corporations while fair trade strives to give a bigger piece of the profit pie to the farmers.  What are the principals of fair trade? First of all, it prioritizes direct trade, avoiding middlemen. It aims to give workers fair working conditions and salary as well as a long-term commitment towards them. It also encourages democratic cooperative management, education of the public, as well as ecological and sustainable agricultural techniques. Furthermore, revenues linked to fair trade often allow workers to buy agricultural material, to provide healthcare and to bring home a decent salary. These superior revenues also allow children to receive an education.

Coffee: A market of inequalities
It’s worth it to point out that coffee is the most widely traded good in the world, after petrol. It represents a 10 billion dollar market, of which 80% goes to big companies.  At the same time, small producers barely get 1000$ in annual revenue.

Fair Trade Coffee
Considering all the environmental and social benefits mentioned above, fair trade coffee is much less bitter to swallow! Whether it be the beans that travel to your local coffee shop or rather you that travels to the producing countries… I encourage you to drink fair trade coffee as often as possible (but not too often, there’s still caffeine in there!)

Next week we will travel again thanks to Éric St-Pierre’s photography; this time we’ll be meeting fair trade bananas in the Dominican Republic.

References
Éric St-Pierre, photojournalist
Équiterre (2001).  L’Utopie caféinée – Le commerce équitable devenu réalité.  Educational video.
Équiterre – Fair Trade
Équita 

Travelling Through Fair Trade Markets - Zoom in on Bananas :: by Inês Lopes

Written by ines September 09th

Time to think of a banana split. Mouth watering indeed, but a whole lot less when you know just what is involved with banana farming. Bananas are quite inexpensive for us, because it’s the growers who pay the price. Large multinational companies’ only criteria is low-cost production. Équiterre’s Isabelle St-Germain reminds us that it is the workers’ health, quality of life and revenues that ultimately absorb the cost of these policies. Not only that, pesticides are often used on these banana plantations. That too has repercussions on workers’ health, as well as on that of the local population.

“Take Costa Rica for example, its pesticide poisoning rate is three times as high in banana regions than the rest of the country. 90% of pesticides spread by air are lost in the environment and find themselves in the local ecosystem and thus in the food chain, which then leads to higher mortality and deformity rates in the local fauna.” (free translation; from Équiterre’s press release, quoted on materre.ca)

By prioritizing the purchase of fair trade bananas instead of the conventional variety, you allow, amongst other things, families in Costa Rica, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Ghana, and the Dominican Republic to enjoy better social and environmental conditions.

Next week, an amazing photo by Éric St-Pierre shows us where fair trade rice comes from.

Source:
Équiterre.  Press release.  Quoted on materre.ca.  Environmental blog by Cécile Gladel.  March 13th  2008. (in French)

Website:
Éric St-Pierre, photojournalist

Travelling Through Fair Trade Markets - Zoom in on Rice :: by Inês Lopes

Written by ines September 08th

The picture above was taken in Thailand by photojournalist Éric St-Pierre. It was taken from a collection of other photos on fair trade rice, showing the beauty of the landscapes from where it comes, as well the farmers that grow it.

For Equita (Oxfam-Québec), Éric went to meet the Green Net cooperative, a Thai NGO based in Bangkok.  The cooperative aims to help farmers in many ways: helping them get a decent salary, allowing them to escape from a debt spiral by allowing them to stay on their land instead of having to leave and work elsewhere.  Green Net also encourages farmers to start organic agriculture and to get certified.  Green Net furthermore promotes women’s rights.

Green Net, as well as consumers that encourage the purchase of fair trade rice, contribute to all of these positive effects. To this day, more than 1000 Thai farming families have seen their quality of life increase, thanks to you.

Next week, another Éric St-Pierre photograph will, this time, show us the world of fair trade tea.
Source:
Équita

Websites:
Éric St-Pierre, photojournalist
Équita – Fair trade
Green Net

Quebec’s Aboriginal People – Meeting the Atikamekw: by Inês Lopes

Written by ines August 13th

The Atikamekw – A Few Words on Their History and Territory
“Atikamekw” means “white fish” (in reference to the whitefish that was their main source of food). Venison, fish and some agricultural products such as corn made up their staple diet. An interesting fact is that we owe the discovery of maple syrup to the Atikamekw. In fact, the Atikamekw have long been boiling maple sap to make sugar and syrup. The Atikamekw have made themselves a place between the territories of the Anishnabe, the Crees and the Innus. They played an active part in the fur trade for some time. Logging, railway construction and hydroelectric development then changed their lifestyle. The residential schools are also a sad page in history. It is hard to believe that the goal behind this was the assimilation of the Aboriginals. They were sent to schools for many months, far from their parents. Their hair was cut, and they were forbidden to speak their native language or make any reference to their beliefs or traditions. This very sad residential schools episode had important consequences on the Atikamekw nation, as well as on the other Aboriginal nations in Quebec and Canada.

Current Population, Language and Culture
Only present in the province of Quebec, today, the Atikamekw live on three reserves: Manawan, Wemotaci and Opitciwan. Of the approximate 5,300 registered Atikamekw, more than 80% live in these communities. Others live for example in La Tuque, the Mauricie region or in the Lac St‑Jean area. They still speak their native language and their second language is French. Atikamekw art is well known, their birchbark canoes are a good example. Other birchbark creations, sculptures, paintings, and moose skin clothing also proudly represent their culture. Today, the principal source of revenue is forestry, but the community also focuses on education and tourism, which are done in keeping with traditions and the environment. The Atikamekw traditionally have an intimate relationship with nature. Sustainable nature preservation is thus an important value for this nation. Very closely tied to the forest, the Atikamekw build their lives around the seasons and certain seasonal activities such as hunting, fishing and fruit picking. Although many teenagers live by today’s modernity, many reconnect through the spirituality of their ancestors.

Tourism Among the Atikamekw: The Example of the Club Odanak
The Club Odanak is located on ancestral territory, a wooded site in the mountainous region of Haute Mauricie. Many activities are offered here throughout the year. Summer activities include canoeing, sleeping in a tepee or a shapituan, swimming, kayaking, pedal boating, horseback riding, beaver house observation, hiking, etc. Upon request, the Club can also organize presentations of traditional Amerindian songs and drums as well as an ancestral Amerindian dance. As for winter activities, ice skating, hockey, sliding, snowshoeing, hiking and skiing are offered, among other activities. In summer and winter, connection with nature is always important while practising these activities.

So if you do have the opportunity to pass by, I invite you to meet the Atikamekw people, a very welcoming nation. I hope you enjoy the activities you may participate in as much as the lessons you will learn.

References

Quebec Aboriginal Tourism Corporation
Wapikoni mobile - Atikamekw Nation (in French)
Club Odanak

A Few Tips for Responsible Camping :: by Inês Lopes

Written by ines July 16th

Air, Water and Soil
- Don’t waste water (close the water faucet where facilities exist, do not leave it running while brushing your teeth for instance).
- Let the camping site’s staff know if you see a water leak (a  leaking faucet can lose 4 litres of water per hour!).
- Choose biodegradable hygiene products (soap, shampoo, etc.).
- Avoid using motor vehicles inside the site; opt for walking or biking instead.

Waste
- Use reusable dishes rather than disposable ones.
- Verify if the site has recycling bins.
- Don’t throw out batteries, medication or light bulbs with other garbage. Instead, find out where collection points are located, or bring them back to town where you’ll be able to dispose of them properly.
- Leave no trace behind. Make sure you have placed all your waste or recyclable materials in the appropriate locations.  Again, if facilities aren’t available, bring it back with you to dispose of it in town.

Energy and Responsible Consumption
- If you have to buy certain products during your camping trip, opt for local products. Also, use reusable bags rather than plastic ones.
- Buy solar lamps and chargers, as well as rechargeable batteries for  flashlights.

Respect Nature
- Don’t make fires except where permitted.
- Stay on marked trails and don’t pick anything in order to preserve the balance of nature.
- Protect riparian areas by camping at least 200 feet from lakes and streams.
- Observe fauna from a reasonable distance.
- Don’t feed the animals; it may harm their health, alter their natural behaviour, or expose them to predators or other dangers.

So there are a few tips for responsible camping. Don’t forget that the little corner of nature you will be visiting for a few days has a precious and fragile ecosystem that lives there permanently.

Have fun camping!

References:
Petit guide de l’éco-touriste (Tourisme Tarn) (in French)

Leave no Trace (Center for Outdoor Ethics) 

Quebec’s Aboriginal People – Meeting the Anishnabe :: by Inês Lopes

Written by ines July 06th

The Anishnabe – A Few Words on Their History and Territory
“Anishnabe” means “the real men” and this is the term this Aboriginal nation prefers, rather than “Algonquins”, which is often used. Traditionally, their territory, the Nitakinan, spreads from the basin of the Ottawa River to the northern limits of Abitibi. Archeological researches have estimated that their occupation of this territory possibly dates back 6,000 years. Over long distances, the Anishnabe lived mostly from hunting, fishing and picking. Their philosophy is to take only what is necessary and to allow resources to replenish. This nomadic people and its environment were, however, disturbed in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries by colonization, logging and mining, and road and dam construction.

Current Population, Language and Culture
Today, we count around 9,000 Anishnabe. More than half live in nine Anishnabe communities; others live in cities such as Montreal, Ottawa and Val d’Or. Other Anishnabe communities also live in Ontario. Their ancestral language is still spoken by about 60% of the nation. Among the Anishnabe’s numerous crafts, to name but a few, are moose skin and fur clothing, birchbark baskets, embroidery, pearls and the tikinagan (baby carrier). Today, in order to preserve a connection to nature and to their culture, some families still spend winter in their hunting territories, as did their ancestors. For the Anishnabe, everything is equal and is part of the circle of life. For life to circulate between humans and the Earth, each individual, family, animal, tree, insect, plant, river, lake or wind has its own role to play.

Tourism: The Example of Abitibiwinni on the Harricana
If you wish to meet the Anishabe people, and learn and live their culture, Abitibiwinni on the Harricana is a destination to consider. A “must-see” according to the STAQ (Quebec Aboriginal Tourism Corporation). Tourism with a taste of adventure and culture, this is what this initiative proposes. Many activities are offered on the Harricana River or directly in the community. For example, you may go canoeing with an Anishnabe guide. Besides the proposed adventure, they will also present their culture and their values: living according to nature’s rhythm and respecting it. They will also tell you about their people, their history and their territory. You may then relax and spend the night under a tepee.

In this short series of blog entries on Quebec’s Native nations, we only presented five. If you have the chance to pass by a Native community, I do encourage you to stop, but make sure you visit a specific touristic spot and do not disturb community peacefulness. I invite you to get to know the Native people, their different cultures, beliefs, values, and connection to the Earth. Let them tell you their stories, their pains and their joys, their visions of the past, and those of the future.

References

Quebec Aboriginal Tourism Corporation
Wapikoni mobile – Anishnabe Nation (in French)
Abitibiwinni on the Harricana