Nipi (Water) and its pawistik (falls) in Northern Manitoba: a dive into Eurocentric policies and the effects of hydro generation on the seasonal movements of a northern Indigenous community, Nisicawayāsihk Cree Nation
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Perceptions of Western society and Indigenous cultures towards the caring of Askiy, the Earth, contrast dramatically with one another. On one hand, Indigenous people have intertwined their coexistence with that of Nature since time immemorial, which has given rise to their cultural heritage and identity. On the other hand, western society has largely viewed the environment as a source of natural resources that are used to satisfy societal needs. This dichotomy is readily apparent when it comes to hydro power in northern Canada. This research aims to explore how Eurocentric land management policies together with the legacy brought forth by the Hydropower discourse have affected the seasonal movement of Indigenous people across Manitoba’s northern landscape and their longstanding land-use and harvesting activities. This was achieved by integrating Indigenous Traditional Environmental Knowledge with Geographical Spatial Information (GIS) technologies. Participatory GIS processes based on the Map Biography Model (MBM) were shaped by the northern nethowe-ithiniwak, Cree speaking people of Nisicawayāsihk (Nelson House) Cree Nation. Maps were generated that reflect the multi-generational knowledge and lived experiences of community members, and that document hydro-related changes in space and time. The revised MBM evolved organically at its own pace, mostly reflecting the experiences of the nethowe-ithiniwak whom I interviewed as well as from many community-led boat, driving, and aerial trips throughout the affected landscape centering on Nipi, Water. These outcomes revealed how western society continues to view natural resources as objects that can be readily and sometimes drastically manipulated to fulfill its needs. Such perceptions transformed the free rumbling sound of Nipi, water, which normally constitutes the essence of northern Indigenous identity, into a static and open-water storage reservoir. These actions have resulted in a Nisicawayāsihk that is 23% of its pre-colonial cultural landscape. The resulting region is not only smaller but also irrevocably damaged by hydropower infrastructure. Yet, despite the drastic changes across this landscape, the nethowe-ithiniwak continue to practice their traditional livelihoods and to assert their sovereignty throughout this region.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.007 | 0.005 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.002 | 0.001 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.002 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".