Indigenous Im/mobility in Tthets'éhkédélį (Jean Marie River), Dehcho, Northwest Territories

Abstract

In the Dehcho Region of Canada's Northwest Territories, the Tthets'éhk'édélı̨ Got'ie (people downriver of McGill Lake), like many other Indigenous Peoples in North America and around the world, have traditionally practiced im/mobility, movement and stasis across time and space, since time immemorial. This research draws on im/mobility theory to highlight the social, cultural, political, and economic relations that inform how Indigenous Peoples move through time and space. Their im/mobility, often coded as seasonal rounds, reflects embodied relationships to land, culture, and community that shape Traditional Knowledge and spiritual, political, and stewardship responsibilities. In recent decades, colonial pressures and anthropogenic climate changes have pressed against these relationships and influenced im/mobility meanings, practices, and values.

This study aims to examine how the Tthets'éhk'édélı̨ Got'ie experience and give meaning to im/mobility as a relationally informed practice in the Dehcho Region. It aims to (1) investigate the values that influence how the Tthets'éhkédélį Got'ie move through time and space, contributing to a culturally grounded framework to articulate im/mobility; (2) foreground Indigenous relationships to land and climate change to understand how im/mobility functions as an embodied, relational practice; and (3) examine how im/mobility operates as pedagogy amidst assertions of Indigenous sovereignty.

The methodological approach adopted in this dissertation shows how non-Indigenous scholars can work with Indigenous communities to conduct relationally informed, ethical research. It outlines one approach to identifying and centering community research priorities and responsibly reciprocating knowledge through embodied, written, audible, and visual methods. It draws on qualitative interview data and reflexive field notes from an immersive field experience (January 2023 - June 2023) and several years of community visits (and relationships) to show that im/mobility is not simply about movement through time and space, it is a relational practice that draws on connections with the land, subsistence autonomy, and the transmission of Traditional Knowledge. This research also shows how the Tthets'éhkédélį Got'ie are using im/mobility to relationally respond to climate and environmental changes, highlighting the ongoing and dynamic process of cultural continuity and survival. Finally, it explores how im/mobility embodies land-based sovereignty, pedagogy, and resistance to colonial containment. This approach exposes alternative ways knowing the human-nature relationship in the context of im/mobility, offering insight into alternative ways of responding to climate and environmental changes and enacting pedagogy.

This dissertation further showcases the importance of culturally relevant approaches to conceptualizing alternative meanings, values, and structures that shape how people relate to movement through time and space. It expands the scope of im/mobility research by focusing on Indigenous logics, perspectives, and meanings. Policy makers and community programmers can draw on this research to further root their im/mobility-related programing (e.g., community harvest programs) in Indigenous worldviews and perspectives.