Wasauksing First Nation

Environmental Management Plan

SVS was hired by Wasauksing First Nation to support the community in creating an Environmental Management Plan (EMP). The EMP addresses some of Wasauksing’s Land Code requirements for environmental management, and creates stewardship guidelines to address environmental concerns, but its purpose runs much deeper than that. This EMP is rooted in who the people of Wasauksing First Nation are as Anishinaabe people: caretakers of the land, water, air, and natural beings. 

In writing the EMP, we directly incorporated the knowledge, wisdom and direction shared by the community. Our team worked alongside Wasauksing First Nation to create and carry out a community engagement plan that was open and accessible to all citizens, using methods know to engage groups of active citizens, including Elders, women, and youth, and help them feel comfortable participating and sharing their knowledge. To celebrate the planning process, we helped film, edit and produce a short video, which the community chose to share widely through social media. 

Our team of subject area experts creatively blended community knowledge with Western science to produce stewardship guidelines that addressed Wasauksing’s environmental concerns. The final EMP is a document rooted in Wasauksing pride and ownership. Through the incorporation of the Anishinaabemowin language, cultural teachings and references, maps, and place names, the EMP reflects Wasauksing’s cultural and spiritual obligation to the total well-being of the earth, the creation, and the people.