Reclamation project to help revive traditional ways

The Driftpile First Nation is the location of a new land reclamation project funded by Shell Canada.

A one acre abandoned well site will be converted into a garden-like environment, with shrubs, trees, and other plants traditionally considered valuable in their community.

“We wanted to look at reclaiming land in a way the community would like versus the way the industry would like,” said Brad Hestbak, a representative for Northern Lakes College, one of Shell’s partner organizations on the project.

“We initially talked to two or three communities and had varying degrees of interest. Driftpile was the most enthusiastic to get the project off the ground, so we’re working with them on that,” he said.

Northern Lakes College is also working with the Woodland’s Operation Learning Foundation, and Incremental Forest Technologies. The five partners plan to not only replace lost plants, forest, and wildlife, but also to make the project double as a way to educate younger generations, says Hestbak.

“Once we have enough material to put on the website, we’ll be creating that. And that’s going to have some learning tools that a lot of people can use,” he said. “An entire community can take advantage of that, and create a bit of an archive.”

The site will include both English and Cree names as well as descriptions of possible uses for each plant. Planting should be underway by spring of 2015 and continue into the summer, says Hestbak.

The project also involves four Elders and two youth, says Sandee Willier, a project manager from Driftpile. Together, they chose 10-15 different species and a total of 1,500 individual plants, which are currently being kept in a greenhouse in Peace River until grown enough to germinate.

 “Reclaiming our own… that’s what it’s called. And that’s the reason why they’re bringing back the trees and they’re bringing back the herbs. Because we’re pretty much losing all that within our traditional ways,” said Willier.

 “We have very little to none herbalists anymore and the ones that we do have, they’re not really surfacing,” she said.

In the past, community members would visit the local “herbalist” when they were sick, but that rarely happens now. And industry in their backyard has a lot to do with that, says Willier.

“We have loggers on our backdoor. We are losing a lot of our legs… our moose legs. And with that, they’re taking a lot of our herbs, so we don’t even get people out there looking for them,” she said.

Fred Chalifoux, one of the Elder’s from Driftpile, used to pick herbs with a Medicine Woman in his community, and spent time hunting with another Elder, who had that same traditional knowledge. Chalifoux sees the loss of plant and wildlife on a daily basis, and while he finds the project hopeful he still worries.

“I was out there all morning. I saw one moose and some tracks, so they’re still out there. But each bush you come around, you see another bush cutter or cat… so it always just reminds you of what’s coming,” said Chalifoux.