What is a crime? : Pimatsiwin Weyasowewina, aboriginal harvesting practices considered

The refrain throughout the community sessions of this project described how the younger generations of Aboriginal peoples had grown up learning to distrust and lie to fish and wildlife authorities, watching and helping their parents and grandparents hide the meat and fish that meant the survival of their families. [...] While the historical and legal records of Canada clearly reveal that the spiritual practices of the Aboriginal peoples were prohibited and criminalized through government legislation, the connections between these legal actions and policies of the state and the physical, intellectual and psychological development, well-being or survival of Aboriginal peoples has rarely if ever been fully analysed. [...] The significance and functions of the laws, as well as of the law-makers and the law enforcers, in relation to traditional Aboriginal harvesting practices are becoming more obvious to more people in the present tensions between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people over the right to practice these traditions. [...] The innocents, those who believe in the power of the democracy, stand wide-eyed, waiting with the expectation that the authorities will show the “right” way out of the problem. [...] In the context of the racialized tensions, the scenario must be staged to justify the “saving” of the many (Canadian) at the price of the interests of the few (Aboriginal).