The Mi’kmaq-Settler Fishing Dispute: Blame Assignment & the Masculinization of Indigenous Relationships to Water

This paper examines how the lobster fishing dispute between settlers and Mi'kmaq fishers is representative of how relationships to waters have been masculinized through settler commercial fishing and the general sentiment of the Canadian population towards Indigenous peoples. By employing discourse analysis, common sentiments of Indigenous peoples on the topic of the lobster-fishing dispute in Nova Scotia will be examined. Further, through analyzing this sentiment, a return to Indigenous thought and feminist theory in restoring water justice as pertaining to the water scarcity issue and the lobster-fishing issue will be argued for. This is elaborated upon through necessitating the incorporation of the Anishinaabek concept of Zaagidowin (love) and a return to Indigenous feminist understandings and approaches of water, resources and resource extraction.