Abstract

This dissertation stems from collaborative research between the W8banaki Nation and
me, presenting the relationship between land and knowledge through the guiding
experiences of W8banakiak elders.
The thesis draws on oral history interviews that invited W8banaki narrators to share their
memories and thoughts on fishing, hunting, their relationship to their elders, their
relationship to the land, their experiences of guiding in private clubs, their relationships
with club members, and the ways knowledge of the land and Indigenous culture was
transmitted to them. At the heart of this study lie ten solo interviews and two group
interviews conducted between 2021 and 2024. The Ndakina Office generously gave me
access to seven oral history solo interviews with W8banakiak elders they had recorded in
2021. To this, I conducted and recorded 3 solo interviews and two groups interviews. The
interviews I recorded were with W8banakiak elders, their relatives, Ndakina Land
Guardians and members of the Ndakina Office, where we spoke about guiding history
and its meaning for the W8banaki Nation.
Adopting decolonial paradigms and collaborative research methodologies, this project
illustrates the continuation of W8banaki knowledge and wisdom of the land through the
intergenerational transmission of knowledge that demonstrates cultural resilience against
colonial and capitalistic pressures. Oral history interviews, collaboration and sharing
authority is embedded into this project’s throughout its various steps, where narrators and
collaborators were invited and welcomed to reflect on its content and methodology from
start to finish. Although guiding is no longer practiced in Odanak’s community, the elders
and their relatives interviewed detail the fond memories of times spent in the woods
while connecting to the land. This research leads me to affirm that the perpetuation of
intergenerational knowledge transmission of the land, transcending colonial pressures and
imperial territorial administrations, contributed to a sense of community, belonging and
cultural resilience amongst the W8banaki Nation.