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JP Gladu
By Chanda Hunnie
For the Anishnaabek, knowledge begins with trees. In Midewiwin and Sundance teachings, humankind are represented by trees, with rings of history traced in skin and bone, just as they are in bark and wood. People must ground their roots in the soil of their home, while holding up the sky with their hands. And, just as humankind possesses a sacred spirit, so do trees – and both must be protected, fostered, and nurtured.
J.P. Gladu, leader, advocate, and protector of trees, is a modern day ogitchidaa, a warrior. Although only thirty-five years old, he has been surrounded by trees his entire life – having been raised on the land by his father and grandfather who were forest workers from Binwi Neyaashi Anishinaabek First Nation. Now, he has inherited his role as protector of trees with enthusiasm and responsibility, continuing his family’s tradition with an impressive career.
“When I think about Aboriginal rights, community rights, and First Nations people, who we are is very much connected to the land,” explains JP.
Beginning his career with a study in forestry, JP worked with the First Nations Forestry Program, where he was active in over 40 First Nations communities across Ontario. He then moved to the mountains of Cranbrook, British Columbia where he acted as an Aboriginal Forestry Advisor. To date, he is still the youngest advisor – at the age of 22 – to have worked for the Ministry in this capacity.
Realizing that he had an interest in the land that went beyond “being in the bush,” JP returned to school and received a bachelor of science through a Native American Forestry program in northern Arizona.
Since then, he’s been at the helm of two low-impact resource harvesting ventures: a cedar oil factory that extracts the essential oil from cedar trees, and a company that harvests Canada Yew, a natural cancer-fighting product. He was also a Policy Forester for the National Aboriginal Forestry Association and the Sustainable Forestry Management Network.
“When we do anything in life we need it to be sustainable right? We always keep our teaching of seven generations in the back of our heads and we carry that in our heart when we actually do things on the land. Sustainable practices, in my opinion, for many First Nations are innate.”
Currently JP shares his time between working on his own consulting business Aboriginal Strategy Group; working for his own community where he holds their environment portfolio and acts as the senior advisor to Chief and Council; and as the Senior Aboriginal Advisor with the Canadian Boreal Initiative (CBI).
JP’s career paths and accomplishments reflect a personal nature and ambition to influence change in areas that will protect the environment, and by nature, First Nations. Thus, the CBI is a perfect, and logical, fit.
The CBI brings together diverse stakeholders including industry, First Nations, and environmental groups, which make up the Boreal Leadership Council. These partners subscribe to a collective boreal vision to create new, on the ground, solutions for boreal forest conservation. The goal of the framework is to protect at least 50 per cent of the boreal forest and to sustainably develop the rest, ensuring the perpetual integrity of the boreal and its ecosystems.
“The challenge in the past is that development has gone ahead of conservation so you have all this development happening in the boreal forest with conservation being an afterthought.” explains JP. “What you’re left with are islands of protected areas which aren’t necessarily sustainable because they’re too small, not interconnected, or development on the perimeter has significantly affected them.”
The boreal forest in Canada is one of the largest remaining forest ecosystems in the world. It is home to diverse wildlife and necessary ecosystem functions including climate regulation, and water purification. The majority of people that reside in the boreal regions of Canada are First Nations that have lived and depended on the land for millennia. The boreal and its resources remain necessary to Aboriginal communities, many of which still practice traditional livelihoods.
“In a perfect world, in my mind, First Nations would be the drivers behind land-use planning and decision-making in their backyards. The reason this needs to happen is because, and you can ask First Nations People; do you think somebody’s going to jeopardize their children’s future, and their children’s children’s future by making poor decisions today in their backyard?”
Instead, First Nations have had to fight for a say in the development of their traditional lands and have often lost to the interests of large-scale industrial development. Influencing government and policy decision-makers to adopt policies that incorporate the inclusion of First Nations’ terminology, values, and ways of thinking is an essential element in the proper management of the boreal forest. Though, as the case suggests with First Nations across Canada, having a government that is open and responsive to the views of a nation wanting to protect its land outside of existing legislation is difficult.
“[…] the current designations that exist out there aren’t open enough to take in the perception or the concepts of what First Nations think protected areas are, we don’t have that in our vocabulary, it’s just a way of being. So the challenges are to find something in between.”
Recently, government announcements by Premier’s Dalton McGuinty of Ontario and Quebec’s Jean Charest support the boreal forest conservation’s framework to protect at least 50 percent of the boreal forest. Stating a commitment to protect half of their northern boreal regions from large-scale development, Ontario and Quebec have signified that they recognize the importance in protecting large wilderness. Their leadership has the potential to develop new solutions in resource management but fundamental to the success of this process is that decision-making and planning in the north support the involvement and partnership of local First Nations through community-driven land-use planning.
Common ground was, and still is, a concept that exists for First Nations people in their relations with other peoples. In the past, the offer and acceptance of a Wampum belt, a beaded string or belt, reflected the reciprocal effort of the alliance and mutual agreement between two peoples.
JP continues, “When Europeans came over here the First Nations said ‘we will go down this river together. You will stay in your canoe and we’re going to stay in our canoe, and we’re going to travel this river together. Don’t try and jump in our boat and steer it; we’re not going to try to jump in your boat and steer it. When it comes to decision-making time we’ll do it together.’”
Today the analogy of the Wampum belt can be used to explain the inclusion of Aboriginal Traditional Knowledge within the framework of land-use planning. Boreal management should consist of not only the best available science but should fully embrace the value local perspectives and traditional knowledge has in the future sustainability of an area. The CBI endorses this principle in its boreal forest framework but, as JP reveals, finding a place for the addition of traditional knowledge in inflexible government policies requires changing to focus once again on finding that “something in-between.”
“If you take traditional knowledge out of one canoe and you try to put it into another canoe, the framework of that canoe may not be adequate to allow for the full expression of what traditional knowledge really is. So how do you give meaning to traditional knowledge within a land-use planning scenario? Well you’ve got to make sure you include the traditional knowledge holders in the land-use planning so that they’re both in their own canoe at a point where decisions have to be made.”
JP recognizes this approach to managing the boreal will need to be as unique and dynamic as its ecosystems and communities. By remembering that our most important teachings and knowledge come from the tree, that is how J.P. Gladu is ensuring our and their continuance, always.
March 16th, 2009 at 3:55 pm
Hi! I am Rachelle Presently attending Self-Governance Program, working on an assignment, regarding land issues to protecting our way of life. I came across your article and is interested in your views and understand your purpose,to which I will share my dream. In the dream, 2 Tree Warriors approached me, as I braided my hair together and both were as tall as the trees, they both smiled and leaned forward to acknowledge of what needs to be done. Today, I acknowledge my elders with great Love & Respect and listen to them, they say: “For every new thing we must get back into the old” My understanding is, it is imperative for our language and culture, because what is done to the land is done to the people, what is done to people is done to the land.