Mi’kmaw Relational Values: Lessons for environmental valuation from Indigenous literatures and L’nuwey along the Bay of Fundy coast

Abstract

The Mi’kmaq are a First Nation whose traditional, unceded, and contemporary territories, called Mi’kma’ki, are situated in the eastern regions of Turtle Island (North America). L’nuwey, generally meaning the way Mi’kmaq think or act, has been co-developing with Mi’kma’ki since time immemorial and reflects a deep relationality with the land and non-human beings. Such relationality is not meaningfully articulated in frameworks like ecosystem services, which is a cornerstone of Western conservation that prioritizes instrumental and intrinsic conceptualizations of value. A “third class of values” called relational values has recently emerged in conservation and environmental valuation discourses to describe those that stem from people’s relationships with and responsibilities towards nature. This study aims to enrich relational value discourses by first engaging with literatures on Indigenous values and subsequently considering the emergent descriptions and classifications of relational values in a community-based case study on how the Mi’kmaq navigate coastal adaptation decision-making on the Bay of Fundy coast.