Last month (May 30th 2024) I was invited to provide remarks to Federal, Provincial and Territorial Ministers from across Canada who hold portfolios around rural and economic development. As I was preparing my talk, I found myself writing: As Ken Paul says…
And indeed, over the years since I met Ken, I have often relayed his advice, knowledge, and perspective to students and colleagues by saying “As Ken Paul says...”. In March of 2017 I co-hosted a workshop called “Clear Seas” with the Ocean Tracking Network (OTN). We were interested in the societal implications of the exponential increase in data we are gathering about the ocean, and about how people and animals use the ocean. What do the data represent? What do we do with them? How do they serve societal goals in a fair and equitable way? We agreed to convene a meeting to tackle these and other questions arising from increasing ocean transparency, and had practitioner ‘vision’ talks featured throughout the three-day workshop. Ken was one such participant.
Ken introduced himself, telling us where he was from and who is family was, and eventually, his affiliation. At the time, he was with the Atlantic Policy Congress of First Nation Chiefs. He looked at the audience and gave us a direction: “Raise your hand if you are a Treaty beneficiary.” There were probably fifty people in the workshop, and fewer than five hands were raised. Ken went on to explain that if you are Canadian, you are a Treaty beneficiary. Indeed, we are all Treaty people, he said. Although this statement has become commonplace on email signatures and in Land Acknowledgment across Mi’kma’ki - Ken was the first person who introduced me to this concept, and indeed, this Treaty relationship I had with Mi’kmaw, Wolastoqey and Passomaquoddy.
Caption: Notes taken during Ken Paul’s vision talk during the 2017 Clear Seas Symposium.
Since 2017, Ken and I have worked together at conferences (North American Association of Fisheries Economists 2019, World Fisheries Congress 2024) on papers (Bodwitch et al., 2024), in classrooms (Fisheries Management and Politics of the Sea), and he has continued to inspire and guide me, to push my thinking and comfort zone, and to celebrate the good times with my research group.
Caption: Bailey Lab celebrates good food and friends, Thanksgiving 2023.
In his teachings and guidance, Ken has always emphasized the people at the heart of it all. While he has held numerous positions heavy with political ramifications, he never forgets that the relationships between people are more important than the legislation and bureaucracy that can often get in between people.
A little bit about Ken. Ken is a member of the Wolastoqey First Nation in the community of Neqotkuk, whose traditional territory is located on the northern Atlantic coast spanning the Canada/US border between Maine, New Brunswick and Quebec. He is an interdisciplinarian at heart, having backgrounds in hydrology and business (he holds a BSc from Dalhousie and an MBA from Saint Mary’s University). His expertise includes inherent and treaty rights, legislation, and policy, Indigenous Knowledge Systems, economic prosperity, community engagement and resource management.
For the past 9 years, Ken has advocated for First Nations Chiefs regionally, nationally and internationally on all aspects relating to fisheries, aquaculture, oceans governance and aquatic Previous to this, he had worked for 10 years in field-based ocean mapping with the Canadian Hydrographic Service and another 10 years with Parks Canada as a Senior Policy Advisor in Atlantic Canada and the Field Unit Superintendent in the Northwest Territories. Ken is currently the Lead Fisheries Negotiator and Research Coordinator for the Wolastoqey Nation
We are so so thrilled to have Ken join us as an Indigenous Fellow with the lab, and his subsequent appointment as Adjunct Indigenous Faculty at Dalhousie University is a benefit to the entire University community. We look forward to adding to our list of “As Ken Paul says…” examples, and working together in the spirit of the Treaty relationship that initially binds us, and the spirit of collegiality and friendship that we now find ourselves lucky enough to share in.
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