Nominate a Role Model for The Bras d’Or Lakes’ Golden Award
The Bras d’Or Lakes Collaborative Environmental Planning Initiative (CEPI) has launched the Golden Award for the Bras d’Or Lakes. The Golden Award award recognizes role models who, through their deeds and actions, help ensure the spirit of the Bras d’Or Lakes speaks today and for future generations. “The Bras d’Or Lakes is a unique environment...
Plant a Mimkwonmooseel for Mi’kmaq History Month
UINR is giving away Mimkwonmooseel (Red Oak) seed kits on Thursday October 20 at Cape Breton University. In celebration of Mi’kmaq History Month, UINR is participating in CBU’s dedication of Kina matneway Na Klinkn (Embracing Knowledge) at the CBU Courtyard. UINR’s Executive Director Lisa Young will plant Switey and Pakosi, traditional Mi’kmaq plants to celebrate the garden’s dedication....
The Spirit of the Lakes Speaks launched
As the chant of the Friendship song drifted across the Bras d’Or Lakes on a rare sunny July afternoon, people shook hands in congratulations on the release of The Spirit of the Lakes Speaks, a document created by the Bras d’Or Lakes Collaborative Environmental Planning Initiative (CEPI). With a vision for the protection and sustainability...
Salmon…what we know
Elder Albert Marshall may have said it best: “Plamu was historically one of the staple foods upon which First Nations people depended. It was viewed as a gift from the Creator, and it seemed that it would last forever. That is obviously not the case: the species is threatened on a daily basis. It is...
Mala now and then
Malagawatch occupies 661 hectares in the southeastern part of Inverness County on the Bras d’Or Lakes. Mala has the unique distinction of being jointly owned by the five Mi’kmaq communities in Unama’ki and has a long history steeped in cultural and political significance. It plays an important part in ancient Mi’kmaq life and today is...
Making a difference
Making a difference Another St. Anne’s Mission has come and gone and, thanks to the dedication of the teams of workers organized by the Pitu’paq partnership, it was cleaner both during the Mission and afterwards. Once again, students from the Nova Scotia Youth Corps were involved in the recycling and waste disposal program. They worked...
Centre for Indigenous Environmental Resources
We have many neighbours: people, plants, animals and all the wonders that occupy the land and water. We share the earth’s resources (including water), often without any plan for the future that ensures our shared water resource is clean and available to all. A watershed plan focuses on water and is a tool that identifies...
Guidelines for Cape Breton Moose Hunting released
The Cape Breton Highlands have always been known as traditional Mi’kmaq hunting grounds. In fact, a Mi’kmaq hunter recently found a 4500 year-old arrowhead there, evidence that Mi’kmaq hunted there for thousands of years. However, in the 1800s, moose disappeared from Unama’ki and this ancient relationship came to an abrupt end that lasted for almost...
We’re on a mission!
We’re on a mission! Take thousands of people, put them on an island for four days with no sewage system and no where to dispose of their garbage and you can imagine what is left behind. This was the scene every year at the annual Chapel Island Mission in the small community of Potlotek. Back...
UINR Partners with Parks Canada on Eel Study
The Unama’ki Institute for Natural Resources (UINR) is working with Parks Canada to study the population of American eel in Cape Breton Highlands National Park. Throughout June UINR staff will catch, measure, and release elvers (young eels) as they enter the rivers and brooks between Ingonish Beach and Neil’s Harbour. The project is looking at...
Partnerships
UINR's partnerships with other organizations are an important part of what we do and the successes we have achieved.
Our lead role in organizations such as Pitu'paq and the Bras d'Or Lakes Collaborative Environmental Planning Initiative have resulted in important accomplishments in achieving our environmental and management goals.
Through our partnerships UINR has ensured that Mi'kmaq perspective...
Bras d’Or Lakes management on track?
“Healing and reconciliation,” is how Elder Albert Marshall put it after the two day workshop held by Bras d’Or Lakes Collaborative Environmental Planning Initiative(CEPI). The Elders of Unama’ki gathered with CEPI in a workshop designed to clarify CEPI’s vision for a management plan for the Bras d’Or Lakes watershed. “Reconciliation must begin before the two...