The Making of In the Same Boat

In the Same Boat? is the product of an exciting collaboration between myself, and community leaders and fishers in Bear River First Nation, and their non-native allies in the neighboring town of Digby.

Like most city folk from Halifax, I grew up knowing nothing about the fisheries. The Mi’kmaq were a people I learned about in History class. All that changed the winter of 2002. Chance brought me to a weekend-workshop full of Mi’kmaq and non-native fishers, who less than two years prior, had been on opposite sides of what had been a very, very tense stand off.

The fisheries are in crisis; they have been for more than a decade. Stocks have all but collapsed, and thousands of small-scale fishers have been bought out by a handful of big corporations.

The fisheries have also been a battleground. The 1999 Supreme Court Marshall decision recognized First Nations’ rights to fish commercially in the area. It sparked violent confrontations between non-native fishers and First Nations – from Esgenoôpetitj Burnt Church, NB, to Yarmouth, NS.

That crisis had barely faded from the headlines. But at this workshop, these two groups were building the ground for solidarity. Both were threatened by the Department of Fisheries corporate agenda, and both wanted local control over fisheries management, based on democratic self-governance - or in the case of First Nations, self-government. I was blown away.

With time I became more involved, first as a writer, then as a masters student, and now as a first-time filmmaker and doctoral student at Concordia University in Montreal. In the same boat? is part of my doctoral research.

I began shooting in the summer of 2005 after having spent a month getting to know people in Bear River First Nation. I returned the following spring to screen initial sequences with people directly involved with the film, to get their feedback about the direction the stories were taking. We agreed a second round of shooting was necessary; this took place in the summer of 2006. A full-length rough cut was screened in February of 2007 at the Bear River band hall for community members as well as local non-native fishing groups. The event was a chance to talk about the different issues facing both communities; it was also a chance to start talking about how to incorporate the film into local organizing work.

A Community tour brought In the Same Boat? to 15 First Nations and non-native fishing communities across the Maritimes in the fall of 2007. Spokes people from Bear River First Nation, the Bay of Fundy Marine Resource Center and the Halifax-based Ecology Action Center were with me at the screenings, to meet audiences and talk about the issues. Keep your ears to the ground in 2008: there’s more to come!