Reclaiming Mountain Lake: Applying environmental repossession in Biigtigong Nishnaabeg territory, Canada

The concept of environmental repossession responds to a global movement led by Indigenous peoples to reclaim their territories and ways of life. As Indigenous wellness is intimately tied to relationships to land, processes of environmental repossession are a means to revitalize knowledge systems, identities and relationships that foster strong and healthy communities. Due to historic and ongoing forces of dispossession, the Anishinaabe community of Biigtigong Nishnaabeg has experienced limited access to Mountain Lake, a culturally and historically significant place in their ancestral territory. In the summer of 2018, the Chief and Council of Biigtigong constructed two cabins along the shores of Mountain Lake for community use and, one year later, hosted a week-long camp to bring Elders, youth and band staff together in this place. Drawing from 15 in-depth interviews with participating community members, this study documented the planning and implementation of the cabins and camp at Mountain Lake and examined the community meanings of this process. The findings suggest that the cabins and camp functioned as a local process of environmental repossession through multiple and interconnected steps to reclaim access to Mountain Lake, reintroduce the community to this place and begin remaking community relationships to this land. As Indigenous communities globally seek to reclaim their territories and rights to land, this article speaks to the tensions of this work and the structures that support its practice locally.