ATHABASCA – A team from Athabasca University, with the help of researchers at McMaster University, are digging into a question that Indigenous elders at Bigstone Cree Nation say they already know the answer to: is the application of glyphosate and other herbicides poisoning plants used in traditional medicines and ceremonies?
Dr. Janelle Baker, a cultural anthropologist, and Dr. Srijak Bhatnagar, a microbiologist, both at AU, are working towards formalizing the knowledge, after community members from Bigstone approached them with concerns.
“Companies are targeting indigenous plants that they’ve classified as weeds, including Labrador tea, chokecherries, and fireweed. These are native species that they’re trying to eradicate because they compete with (the companies) monocropping of trees,” said Baker.
Labrador tea is a commonly used term for varieties of rhododendron and can also refer to the drink produced when brewed.
Baker has worked with Bigstone since 2006, on a variety of projects and studies around traditional land use. While those projects looked at the impacts that oil sands contaminants like heavy metals or other solids had on bush foods, community concern around the herbicide usage in the reforestation process drove Baker and Bhatnagar to take a deeper look.
“We’re using Labrador tea as an example, to show that if the glyphosate being sprayed does impact human health, it can be extended out to other plants as well,” said Bhatnagar during an Oct. 4 interview. “It’s a community-concern driven project, and (labrador tea) is widespread throughout Canada, and is used by multiple Indigenous groups.”
What is glyphosate?
Glyphosate is the most used herbicide in Canada and is one of three herbicides allowed in Alberta. Health Canada sets the maximum residue limits (MRLs) for different food commodities, and glyphosate’s MRL has an upper level of 35 parts per million (ppm) in rolled oats and oat bran. Tree nuts are the lowest categorized food and can only have 1 ppm to still be considered safe for human consumption.
“The question is, is there herbicide left on the plant, and is it impacting human health or not?” said Bhatnagar. “If this becomes a hot-button issue, the companies could just say ‘So what if there’s herbicide in the tea, that doesn’t mean it’s harming people,’ so we want to make sure we’re covering our bases and connecting it to the environment and to people.”
Labrador tea doesn’t share characteristics with any of the foods that Health Canada has a MRL for — the leaves are boiled to make a beverage that can be used to treat headaches, inflammation, asthma, and heart problems.
Bigstone Cree Nation Elder Helen Noskiye has operated a trapline north of Chipewyan lake for the past 15 years and is concerned about the application of the herbicide. She told researchers at AU that her voice isn’t being heard.
“Once they do the spraying, people can’t pick the berries anymore because it’s poisonous,” said Noskiye in a Sept. 27 article published by AU. “There’s nothing trappers can do because the companies overrule them I guess.”
For Baker, the process is inherently flawed, and doesn’t take into account Indigenous groups’ constitutional rights.
“It’s frustrating that a logging company or government can operate in a community’s traditional territory, apply a chemical to plants that they’ve used for centuries, and then when the community says, ‘can you please not do that,’ have regulation to point to saying that it’s okay,” said Baker. “As a cultural anthropologist, I feel like my role is to tell that culturally significant story and link it to the big picture. I want to show what’s happening so communities can use this evidence.”
Currently, the project is funded for two years, with an opportunity to extend it one year if needed. While the work is just getting started, Bhatnagar touched on an idea he said is an interesting dynamic — he feels like they’re trying to prove something communities already know to be true.
“The community members have been observing the ecosystem damage, and how it’s not the same after glyphosate use, but it’s coming down to us having to go up there to get evidence to prove it in a court of Canada,” said Bhatnagar. “It’s this settler court, so to speak, and it’s interesting that (Indigenous groups) have this evidence, but we can only change rules and regulations not based on what (Indigenous people) saw, but what scientists can prove.”
