Ginoogaming First Nation

Traditional Knowledge Compilation

This project will build on the past work of the Community Impact Assessment (CIA) project that was also funded by the Ministry of Northern Development and Mines (MNDM). The CIA included values collection with community members to determine  values that could be affected by the proposed Hardrock gold mine development near Geraldton, ON. This project would supplement and broaden the CIA. The CIA was focused on one discrete project area, and values have were collected for a much broader area than what was specifically covered by the CIA. These values still exist on paper maps and in digital format, but there is a strong need to compile these values with further data that may have been collected under different projects.  Ginoogaming First Nation has identified more community members (some living in the community, some in Thunder Bay and some in Geraldton, Hornpayne and Longlac) who are willing to be interviewed to collect their traditional values. This project would allow for the finalization and compilation of existing data, further values collection, ongoing GIS/GPS training to assist with values collection, and finally, a field program to ground truth highly sensitive values (burial sites, pictographs, etc.) to ensure their protection. The focus of the ground truthing fieldwork would be areas where mining developments are likely to occur (Hardrock proposed mine,  north-south transportation corridor for the Ring of Fire, and other potential areas of development).  The final product will be a comprehensive database of the known values in the traditional territory, including buffers zones for protection.