Warm winters threaten Algonquin traditions - Action News
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Ottawa

Warm winters threaten Algonquin traditions

Thin lake ice has deprived many families in Algonquin territory of an important part of their diet and a practice that roots them to their cultural heritage and homeland.

Ice fishing season started late this year around Kitigan Zibi Anishinbeg

A fisher places a green lid-type ice fishing rig onto a hole in ice.
Mike Diabo sets up an ice fishing rig on a lake in Kitigan Zibi Anishinbeg First Nation on Feb. 8. He said at the time of this interview he'd only been fishing four times this winter. (Blair Gable/Reuters)

Most winters, at least once a week, Mike Diabo will snowmobile to the shores of one of his favourite local lakes in western Quebec, carry his fishing gear across the frozen surfaceand drill down through the ice to reveal the dark water beneath.

There he'll fish for northern pike, bass, trout, and whitefish to supplement his family's diet, continuing the traditions of his Algonquinancestors.

This year isn't like most winters.

Ice fishing season started late, delayed by a warm winter and fluctuating temperatures that left the ice on Bitobi and Cedar lakesslushy and dangerously thin until a cold snap finally arrived in early February.

Because of climate change, yearly annual temperatures in the region and across Canada have trended up for decades. This winter is one of the warmest in decades in Ottawa, about 110 kilometres south ofDiabo's home in Kitigan Zibi AnishinbegFirst Nation.

A line of boot prints on a lake with three that sank into a hidden pocket of slush.
Slushy boot prints during Diabo's fishing trip. Slushy lake ice makes it harder for people, vehicles and equipment to move around. (Blair Gable/Reuters)

Diabo, 46, blames climate change for the unseasonal weather and he worries ice fishing season will only get shorter in the future. He'sonly beenfishing four times so far this winterusually he would start no later than early January.

The thin ice has deprived his family of an important part of their diet and a practice that roots them to their cultural heritage and territory around the broader area of theKichi Sibi, or what later became known as the Ottawa River.

Climate change and food security

The limited fishing opportunities also underscore the risk climate change presents to many First Nations that rely on hunting, fishing and foraging to help boost their nutrition and combat food insecurity.

"We're not getting the consistent number of days that are well below zero for the lake to freeze over," said Diabo, a father of five whois on paternity leave from histeaching job.

"We should have got what we have now more than a month ago. Being able to get out there and safely fish and travel around on the water systems and hunt, it's all been pushed back."

A fisher takes a knife to the stomach of a fish on a cutting board.
Diabo guts a wild lake trout. He said he's about a month behind where he usually is when it comes to the number of fish he's caught. (Blair Gable/Reuters)

Food insecurity among Indigenous people living on reserves is four times the Canadian average, according to a First Nations Food, Nutrition and Environment Study published in 2021.

Although traditional food generallymakes up only a small part of Indigenous diets, it tends to be a main source of key nutrients like iron and zinc, said Malek Batal, a nutrition professor at the Universit de Montral.

"People tell us across the board they would like more traditional food but there are barriers, and one of them is climate change," Batal said.

"The animals are not behaving the way they used to, the seasons are shorter, there's a decline in the number of animals and fish."

Local moose herds, another important food source for the Algonquin, are already in decline due to logging, mining and sports hunting.

Families in communities such as Kitigan ZibiAnishinbeg wind up spending more in grocery stores to supplement their diet.

A man seasons a fish on a grill over a wood fire.
Diabo smokes some of his wild lake trout fillets over an open fire at his home. (Blair Gable/Reuters)

Diabo said the fluctuating temperatures and occasional days of rain were making the ice less safe. Rabbit trapping with his two middle children has been put on hold because of less snow than usual.

Late, mild winters shorten the window of time for his children to develop the land literacythat Indigenous people have handed down through generations, he said:knowing how to read the ice and tracks in the snow, how to set snares, and understand how different species react to seasonal weather patterns.

"The opportunities to be transmitting things like legacy and tradition and really important land-based skills that are key to our identity are missed."