Meet the people behind the Mi'gmaq fishery in eastern Quebec

A new documentary seriestells the story of an Indigenous commercial fishery in eastern Quebec and how it has become an important source of self determination, as well as a connection to culture and language for the Mi'gmaq people of Listuguj, Que.

Gespe'gewa'gi - the Last Land is a 13-part half-hour documentary series that premiered on APTN inMi'gmaq on Feb.11 and in English on Feb. 13.

"They want to run their own fishery business ... lobsters, crabs, shrimps or anything that comes from water," said Chisasibi filmmaker Ernie Webb in Cree.Webb directed and co-produced the series.

"They want to sell ... and they want to get known from it."

The series also highlights the stories of the people of Listuguj,said Webb.

"This [series] is not all about fishing. We filmed about their community, how they run programs like cooking lobsters for the people," he said.

A turning point for the community's desire to have more say and more control over the management of their fishery came in 1981, when Sret du Qubecofficersraided the Listuguj fishery. At issue were salmon-fishing rights of the Mi'gmaq.

"In 1981, [police] came in and stopped them from fishing. They found another way to fight it in court to run the fishery business," said Webb. The series draws a straight linefrom those raids in Listuguj to the battle over Indigenous fishing rights that landed before the Supreme Court of Canada in 1999.

Filming for the series ended before violence against Mi'kmaq lobster fishers erupted late last year in Nova Scotia.

"It was a good timing that we did the film, that we are able to show how they share their food and how they run their fishery business," said Webb.

He added that the series gives an important opportunity to see beyond the conflicts and meet the people.

For Webb, telling the story of what the Listuguj people have gone through to protect their harvesting rights and grow their fisherymade him appreciate the protections the Quebec Cree have in the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement, signed in 1975.

"As a Cree, we're not worried to go out hunting. No one is trying to stop us, we don't have [a] department of fisheries there ... to stop us," said Webb.

Webb and his team collaborated with Mi'gmaq filmmaker Heather Condo for the series. He said it was important to work with someone local, who knew the story on a personal level.