28 November 2020 | New Scientist | 43Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Indigenous
leaders from New Zealand, North America
and Central and East Asia expressed
solidarity, with many invoking the
destruction of their own sacred animals.
The Seaquarium hasn’t responded publicly.
Morris also sees parallels between
Sk’aliCh’elh-tenaut’s separation from her
family and the experience of the Lummi
under colonialism. From the late-19th
century, hundreds of thousands of Native
American children were taken from their
parents to be raised in boarding schools.
“We know how Ocean Sun feels with her
daughter still being enslaved,” she says.
“We feel that the healing can begin when
she’s brought home, and she’s free.” ❚Elle Hunt is a freelance writer
based in London. She is a
former reporter and features
editor for The Guardiana strong candidate for release. A supported
“retirement”, such as the open sea pen
where Keiko settled in Norway after failing
to embrace the wild, may be the most likely
outcome. That, they say, would be a marked
improvement on her current situation.
Indigenous knowledge
As for Plante’s suggestion that energy would
be better spent protecting the Southern
Resident orcas, Vinick says: “It’s not a
question of ‘either/or’, it is a question of
‘both/and’. You have to do it all.” The Lummi
Nation already supports the Southern
Resident orcas in a range of ways, from
providing ceremonial offerings of live
Chinook salmon to opposing infrastructure
developments that would further degrade
their habitat. They see bringing Sk’aliCh’elh-
tenaut home as equally important to their
work protecting and restoring the Salish Sea –
a view that reflects a deeply felt connection
to that ecosystem, not readily accounted for
by Western frameworks of science or law.
“Indigenous people have different
knowledge – of animals, the water, sky and
land – that have to be honoured,” says Morris.
“We’re starting to be heard, but we feel
like there’s a lot more work to do to build
that awareness.” The Earth Law Center
recognises that such knowledge is essential
to navigating the rapidly looming ecological
collapse, says Wilson. However, recently
published research by Helen Wheeler at
Anglia Ruskin University in the UK reveals
that Indigenous knowledge is regularly
underutilised or misunderstood when it
comes to environmental decision-making.
There is a common misconception among
non-Indigenous scientists that it is limited
in scope or needs “verifying” to be useful,
precluding productive and equitable
partnerships, she says.
Wheeler believes that developing
methods to work with both systems while
respecting the needs of Indigenous peoples
could be a win-win for advancing common
environmental goals. Wilson shares this view.
Protesters outside the Miami
Seaquarium in 2015 (above).
A Lummi family in 1915 (below)He hopes that Sk’aliCh’elh-tenaut’s case will
prove “one of many where we can listen to
Indigenous voices and world views, and apply
them in a way that is beneficial for all of us”.
The Earth Law Center isn’t letting up the
pressure. In September, at a virtual event
to mark the 50th anniversary of Sk’aliCh’elh-
tenaut’s capture, it alleged that by holding
her, the Miami Seaquarium is in breach
of the United Nations Declaration on theLE
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