ests and practices.In 1979, at the hamlet of Ardoch (Ontario,
Canada), a state initiative to manage and
develop a particular resource (wild
rice/Manomin) collided with a long stand-
ing community based management system
with roots in the cultural heritage of the
area. It began when the Ontario Ministry
of Natural Resources (OMNR) issued a wild
rice harvesting license to a private har-
vester without consulting with local peo-ples. This simple event drew together local
residents into an alliance of culture groups
in opposition to this state initiative, set in
motion a conflict that would not find reso-
lution for four years, and would completely
fail to meet the state objectives of
resource and economic development it had
sought to achieve.This conflict touched on a number of
themes: divergent concepts around what
constituted development; different values
associated with the conser-
vation and management of
wild rice; conflicting per-
spectives on the effects of
wild rice development on
the local economy; and
diverging ideas about com-
munity and indigenous
rights to local resources.The residents of Ardoch
were (and are) a communi-
ty of different culture
groups living as neighbours.
In communities like Ardoch,
where different culture
groups have collided^2 and
then evolved over several
generations, each group can
develop a sense of attach-
ment to place based on
their own culture and their
own interpretations of histo-
ry that are at once contra-
dictory and shared making
it a homeland layered with
meaning – a layered home-
land.^3 Thus, at a local level
differences in cultural her-
itage sometimes play them-
selves out in a conflicting
narrative. Yet, when faced
with an external threat, the
mutual history of struggle
for survival can provide a
basis for solidarity betweenA ““cultural aapproach” tto cconservation?
Map 1.Mississauga Land Cessions and the Contemporary Algonquin
Claim Area (Courtesy Huitema, 2000)
Source: Huitema, M., 2000, "Land of which the savages stood in no
particular need": Dispossessing the Algonquins of South-Eastern
Ontario of their Lands, 1760-1930, Queen's University M.A.
(Geography)