PODCAST

Estuary and Piping Plover

find their voice

Estu and Plove explore ideas of truth and reconciliation, biodiversity, personhood, and more to start the conversation on often overlooked areas of environmentalism. HARP The People’s Press’ new podcast brings to light the stories of the Antigonish Harbour estuary (“Estu”) and the piping plover (“Plove”). 

LISTEN ON

PODCAST

Estuary and Piping Plover

find their voice

Estu and Plove explore ideas of truth and reconciliation, biodiversity, personhood, and more to start the conversation on often overlooked areas of environmentalism. HARP The People’s Press’ new podcast brings to light the stories of the Antigonish Harbour estuary (“Estu”) and the piping plover (“Plove”). 

LISTEN ON

Podcast Description

For Estu and Plove, the decision of the Nova Scotia Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture (NSDFA) to award a commercial oyster fishery—23000 cages spread over 90 acres—is an existential crisis.  

Follow along as Estu and Plove lament that this decision has been made without any assessment of the current environment, or any archaeological assessment of the centuries-old burial grounds of the Mi’kmaq. The Mi’kmaw Nation was never even approached to give Informed consent, as is called for by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.  

Estu mourns the shrinking expanse of waters in the Antigonish Harbour since 1784, when European settlers first occupied these lands, in violation of treaty rights. Plove mourns the latest decision that takes no account of the loss of biodiversity and critical habitat under the Species at Risk Act. 

Written and Narrated by Dorothy Lander and John Graham-Pole
Recorded by Richard Perry
Edited and Produced by This is Marketing

Listen below or on your favourite streaming service

Episode 6: Bob Bancroft Reflects on the Species at Risk Act

Estuary and Piping Plover find their voice
Estuary and Piping Plover find their voice
Episode 6: Bob Bancroft Reflects on the Species at Risk Act
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“Biologist Bob Bancroft discloses the long history of all levels of government sidestepping legislation in order to favour economic and agricultural development over biodiversity.“

Episode 7: What Counts as Science?

Estuary and Piping Plover find their voice
Estuary and Piping Plover find their voice
Episode 7: What Counts as Science?
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“The Aquaculture Review Board privileges testimony that favours the developer over lived experience knowledge and Mi’kmaw traditional knowledge.“

Episode 8: Who Can We Count on for Coastal Protection?

Estuary and Piping Plover find their voice
Estuary and Piping Plover find their voice
Episode 8: Who Can We Count on for Coastal Protection?
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“Bob Bancroft decries the decision to place coastal protection in the hands of individual property owners rather than an enforceable legislated Coastal Protection Act“

Episode 9: A Visitation With Porpoise Past

Estuary and Piping Plover find their voice
Estuary and Piping Plover find their voice
Episode 9: A Visitation With Porpoise Past
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“Porpoise Past speaks out against the debilitating impact of the noise and bustle of human activity from a large-scale commercial oyster fishery on the harbour porpoise’s essential echolocation abilities. “Accessing our food supply in the eelgrass nursery was never a problem in my day when the Mi’kmaq were stewards of these waters.“

Episode 10: Porpoise Past Pays Homage to Eelgrass

Estuary and Piping Plover find their voice
Estuary and Piping Plover find their voice
Episode 10: Porpoise Past Pays Homage to Eelgrass
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“Porpoise Past presents a counter vision for creating a “full and abundant life for all” — porpoises, plovers, estuaries, eels, eelgrass, and yes, humans — in keeping with the cooperative principles of the Antigonish Movement and the Mi’kmaw values of All My Relations.“

Episode 11: Environmental Racism at Antigonish Harbour

Estuary and Piping Plover find their voice
Estuary and Piping Plover find their voice
Episode 11: Environmental Racism at Antigonish Harbour
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“Estu and Plove reveal the deception on the part of government and coastal property owners of exploiting ecological and sustainability arguments as a way to avoid archaeological assessment of Mi’kmaw burial grounds and circumvent treaty rights and Truth and Reconciliation Calls to Action.“

Episode 12: Rest in Peace – Elder John R. Prosper Prays the Rosary

Estuary and Piping Plover find their voice
Estuary and Piping Plover find their voice
Episode 12: Rest in Peace - Elder John R. Prosper Prays the Rosary
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“In this final episode, Estu and Plove join Elder John R. Prosper of Paqtnkek Mi’kmaw Nation at St. Anne’s Church to honour and remember the Town Point ancestors in unmarked graves near the large scale oyster fishery in Antigonish Harbour approved by the Nova Scotia government without an archaeological assessment or Indigenous consent.”

You too can pay your respects by making a donation to restore the second Mi’kmaw church in Antigonish County built 1867: Walneg Church Fund – Account # 36998-105 at the East Coast Coast Credit Union; contact Katie Boyle for tax receipt: katie@paqtnkek.ca

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Make art and share on your social media platforms
Speak your concerns at home, at work, and in the community
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Get Involved

Make art and share on your social media platforms
Speak your concerns at home, at work, and in the community
Write letters to your elected representatives

Reviews

I listened to the podcasts and loved each episode. I felt as if I was an interloper crab, sitting quietly on the shore, beady eyes dashing back and forth as I listened to Estue and Plove’s lively conversation at the water’s edge (much like the ‘office water cooler chats’ that many of us inadvertently dropped in on).

In crab mode, I envision others joining me including those of the human beach walker persuasion (who may even be a politician or a person of influence who has actual power to change the future…ahhh but I digress🤣) in witnessing Estue’s and Plove’s yearning to have their voices and messages heard.

It is highly likely that within this imagined gathering, a surf side ceilidh will break out. Squawks of mournful disdain from a choir of gulls mixed with the enraged peeps of shoreline birds, and the roar of waves of protest pounding the sands, will all serve to get the words out, “No more!” as they struggle to protect the vulnerable. With a motto such as, ‘Every peep matters’ (play on the word ‘peep’ for ‘person/people’), Plove and Estue could change the world!

I am thinking that this podcast is a wonderful medium for inspiring further desperately needed conversations and actions. As another thought the content could be highly adaptable to a schoolbook about the environment or as a tool for environmental studies. Sooooo many possibilities so little time. What a fun project. This is important work that you are doing.

Congratulations to the two of you. Amazing! Would love to chat soon. You are so inspiring to me. Let me know how I can support you.
- Barb Farquharson Fry
I listened to the podcasts and loved each episode. I felt as if I was an interloper crab, sitting quietly on the shore, beady eyes dashing back and forth as I listened to Estue and Plove’s lively conversation at the water’s edge (much like the ‘office water cooler chats’ that many of us inadvertently dropped in on).

In crab mode, I envision others joining me including those of the human beach walker persuasion (who may even be a politician or a person of influence who has actual power to change the future…ahhh but I digress🤣) in witnessing Estue’s and Plove’s yearning to have their voices and messages heard.

It is highly likely that within this imagined gathering, a surf side ceilidh will break out. Squawks of mournful disdain from a choir of gulls mixed with the enraged peeps of shoreline birds, and the roar of waves of protest pounding the sands, will all serve to get the words out, “No more!” as they struggle to protect the vulnerable. With a motto such as, ‘Every peep matters’ (play on the word ‘peep’ for ‘person/people’), Plove and Estue could change the world!

I am thinking that this podcast is a wonderful medium for inspiring further desperately needed conversations and actions. As another thought the content could be highly adaptable to a schoolbook about the environment or as a tool for environmental studies. Sooooo many possibilities so little time. What a fun project. This is important work that you are doing.

Congratulations to the two of you. Amazing! Would love to chat soon. You are so inspiring to me. Let me know how I can support you.
- Barb Farquharson Fry

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