Thank you for the great question.
Imagine taking a lollipop away from a child. You're taking something away from the community that they've enjoyed for millennia.
At the same time, we have put in place the tools that allow us to control the outcomes that are necessary for the better good of humanity, the better good of our community. We have been, in north Yukon, taking things to unprecedented levels. For the first time, last year we closed down all freshwater fishing, any type of gillnet fishing in our tributary.
That was not easy, I can tell you, as the chief. It was not easy for me to do that, but we also saw that the step we took set a precedent, because we used the tools in our self-government agreement that allowed us to put the laws into effect. There are sections in our agreements—16.4.2, 16.5.1 and 13.3.4—that are administration of justice tools for implementing measures to protect and conserve. Before anything else, conservation is of the utmost priority for my community.
This is about traditional knowledge, the practices of our historical people. When we speak of scientific knowledge and trends, we need to incorporate the knowledge of the people. It will resonate and go a long way, from the headwaters to the ocean, to the 60 or 70 communities along the river, to all indigenous people. It will resonate conservation before the rights of one individual, ensuring the rights of the people, so that we can, seven generations from now, still see wild salmon stocks returning to our tributaries.