What boundary? What whale? Whose responsibility? - Governing Transboundary Waters: Canada, the United States, and Indigenous Communities - page 178

• Greater attention to the agency or “fleshiness” of the being may help cut

through competing constructions of nature and open up space for less repre-
sented perspectives to be seen.

Although examining the transgressions and fleshiness of Luna/ Tsu-xiit tells us much
about the politics of governing across postcolonial and posthumanist boundaries,
much work remains in the project of opening up space (conceptually and materially)
for the inclusion of multiple worldviews and perspectives in the practice of environ-
mental management.
The following questions can serve to guide this process:

• What steps are required to ensure that government agencies engage in

consistent and meaningful consultation with Indigenous communities?

• How can mainstream governance frameworks become more aware of the

power dynamics related to dominant frameworks, and recognize the
importance of respecting alternative ways-of-knowing?

• What are the practical implications of viewing animals consistently as “fleshy

beings”?

• How does conceptualization of a posthumanist framework materialize in

practice?

• What are the possibilities of locating concepts such as “letting be” or “letting

go” more centrally in animal geographies and environmental governance?

This chapter continues the discussion of the importance of greater sensitivity to
power dynamics in governance of shared waters and contributes to the need for
greater understanding of governance of animals between diverse cultural frameworks
and across bounded geographic spaces. It is my hope that asking the simple
question “was Luna lost or was he found?” will help to inspire further discussion.

Notes
1 The whale was positively identified as L98 in November 2001 and the identity was

made public in January 2002. The name Luna was suggested by a 10-year-old girl from
Bellingham, Washington, who responded to a competition hosted as a public relations
event at the Whale Museum on San Juan Island.

2 Fisheries and Oceans Canada was formerly, and remains commonly, known as the

Department of Fisheries and Oceans, or simply, DFO.

3 This type of animal-human transition is not uncommon in Indigenous communities

on the outer Coast of Vancouver Island (or in other belief systems around the world).
This type of transmogrification is well-documented both in oral histories and written
text (Drucker, 1951).

4 Anderson, 1995; Cloke and Perkins, 1998, 2005; Wolch and Emel, 1998; Philo and

Wilbert, 2000; Whatmore, 2002; Wolch, 2002; Lulka, 2004, 2009; Hobson, 2007;
Campbell and O'Neal, 2007; Campbell, 2008; Haraway, 2008; Besio et al. , 2008;
Hovorka, 2008; Johnston, 2008; Bear and Eden, 2011; Sundberg, 2011; Collard, 2012.

5 There are three resident pods: J, K, and L.

6 In Canada, the pods are listed as “endangered” but the governmental agencies have

limited authority to enforce their protection under the Canadian Species at Risk Act;