Canadian Ocean Literacy Strategy

Key Takeaways

• A need to acknowledge the notions of change and rate of change that we are historically living in.
• Ensuring that ocean literacy does not simply speak to the scientific and ecological connections between humans and the ocean, but also to the emotional, experiential, cultural heritage, economic, psychosocial, and aesthetic dimensions of the human ocean relationship.
• Inclusion of Indigenous ways of knowing is essential to the Canadian context.
• The argument that the use of the word literacy suggests a direct and narrow link to education.
• A recognition that ocean literacy is best described as a spectrum.
• A demonstrated tension between those who feel that ocean literacy should include the notion of enabling action (i.e., that ocean literacy is beyond simple awareness and understanding; that it is ultimately about fostering and enabling behaviour change, and thus requires action) versus those who feel that a democratic definition is essential (i.e., activism is a choice, not directed).
• Furthermore, it was anecdotally noted on a few occasions throughout the consultation phase by both Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians that many Indigenous Canadians might find it a foreign concept that a society would need an intervention to help its people appreciate and understand that the land, sea, and people are interconnected.