Monica Mulrennan is Associate Professor in the Department of Geography, Planning and Environment at Concordia University, Montreal. Her research interests focus on Indigenous (and local) peoples and their knowledge, use, and stewardship of coastal and marine environments. She works with the Cree Nation of Eeyou Istchee (northern Quebec), Torres Strait Islanders (northern Queensland, Australia), and seaweed harvesters along the Atlantic coast of Ireland. She is co-editor (with Colin Scott and Katherine Scott) of the forthcoming book “Caring for Eeyou Istchee: Protected Area Creation on Wemindji Cree Territory” (UBC Press, November 2019).

Thora Herrmann is Professor at the Université de Montréal, with expertise in action research-creation projects in polar regions on place-based Indigenous knowledge and identity using visual art-based methodologies, such as filmmaking and photovoice, and also interactive mapping. She works in First Nation, Inuit, Mapuche and Sámi contexts. She is co-editor (with Th. Martin) of the book “Indigenous Peoples Governance of Land and Protected Territories in the Arctic” (Springer, 2016), and co-editor (with S. Gergaud) of the forthcoming book “Indigenous Cinemas: representations in movement”(L’Harmattan).

In Aotearoa-New Zealand, Vision Mātauranga policy has been created to commodify and globalise Māori knowledge that belongs to Māori communi1es, and is now the expected mechanism for all engagement between university researchers, commercial stakeholders and Māori communities. However, much of the risk associated with forming new collaborations rests with Māori communities, and even more so with the Māori researchers who act as intermediaries and brokers between communities and research teams. In this new knowledge landscape what opportunities and spaces for action does Vision Mātauranga hold for social anthropology to better position itself as an interdisciplinary subject? Furthermore, how does Vision Mātauranga force anthropology in New Zealand to be more inclusive of the descendants of Māori ancestors upon whom the discipline was built? This discussion of Vision Matauranga Policy will reflect on my experiences as a researcher working with ‘flax- roots’ communities on environmental issues that are important to them.

Marama is a Māori anthropologist, and Director and a Senior Research Fellow at the James Henare Research Centre. She specialises in researching Māori relationships with water, the environment and indigenous rights. Her research engages with debates and critical challenges in social anthropology focusing on the cultural specificity of iwi-Māori and their unique sense of place and belonging in Aotearoa-NZ. Her professional expertise includes human-environment relationships, water (fresh and salt), Treaty Settlements, commodification, privatisation, knowledge production and kaumātua Maori resilience and well-being.

Ms Hilda Mosby was elected as the Torres Strait Regional Authority Member for Masig in September 2012. Ms Mosby has more than 17-year experience in the Australian Public Service, working for the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service (now part of the Department of Agriculture), and for the Department of Immigration and Citizenship as a Movement Monitoring Officer. Community involvement has been a paramount focus for Ms Mosby, who is an active member on committees dealing with education, health, justice, fisheries and native title in her community of Masig. Ms Mosby holds TSRA’s Portfolio for Environmental Management which notably focuses on climate change adaptation and resilience. Of key concern to Ms Mosby is the impact of coastal erosion on low-lying Torres Strait communities, including her own community of Masig. Over her term she will advocate that coastal erosion issues continue to be addressed through an integrated approach by the relevant Australian Government and Queensland Government agencies. The preservation of Torres Strait culture through language, music and art is another area that Ms Mosby is passionate about and she will continue to advocate for the best outcomes for the cultural wellbeing of Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal people in this region. Ms Mosby also sits on the Torres Strait Protected Zone Joint Authority’s Finfish Working Group (FFWG) as representative for the Kulkalgal group (Torres Strait Central Islands’ communities). Annick Thomassin is a Post-doctoral Fellow at the Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research (CAEPR) at the Australian National University (ANU), Canberra. She recently completed her PhD at the Department of Anthropology, McGill University (Montréal). Her thesis examines the principles and power relationships underpinning fisheries ‘co’-management processes and their implications for local Indigenous populations and governments in the context of the Torres Strait. At CAEPR she has been involved in various projects such as People on Country and the Northern Environmental Research Project (NERP). She is currently the primary investigator of the “Seachange: Aboriginal marine pathways to social inclusion,” a grassroots, research-action project developed in collaboration with Mogo and Batemans Bay Local Aboriginal Land Councils. This project aims at co-developing new research methodologies combining biological and cultural knowledge and data.

Professor Hardin is an Anthropologist teaching in the School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS) at the University of Michigan. Her areas of interest and scientific study include wildlife management, tourism, logging, and mining in equatorial Africa, especially the western Congo basin and Gabon. Past projects also focus on intertwined practices of health and land management in South Africa and Kenya. Recent projects include North America-based work on the international Environmental Justice Atlas, and with engineering colleagues studying emerging technologies of water treatment and food production. Hardin has supported the inaugural Environmental Media Fellowship at SEAS, working with BBC journalist Leana Hosea on investigative reporting and a documentary film, Thirst for Justice, that links experiences of the Navaho Nation, Flint Michigan residents, and Standing Rock around access to clean water, indigenous rights and human rights.

Jon Altman collaborates with Indigenous groups and companies mainly in remote Australia to address contemporary threats to the natural and cultural environments. His academic background is in economics and anthropology. He is a director of a number of companies that work to raise philanthropic and other funds for Indigenous land and resource management including the Karrkad-Kanjdji Trust and Original Power.

Dean Yibarbuk is an indigenous fire ecologist and educator; he works with a land management groups Warddeken land management Ltd; he is deputy chair of the Karrkad-Kanjdji Trust and chair of the Board of the Nawarddeken Academy; Dean is also a director of Arnhem Land Fire Abatement (NT) Ltd.

Rodney Mark is the director of the Social and Cultural Development Department of the Cree Nation Government. He was deputy grand chief of the Grand Council of the Crees (Eeyou Istchee) from 2013 to 2017, with responsibility for mining, justice, and protected area creation. Rodney is a proud member of the Wemindji Cree community, where he served as chief (2004–13), deputy chief (1999–2004), and youth chief (1993–96). He was co-director of the Wemindji Protected Areas Project and a key player in negotiations related to Goldcorp’s Eleonore Mine. He is dedicated to the development of sustainable local economies, the protection of Cree lands and waters, and the promotion of Cree culture and language.

Katherine Scott, Heritage Research Coordinator and PhD candidate in Anthropology at McGill University, works with Theresa Kakabat Georgekish, Cree Nation of Wemindji’s Language Coordinator, on culture and language projects including the planning of the Wemindji Knowledge Center and mapping traditional knowledge of the land.

Janelle Baker is Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Athabasca University. Her doctoral research, supervised by Dr. Colin Scott, was on sakâwiyiniwak (Northern Bush Cree) experiences with wild food contamination in the Athabasca oil sands. This research was inspired from applied traditional and use consulting Janelle has collaborated with First Nations on in Alberta and Saskatchewan since 2006. She is a member of the Cultural Politics of Energy in Northern Alberta research team, directed by Dr. Clint Westman. Janelle continues to be involved in community-based environmental monitoring (berries, moose, and water) research with Bigstone Cree Nation and Fort McKay First Nation, where she is actively mentoring youth as active participants in environmental monitoring and education. She is also working in collaboration with the Bigstone Cree Nation Elders Council on research that celebrates traditional foods and boreal forest identities in the context of truth and reconciliation.

Sarah C. Moritz is a PhD candidate in anthropology at McGill University, Montréal, Canada. Her research examines the social relationality and anthropology of Interior Salish St‘át‘imc fisheries and water governance in the Fraser River Valley in British Columbia. She also researches and teaches indigenous rights, human-animal relationships, stewardship practices and the history of anthropology. Her research supports Indigenous language, land and legal revitalization especially regarding salmon and water. The wild salmon life cycle is her guiding metaphor that accompanies her through rivers, oceans, research, teaching, socioenvironmental justice endeavours and community-based advocacy.

Garry John (Qwalqwalten – Loud Noise) is a Tsal’alh St‘át‘imc leader and title and rights activist. He has had many important roles in his life: he has served as elected chief for his community for over 18 years, as St‘át‘imc Chiefs Council chair, as Aboriginal member to the Council of Canadians Board of Directors and has been particularly instrumental in advising on water rights. Internally and internationally he has fought in solidarity for indigenous rights and title to ancestral lands and waters. He is an avid fisher and gardener and holds a vision of returning to source all his health, nourishment and relationships from his home land. Qwalqwalten is often accompanied by another thunderous speaker and activist – Pulmaqa7 (his drum) which helps him connect to people and be heard.

David Anderson is Professor at the University of Aberdeen. He is a university-based researcher working in the circumpolar North. David has strong connections with Dene communities in the Northwest Territories although most of his research recently has been in Russia. He represents the circumpolar thematic network which incorporates part of North America. He is interested by Human-animal relations in the Circumpolar region. Part of the Arctic Domus research team, Robert Wishart is a Lecturer at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland. He is a social anthropologist with a focus on political ecology and human-environment relations, and has primarily conducted research in the Western Canadian sub-arctic and in Scotland.

Viviane Weitzner is a SSHRC-funded postdoctoral researcher with CICADA (2018-2020). She has been working on issues at the crossroads of Indigenous and Afro-Descendant rights and extractives in the Americas for over 15 years, supporting engaged collaborative research with peoples’ organizations both with the not-for-profit world, as well as with academia.

Georgia Lloyd-Smith is part of West Coast Environmental Law’s Aboriginal and Natural Resources law team. Georgia graduated from the Schulich School of Law at Dalhousie University in 2014 and articled at the Environmental Law Centre at University of Victoria. She worked with Dr. Val Napoleon and Dr. John Borrows at the Indigenous Law Research Unit researching Indigenous laws related to environmental governance and decision-making. At WCEL, she work on the RELAW Project (Revitalizing Indigenous Law for Law, Air, and Water) researching and revitalizing Indigenous law as well as on marine law. She assisted the Indigenous Circle of Experts with their “We Rise Together” report.

Aaron Mills (Anishinaabe) works to understand how indigenous systems of law function and how they might assist in identifying and in changing violent dynamics of indigenous-settler relationships and of human-earth relationships on Turtle Island today. His core political project is indigenous constitutional revitalization, which places earth at the centre of law. Mills works with indigenous elders, communities, advocacy and service organizations ,and governments to support their goals in this area.

“Mino-Bimaadiziwin loosely translates into living a good life, but it is a more complex concept than that. It means to ensure a sacredness to the relationships one has with everything in Creation; with the trees, the animals, the water, the plants, the people; everything. It means to live in harmony and coexistence, and to protect the peacefulness. Mino-Bimaadiziwin is how the Anishinaabeg knew how to bring about a strong, healthy collective civilization; not only for themselves but if they continued to perform this duty, it would protect the next seven generations to enjoy the same. This discussion will examine the challenges of maintaining Mino-Bimaadiziwin in an era of on-going demands for development that may compromise the Anishnaabeg ability to practice their Indigenous laws.”

Darren Thomas is from the Seneca Nation, and a member of the Bear Clan. He resides at the Grand River Territory of the Haudenosaunee. Darren is a PhD candidate in community psychology at Wilfrid Laurier and is a full-time lecturer in the Indigenous Studies program. His research focuses on First Nations community development through Indigenous rights and resource governance.

Étienne Roy Grégoire is a SSHRC-funded Postdoctoral Researcher with CICADA in collaboration with the McGill Faculty of Law and the Perelman Centre for Legal Philosophy at the Université libre de Bruxelles (2019-2021). He holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of Ottawa, a Master’s degree in Political Science from the Université du Québec à Montréal and a Bachelor’s degree in Anthropology from the Université de Montréal. His research focuses on regulatory regimes in the mining sector, particularly in Canada and Latin America. He worked for several years in the field of human rights in Colombia and Guatemala.

Clint Westman is Associate Professor in the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Saskatchewan. He is an environmental anthropologist who has been working with Cree people in northern Alberta since 1996. He is Director of the Cultural Politics of Energy Research Partnership, focused on studying impacts and processes concerning Indigenous peoples entangled in northern Alberta’s energy sector. He recently began conducting research on conservation issues in southern Saskatchewan, as well.

Steven Nitah is a Lutsel K’e Dene First Nation with expertise in creating protected and conserved areas lead or co lead by indigenous governments and their people. He is an honorary member of the ICCA Consortium.

Eli is a Nuu-chah-nulth Canadian political scientist and internationally recognized expert in bio-cultural heritage conservation. He serves as the Regional Coordinator North America for the Indigenous Peoples and Community Conserved Territories and Areas (ICCA) Consortium and co-chair of the Indigenous Circle of Experts (ICE).

Jon Altman collaborates with Indigenous groups and companies mainly in remote Australia to address contemporary threats to the natural and cultural environments. His academic background is in economics and anthropology. He is a director of a number of companies that work to raise philanthropic and other funds for Indigenous land and resource management including the Karrkad-Kanjdji Trust and Original Power.

Stan Stevens is Senior Lecturer in Geography at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, USA and senior policy advisor for the ICCA Consortium. He has worked on ICCA and protected area issues for thirty-five years, including five years living in Sherpa communities in the Sherpa territory of Khumbu (also Sagarmatha (Mt. Everest) National Park and World Heritage Site). He continues to support Sherpa initiatives to maintain ICCAs and gain national park recognition for them. Stan is currently serving as one of the editors of a best practice guidelines volume on recognizing and respecting ICCAs overlapped by protected areas for the World Commission on Protected Areas of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Mandy Gull is Deputy Chief of the Cree First Nation of Waswanipi of the Eeyou Nation of James Bay. As an elected official she has been representing her community in capacities relating to economic development, environmental stewardship and protecting the Cree Way of Life.

Véronique Bussières is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Geography, Planning and Environment at Concordia University under the supervision of Monica Mulrennan. Véronique’s work is focused on conservation issues in Indigenous coastal contexts, including a close research partnership with the Cree Nation of Wemindji (Northern Québec). In addition to PhD studies, she currently serves as Coordinator of Conservation and Policy Analyst with the Québec chapter of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (SNAP Québec). In this capacity, she is involved in projects aimed at protecting the land and sea in partnership with different indigenous communities in Québec, including the Innu, the Naskapi and the Crees.

Dean Yibarbuk:“In this presentation I want to say something about the many hats that I have to wear at the same time to retain my right to live on my country where I have customary rights. One hat is as a traditional owner under the NT Aboriginal Land Rights Act. Another is as a director, chairman and employee of an Indigenous Protected Area, Warddeken Land Management Limited that covers 14,000 sq kms of remote Arnhem Land. Another again is as a director and deputy chair of Karrkad-Kanjdji Trust a company raising philanthropic funds to help address our conservation struggles. I am also a Director and Chairman of the Nawarddeken Academy Ltd, a Bininj owned independent school educating our young people on their own country. And finally, I am a director of Arnhem Land Fire Abatement (NT) Limited a company that is paid to abate carbon emissions via fire management. These multiple entanglements are essential if I am to see the biodiversity and cultural values of my ancestral lands protected from invasive species and wild fires; and if my family is to be able to enjoy its rights to live on their country and to use its resources for livelihood. This is a continual struggle against the Australian settler state that would rather see all Aboriginal people assimilated and living in townships with their country orphaned, in deteriorating environmental condition, and vulnerable to resource extraction.”

Alanna Quock, Principal of Regenative Design & Development Consulting, has a background in planning, architecture, community development and environmental management. Alanna is of Tahltan and Taku River Tlingit descent, from the communities of Telegraph Creek and Atlin BC. Alanna grew up in Whitehorse, Yukon and has spent over 15 years working with first nations, communities, and governments in the Yukon and Northern BC. Ms. Quock approaches the practice of planning from the perspective of a designer and uses design-thinking to solve problems, develop capacity, and promote a process of healing in every project: from physical buildings to planning, policy and program delivery. Ms. Quock is currently leading the development of the Tahltan Nation Land Use Plan with the Tahltan Central Government, and working to establish three Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas in Tahltan Territory. Her approach to project design and delivery has been recognized as leading the way in global indigenous design practice.

Eli is a Nuu-chah-nulth Canadian political scientist and internationally recognized expert in bio-cultural heritage conservation. He serves as the Regional Coordinator North America for the Indigenous Peoples and Community Conserved Territories and Areas (ICCA) Consortium and co-chair of the Indigenous Circle of Experts (ICE).

Steven Schnoor is Senior Research Associate with CICADA. He held a 2015-2018 postdoctoral fellowship with INSTEAD and CICADA. His research focuses upon how discourses of democracy and development have been strategically reconfigured so as to advance projects that are widely experienced as anti-democratic, destructive and exploitative, and how this represents a critical component of a nascent strategy by which neoliberal regimes of capital accumulation are advanced and legitimized today. Since 2005, he has been examining how Canadian mining projects are advanced in the Global South, paying particular attention to the politics of engagement with local communities residing near Canadian mines in Central America

Sébastien Caquard is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography, Planning and Environment at Concordia University and the graduate program director of the Master of Environmental Assessment. His research lies at the intersection between mapping, technologies and the humanities. In his current research, he seeks to explore how maps can help to better understand the complex relationships that exist between places and narratives. This research involves the mapping of a range of fictional and real stories, which include cinematographic ones, as well as stories from refugees and from indigenous people.

Brian Thom has worked for over 25 years with Coast Salish communities (British Columbia) on the recognition of Indigenous land rights and jurisdictions, attending to the cultural, political priorities of their engagements with the ongoing legacies of colonialism. From 1994-1997 and 2000-2010 he worked as a researcher, senior advisor, and negotiator for several Indigenous communities involved in comprehensive land claims negotiations. In 2010 he founded UVic’s Ethnographic Mapping Lab. He is currently working on projects of engaging indigenous land values in municipal land use planning, and commemorating ancestral cultural landscapes in school curriculum with Coast Salish communities on Vancouver Island.

Benoit Éthier is an associate professor at the École d’études autochtones of the University of Québec in Abitibi-Témiscamingue. He is interested in territorial indigenous issues, customary rights, indigenous knowledge associated to ressource management, legal pluralism and inter-indigenous relations within their territories.

“The goal of Matawa Water Futures is to engage in community led, Indigenous-informed water science that supports Indigenous decision making and water stewardship. Working in partnership with Matawa First Nations and university-based scholars at Laurier, Lakehead, and Laurentian, we are developing research protocols and practices that integrate Indigenous knowledge and Western science to contribute to a more robust and effective water monitoring and governance system.
In this presentation we will discuss findings and reflections on early learnings from our initial community engagement session, the Water is Life: Matawa Environmental Gathering hosted December 11-13 by Matawa Four Rivers Environmental Group in collaboration with Laurier and Laurentian Universities. Using community visioning processes and the scientific café method we gathered community perspectives and values on water and priorities for water monitoring from over 30 Indigenous participants from the 9 Matawa communities. The discussions provided rich and detailed community perspectives on Indigenous values and water stewardship. The visioning exercise invited First Nations community members to address the questions: Why water is important?; What changes are evident?, What are the current and potential impacts to community wellness of these water changes?, and How do communities protect water? In the world café small groups moved through five stations to provide early methodological insights, traditional water values, and community monitoring priorities with recommendations for engagement and pathways forward.
Shared community views and values and water visioning findings were reflected in the participant quote “Water is Spiritual, Water is Sacred, Water is Life”. During the prioritization activities, 8/9 communities chose water quality and changes in water as their top monitoring priority. Most communities identified traditional foods and traditional medicines as their second and third priorities. The Matawa participants’ main overall environmental concern across, all communities, however, was contamination from resource development, past, current, and potential with one community identifying monitoring of contaminants as its top monitoring priority.
Key findings of the gathering including the need to develop protocols for the protection of sacred knowledge, and the vision that Matawa First Nations would develop a water declaration will be shared. We will discuss guidance received regarding the importance of research protocols and data security and the strengths of Matawa First Nations in employing GIS mapping with traditional knowledge. We will share rich community insights gathered on environmental stewardship and community-led environmental monitoring discussing community-identified priorities, barriers, and pathways forward.”