Forestry in Place: Indigenous Relations and Land Based Practices
March 11 to March 15, 2019
Please join us on the unceded territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) peoples for our second annual speaker series. The weeklong event will feature talks by Indigenous and settler speakers who will be sharing their perspectives on topics having to do with Indigeneity and land based practices. All are welcome. Food and beverages will be provided.
Monday March 11, 12-1pm, Old Barn Community Centre Meeting Room 1
Âhkameyihtamowin: Sovereignty through Assurgency, Mapping Indigenous Success Stories
Denali YoungWolfe
Manitou maskosis nitisn’ihka’son. Muskowekwan, Saskatchewan nîkihk ekwa tipiyawe. As a survivor of the child welfare system, adopted and raised in Nêhiyaw culture I grew up in Treaty 4 territory, embedded in community and culture. Motivated by these values my work focuses on reclaiming and disseminating narratives of Indigeneity that speak to self-determination and sovereignty.
For more information about Denali’s work, please visit her UBC Public Scholar profile: https://www.grad.ubc.ca/campus-community/meet-our-students/youngwolfe-denali
Tuesday March 12, noon -1pm, Old Barn Community Centre Meeting Room 1
Wisdom Sits in Many Places – Learning from the Land
Kinwa Bluesky
Kinwa Bluesky is an Anishinaabe legal scholar, whose work focuses on Indigenous law, governance, and policy. She is currently a doctoral student at the University of Victoria’s Faculty of Law. This term Kinwa is teaching Indigenous Legal Traditions in FNIS.
For more information about Kinwa’s work, please visit her UBC Law student profile: http://www.allard.ubc.ca/news-events/news-room/student-profile-kinwa-bluesky-ubc-law-phd-candidate
Wednesday March 13, 4:30-5:30pm, Forest Sciences Centre Room 1001
Ancestral Legacy of Nature’s Connections
Dr. Teresa Ryan
Sm’hayetsk Teresa Ryan, PhD, is a Research Fellow at UBC Forestry. She has pursued her academic and professional careers while maintaining the practices, principles and values of her Tsm’syen (Tsimshian) culture. Her research interests are aligned with Ancestral Knowledge systems and restoring Indigenous management of natural resources. Her PhD dissertation demonstrates the collateral loss of Indigenous stewardship over heterogeneous mosaic landscapes and the self-imposed opportunity costs created by colonial states.
For more information about Dr. Ryan’s work, please see her TEDxBerekely talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apV0M55uF3Y
Thursday March 14, noon -1pm, Old Barn Community Centre Meeting Room 1
A Heiltsuk-designed Home: a Story of Process, Protocol, and Partners
Jaimie Harris & Dr. Stefania Pizzirani
Jaimie Harris is a Heiltsuk Tribal Councillor and works on four Council portfolios: Lands, Youth, Education, and Communication. She also sits on multiple boards in Bella Bella, including the Heiltsuk Integrated Resource Management Department and the Bella Bella Community School. She has been one of the strongest champions of the Heiltsuk-designed home project, and is dedicated to progressing healthy, sustainable homes that are reflective of cultural and environmental needs.
For nearly three years Stefania has been a guest on the traditional and unceded territory of the Musqueam people. She is currently a postdoctoral research fellow in the Faculty of Forestry at the University of British Columbia where she works with and for the Heiltsuk Nation in Bella Bella, BC. Their collaborative project has been focused on developing and building a community-led housing design.
For more information about the Heiltsuk Homes project, please see the Branchlines article: https://forestry.sites.olt.ubc.ca/files/2018/07/bl-29.2-2.pdf#page=6
Friday March 15, noon – 1pm, Old Barn Community Centre Meeting Room 1
How do we understand consent? A panel discussion considering customary and inherent rights of Indigenous peoples
Seraphine Munroe, Taylor Wale, Mariko Molander & Dr. Janette Bulkan
Seraphine Munroe: Seraphine is Dakelh First Nations and a member of the Maiyoo Keyoh, a hereditary system of land management. Seraphine is strongly passionate about land rights and access. She currently is researching First Nations allocated Tenure and taking a qualitative approach to understand the perceptions of First Nations Woodland licenses amongst First Nations people.
Taylor Wale: Taylor (Luu’maja) is a member of Lax Gibuu (wolf clan) from wilp xGwoimtxw within the hereditary feast hall governance system of the Gitxsan First Nation. She is currently working towards a MSc, supervised by Dr. Scott Hinch, studying energy redistribution dynamics for terminal Sockeye salmon within the framework of Indigenous terminal fisheries.
Mariko Molander: Mariko is a settler who has spent most of her life living and moving across the territories of the Xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Skwxwu7mesh, and Tsleil-Waututh peoples; her mother is Japanese, and her father is of English and Swedish descent. Currently, Mariko is a PhD student in the Faculty of Forestry, where she studies linkages between resource roads in BC, settler-colonial dispossession, and ongoing place-based violence.
Dr. Janette Bulkan: From Guyana to Vancouver, Dr. Janette Bulkan has built a career on protecting Indigenous land rights and access to resources. Her involvement with social issues in forestry began after she noticed more and more chainsaws in Indigenous communities in her homeland of Guyana. Janette teaches Indigenous forestry and community forestry in the Department of Forest Resources Management. She sees many similarities between the obstacles faced by indigenous groups from her home country and those faced by Indigenous peoples in Canada.
For more information, contact us