We are thrilled to unveil our new identity!

Braiding Knowledges Canada (BKC) is a not-for-profit corporation established in 2024 to continue the ground-breaking work of the Canadian Mountain Network (CMN), extending its impact beyond mountain landscapes across Canada.

We have a broader focus which covers monitoring and understanding environmental changes to inform conservation, restoration, and adaptation strategies. Our ultimate goal is to enhance the well-being of All Our Relations, encompassing the land, humans, plants, animals, and all living and non-living forms.

This rebrand is a reflection of our expanded mission and evolution as an organization. We are building on the groundbreaking work of CMN, with a renewed commitment to leading Reconciliation through Research, elevating Indigenous and local knowledge in public policy, and enhancing holistic environmental, social and cultural understanding, by braiding Indigenous and Western knowledge systems. We are the same great team, continuing to provide support and working on the ground with Indigenous researchers, communities, government, as well as many diverse partners.

Braiding Knowledges Canada is supported by a five-year grant from the Government of Canada's Strategic Science Fund (SSF) from 2024-2029.

Our Purpose

BKC is dedicated to Reconciliation through Research and focuses on understanding and monitoring environmental change to inform conservation, restoration, and adaptation strategies. This is all in pursuit of our shared goal: to enhance the well-being of our environment and its people.

Our Mission

Braiding Knowledges Canada advances Reconciliation through Research by enhancing the influence of self-determined, place-based, and co-produced knowledge within Canada’s science culture such that, over time and on a path towards reconciliation, Indigenous and local knowledge approaches equitably contribute to public policy, decision-making, and the advancement of federal science priorities.

Our Vision

To influence public policy and decision-making, advance Reconciliation through Research, and enhance the understanding of environmental, social and cultural change across Canada, through the braiding of Indigenous and Western knowledges.

Our Core Values

All Our Relations

Mutual Respect & Positive Reciprocity

Relevance & Impact

Focus, Collaboration, and Innovation

What is Braiding Knowledges?

Braiding Knowledge is the coming together of knowledges, in which each knowledge system is a strand of a braid. The first strand is Western knowledge, the second strand comprises Indigenous knowledges, and the third strand is Federal science priorities, uniting the first two, making the braid stronger for greater impact.
The braiding of knowledges offers a basket of outcomes that advance conservation, restoration, adaptation, and well-being.

Why Braid Knowledges?

BKC provides a safe space for researchers to collaborate and ethically “braid” Western and Indigenous knowledge systems. This inclusive and equitable approach fosters better evidence and policy development. Through research, training, and community engagement, BKC promotes a model of decolonized research in Canada.

Thanks to Our Partners:

Sustaining Partner and Host Institution
Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada logo