Braiding Wildlife Knowledges

Braiding Wildlife Knowledges for Community-based Conservation and Local Food Systems

Braiding Wildlife Knowledges supports wildlife monitoring, local food system revitalization, and environmental change adaptation by Indigenous organizations, communities, and land users. The hub applies a knowledge co-production approach, inclusive of Indigenous and Western ways of knowing, across a series of place-based collaborations addressing knowledge gaps about cultural keystone species. In all cases, the knowledge gap is a deficiency in the braiding of Indigenous and western science approaches and evidence, causing conservation agendas to be driven more by knowledge conflict and less by collective understanding.

The work is led by collaborating First Nations and Inuit organizations with mandates focused on lands, wildlife, and subsistence livelihoods. Murray Humphries (Professor and Director of Centre for Indigenous Peoples’ Nutrition and Environment, McGill University) is a non-Indigenous wildlife biologist and natural scientist. Allyson Menzies (Assistant Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Calgary) is an early career Métis scholar from Treaty 2 with expertise in northern wildlife ecology and weaving Indigenous and Western Knowledge systems for more effective conservation of culturally important species.

The work will be hosted on Cree and Anishinaabeg lands in the boreal region and within Inuit Nunangat in the arctic region.

The work is significant because it i) centers Indigenous peoples, lands, and priorities at the forefront of the research, ii) explicitly recognizes the inherent validity of multiple ways of knowing and doing, iii) applies co-produced wildlife knowledges to local conservation, adaptation, and well-being outcomes, and iv) advances learning and impact by building bridges between place-based projects.

Knowledge Leaders:

Murray Humphries, McGill University
Allyson Menzies, University of Calgary

Hub Focus and Goals:

The work of braiding wildlife knowledges needs to be grounded in relationships and accountabilities that are more than individual research projects and collaborations. The work requires long-term, mutual commitments and accountabilities to each other and to shared objectives (i.e., co-producing wildlife knowledges for more effective conservation, adaptation, and well-being outcomes). This hub represents an investment in knowledge relationships; the strength of these relationships will shape our ability to uplift Indigenous ways, advance reciprocity, and transform how we work together. The funding and sustainability provided by the hub offers opportunities to connect, share, and learn – through meetings, workshops, and visits – allowing us to continue building and sustaining relationship and reciprocity, while working towards shared goals and research outcomes.

Reciprocity, respect, and shared benefits needs to forefront the work. At the most basic level, what drives our work is giving back – to the land, to the wildlife, and to people. In a more procedural sense, reciprocal exchange of knowledge and opportunity guides our research approach; academic trainees will learn about the lands and culture from community members, while community members and leaders will learn more and come to benefit more from Western science methods and evidence.

The Braiding Wildlife Knowledges Hub will support the conservation of wildlife populations and their habitats, restoration of community-based monitoring and local Indigenous food systems, adaptation to environmental change, and well-being through local food security, subsistence livelihoods, and self-determination. These outcomes will be supported through a series of place-based projects, focused on:

Applying Inuvialuit knowledge to Peary caribou critical habitat designation
Restoring Arviarmiut food use and stewardship of geese
Supporting Nunavimmiut self-determination in beluga monitoring and management
Implementing Cree & Inuit-led polar bear monitoring in southern Hudson Bay & Foxe Basin
Advancing Cree way monitoring of coastal waterfowl and biodiversity in the Eeyou Marine Region
Applying Cree knowledge of forestry impacts on moose to an Adapted Forestry Regime
Designing and implementing community-led moose monitoring programs in central Canada

Shared reliance on knowledge co-production approaches and shared commitment to ethical braiding of wildlife knowledges are the bridges that link this diversity of places, cultures, and wildlife species. The knowledge hub will support the bringing together of these diverse projects and organizations to share approaches, learning, and local-to-national impact.

Reflective of our commitment to knowledge co-production, knowledge mobilization is not a communication strategy left until after the research is completed. Instead, knowledge sharing, application, refinement, and mobilization occurs at every stage of the project, iteratively and interactively. The research approach includes the end-users, which includes Indigenous land users, Indigenous Governments & Organizations, federal-provincial-territorial governments, and where applicable industry, in every stage of the research process, ensuring end-users have had a say in both the problem the research addresses and the solution that the research offers.

Generating data on local-scale population trends and the health of an ecologically, economically, and culturally important species, and providing opportunities for cross-cultural knowledge sharing stands to equip Indigenous governments and organizations with the tools necessary to participate more equitably in environmental, economic, and political decision-making that affects their food-security, culture, and lands. We will achieve this knowledge and impact sharing through a series of meetings and workshops that bring place-based projects together.

Braiding Wildlife Knowledges