This project aims to improve understanding of how Indigenous Land Guardian programs, land management and stewardship are creating impacts within mountain systems, ecosystems, mountain biodiversity, traditional food and medicinal sources for Indigenous communities. Land Guardian programs employ Indigenous community members to act as stewards on the land, patrolling protected areas, monitoring fish and wildlife harvests, collecting data on the impacts of climate change, tracking industrial development activities, and educating visitors about proper land use (Social Ventures Australia, 2016). With the growing demand for training and building capacity in communities with Land Guardians, understanding the value and benefits of these programs will be imperative as part of a broader vision in which practicing and strengthening Indigenous culture creates sustainable livelihoods and opportunities for communities to share their culture, land, and water with other Canadians
Alongside this, the project will link this project to a Community-Based Research training program which will be focused on working with Indigenous Youth and to align with McGill University and their students. Indigenous knowledge is developed over a long period and passed down from generation to generation through storytelling and practical teachings. However, these days, knowledge is not passed on as easily as it once was. Not only do we need to find ways to improve intergenerational knowledge transfer, we must also work collectively to empower and build the resiliency of our young people in every way that we can to prepare them for an uncertain future. Youth will be trained to design and deliver community-based, Indigenous-led research projects, as well as engage in partnerships with Western knowledge. Youth will connect and learn about their homelands. We will support them to ask critical questions that address urgent community needs. They will seek answers by rooting themselves in their own knowledge and expanding their solutions with multiple knowledge systems. We will train a new generation of land-based leaders. Land-based learning assumes an environmental approach to learning that recognizes the deep connection and relationship of Indigenous peoples to the land. It seeks to offer education pertaining to the land that is grounded within Indigenous knowledge and pedagogy. Being the eyes, ears and boots on the ground using Indigenous Laws of Conservation is of huge interest due the increasing concerns of high levels of endangered species and species at risk around the world and in Canada.
