Our work is guided by Indigenous methodologies (IM) which necessitates respect, reciprocity, work from a place- and relationship-based context, and follows local protocols. These research relationships are newer to our team; therefore, our relationship-building and accountability approaches will be determined during the project’s Year 1 building period. We have begun preliminary discussions with communities to establish relationships and form a team based on community-identified priorities. Year 1 will also involve identifying community research coordinators, community visits at the invitation of community leaders, and a discussion of potential deliverables from our team’s expertise. While a priority for the first year, these actions will continue throughout subsequent years. Throughout this process, we will collaboratively form research questions, knowledge mobilization and communications strategies with each community. Explicit efforts will be made to work and volunteer with a variety of community groups and to include diverse perspectives in the research, especially those of youth and Elders.
Our team aims to understand environmental change through research that informs conservation, restoration and the regeneration of healthy communities and ecosystems. This research can make significant contributions to all four of SSF’s program objectives to champion high-quality internationally recognized research, talent development, knowledge mobilization and a culture of evidence-based decision-making. In part by braiding knowledges, this research supports rural Indigenous communities in the interior of BC to develop their lands in ways that minimize risks to local ecosystems, increase economic opportunities, and maintain cultural continuities. The results of this project will enhance scholarly knowledge, further public discourse and partner with rural Indigenous communities in their relations with various levels of government, industry, tourism entrepreneurs and land use planners. Ultimately, we want to advance the priority of some communities in the interior of BC to become a model for sustainable land use management transitions in the backdrop of reconciliation processes and the climate emergency as they develop Indigenous lands in ways that minimize risks to local ecosystems and increase socio-economic opportunities.
Communicating collaboratively produced research results to members of the community is a critical component of IM and it will also be part of our broader reconciliation framework. To facilitate locally driven decision-making and policy development, communication approaches will be established directly with community members and include strategies to disseminate findings from the community to governmental levels. This will begin during community visits from students and researchers in Year 1 and involve the integration of western academia approaches of knowledge mobilization to Indigenous communication methods that follow local protocol. We anticipate that social media and radio, as popular communication modes for many Indigenous communities, will be used to present lay summaries of ongoing research findings at the community level. Due to the significance of popular media to public engagement, newspapers, radio, television and online media will also be targeted through the distribution of press releases to garner broader public attention. By creating regular reports, policy briefs, and presentations at regional and national conferences, efforts will also be made to engage policy makers, governmental agencies, NGOs and media outlets, especially in Year 3 and beyond. A key piece of this research involves building relationships with community partners and involving stakeholders in the dissemination plan. These implications are far-reaching and have the potential to build invaluable relationships with communities to set the stage for further collaboration and learning opportunities in the future, but also to advance strategies of self-determination.
