How Indigenous and Western knowledge can be equal partners in conservation solutions
Protecting the world’s increasingly fragile environments through land and wildlife management, using the thoughtful approach of Indigenous knowledge, is an idea close to Jared Gonet’s heart. As a citizen of the Taku River Tlingit First Nation, the University of Alberta student in the Faculty of Agricultural, Life & Environmental Sciences is working with his community and with…
All the social and justice indicators show that things have only worsened among Indigenous peoples
The March 9, 1988, police shooting of J.J. Harper on the streets of Winnipeg and the much earlier murder of Helen Betty Osborne in The Pas in 1971 led Manitoba Premier Howard Pawley’s government to commission the Aboriginal Justice Inquiry (AJI) on April 13, 1988. This occurred in the middle of the election campaign that…
Western leaders are acting in ways that make your cringe: It's like watching an out-of-control teen at their first party
People have been asking for my thoughts on the recently announced federal climate plan. I shrug. I ask them what their thoughts are on the Iowa State Fair Hog Calling Regulations. I’m indifferent. I know I should care, but what’s the point? The feds throw something at us; we have to work with it. We…
Catholic church doctrine was used to justify colonization, subjugation and exploitation worldwide
The papal apology to the Indigenous peoples of Canada on April 1 was an extraordinary moment for the individuals whom Pope Francis addressed directly. And it has the potential for much broader implications. In the days leading up to the apology, Francis listened intently and embraced the pain of the residential school survivors who spoke…
Indigenous students engage in the spirit of kinship, learn ancestral languages and enrich lives
Danni Okemaw remembers playing outside with her cousins when her mom asked her to stop and watch the television. It was 2008 and Stephen Harper, then prime minister of Canada, was publicly apologizing on behalf of the Canadian government for its role in Indian residential schools – the first step for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of…
Canada is the solution to reliable, affordable, responsible energy security
The federal government’s plan to require a 42 per cent reduction in emissions from Canada’s oil and gas sector by 2030 is based on assumptions divorced from reality and will ultimately hurt Canadians. Setting aggressive targets to cap and reduce the sector’s pollution – while no other major producing nation does the same – is…
Has seen fit to fund and air a documentary by a self-described American anarchist
With national division and polarity in Canada increasing, more than ever Canadian media needs to take a fair and balanced approach to current events. Here’s your chance to help the CBC do its job. The CBC, for some reason, has seen fit to help fund and air a documentary by a self-described anarchist from the…
Facilitators say the experience has given them a new perspective on telling stories through drama
In an all-too-familiar tense scene, a fraudulent immigration officer demands money from a Filipino immigrant intent on starting a new life in Canada. Empowered by the audience, the immigrant pushes back, refusing to comply. It’s a scene that hits home with everyone in the room – all of them migrant workers in Edmonton turning to…
Anti-Racism Lab highlights international research, amplifies scholars’ voices and increases engagement
A new online hub is bringing together scholars and students from around the world to share research, amplify voices and encourage conversations about decolonization and anti-racism in universities. “One of the things that’s really important for us to think about as educators in universities is the racial trauma that BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and people of…
Clearly having a disproportionately negative effect on Indigenous peoples
One clear takeaway from the convoy protest is the realization that pandemic restrictions and mandates are not affecting everyone equally. Liberal MP Joel Lightbound’s clever retort of, “Not everyone can still earn a living using their MacBook while at the cottage,” encapsulated this sentiment almost perfectly. For many working-class and wage economy Canadians, lockdowns and…
The claims of thousands of “missing children” are false
Things have taken a strange turn in Canada on the genocide front. Genocide? Canada? Those are words that you would not normally see together. Words like “polite” or “peaceful” might come to mind. But “genocide,” not so much. In fact, the picture of placid Canadians as practitioners of genocide is downright disturbing. But that is…
Young mentors receive high school credits, job training and post-secondary opportunities
How can volunteering for an after-school program help you finish high school, go to university and even get a job? It’s all through the power of mentorship – having a role model and being one yourself. It promotes leadership skills, builds confidence, and fosters mino-bimaadiziwin (Anishinaabe) or mino-pimâtisiwin (Cree), which means “living in a good…
U of A criminology program has highest rate of Indigenous enrolment among all arts programs
Growing up near Lac La Biche, Alta., Shaylee Lyne Desjarlais-Whitford couldn’t help noticing how Indigenous people were treated differently by the justice system. She saw how many close to her on the Kikino Métis Settlement didn’t get fair representation when charged with an offence. “Prosecutors were throwing cases away just to get them done,” she…
Partnerships with First Nations needed to overcome systemic racism, researchers say
First Nations patients were less likely to be prioritized for the most urgent treatment than others with the same ultimate diagnosis at emergency departments in Alberta, according to a study published on Monday in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. “We were surprised to see differences for things like long bone fractures, which seem pretty obvious. You would expect…
Indigenous resource management key to ending environmental degradation and loss of culture
When Danika Littlechild was growing up in Maskwacis, Alta., her uncle would pick her up after school and walk her home through the bush to her kôhkom’s (grandmother’s) house. He would show her different plants and fungi along the way, teaching her their names and telling stories about when to harvest and how to use them for…
Protecting the world’s increasingly fragile environments through land and wildlife management, using the thoughtful approach of Indigenous knowledge, is an idea close to Jared Gonet’s heart. As a citizen of the Taku River Tlingit First Nation, the University of Alberta student in the Faculty of Agricultural, Life & Environmental Sciences is working with his community and with…
