Yes. Thank you for that.
Establishing a research department or a program from an indigenous perspective has been on our mandate since our organization was created. Our community has provided a mandate to the First Nations Forestry Council. It really came from—and I mentioned it briefly in my opening comments—how do we translate our traditional knowledge into useful information, standards and policies that we can use today and talk about collaboratively for the best management of resources?
It remains a challenge in our communities. I am an indigenous person, but I studied western science in my forestry training. I work mostly in the western science model. It's a real struggle for me to reach to our knowledge keepers, our elders who are leaving this world, and capture that information and then translate it so we can use it in land and resource decisions. We continue to search for that kind of support for research departments from an indigenous perspective that can lead right in and collaborate with the western science model and lead toward decision-making.