Evidence of meeting #67 for Science and Research in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was way.

A recording is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Michael Lyons  Priest in Charge, As an Individual
Alexandra Cropp  Senior Manager of Operations, Mokwateh
Laurie Swami  President and Chief Executive Officer, Nuclear Waste Management Organization
Joseph Mays  Program Director, Indigenous Reciprocity Initiative of the Americas, The Chacruna Institute for Psychedelic Plant Medicines
Kevin Lewis  Assistant Professor, University of Saskatchewan
Michael DeGagné  President and Chief Executive Officer, Indspire
Jeannette Armstrong  Associate Professor, As an Individual
Kelsey Wrightson  Executive Director, Dechinta Centre for Research and Learning

5:20 p.m.

Associate Professor, As an Individual

Dr. Jeannette Armstrong

The reason I started with that was to really underpin the idea that knowledge institutions are convened and developed by first nations people who are living in situ on their lands and working on various ways to make sure that their lands are healthy and producing the resources that they have a right to. That means working with the the seven chiefs and councils of the Okanagan nation.

In fact, it means collaborating with the Colville Confederated Tribes, which is the other half of the Okanagan nation in the state of Washington, to look at how we fix the river. How do we put the salmon that have been gone for 52 years back into the river? The Columbia River is dammed. There are 14 dams south of us in Washington state. How do we do that?

Our work with the En'owkin Centre and the chiefs of the nation in collaboration with all these agencies has been able to do that. That's because it's led by our nation; it's led by people. The science tools are brought in to support that, not the other way around. It's not researchers coming in and saying, ”We want to do this”; it's the chiefs saying, “This is what we want to do. Here are the tools we need”. If they don't know what the tools are, they call on people like me, who are embedded in the university system, to be able to translate what can help, what could help, and how that collaboration.... That model of collaborating with someone in between who can speak the language and who is part of that land needs to be part of the policy. That's what En'owkin Centre does with its tech team.

5:25 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Lloyd Longfield

Thank you.

Unfortunately, we're at the end of this session.

Speaking of speaking the language, welcome to Marilyn Gladu, who is part of the committee today. She was the first to ask a Cree question of Robert-Falcon Ouellette when this was first coming through the House of Commons. It's great to have you with us, Marilyn.

Dr. Lewis, it was wonderful to hear the Cree language spoken today.

Dr. Armstrong, Dr. Wrightson, Dr. DeGagné and Dr. Lewis, thank you all for being here, for your participation in this study and for your testimony in this very important study that we've undertaken.

Thank you to Mr. Cannings for bringing this forward for us to investigate.

If there is any additional information to share, please do that through the clerk.

Our next meeting will be on Wednesday, November 29, with regard to the study of the integration of indigenous traditional knowledge in science and government policy.

If it's the will of the committee, we can adjourn. I don't see any complaints.

Thank you again for your participation.

The meeting is adjourned.