Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to all the witnesses for being here today. Those were fascinating opening remarks. I really value the perspectives you're bringing to this important study.
Ms. Heller, I really enjoyed your opening remarks. I found that they challenged the dominant paradigm or the supremacy of western science, which is something that many of us, as settlers, probably take for granted.
I really appreciated your comment that indigenous traditional knowledge follows a rigorous scientific method and has rigour and soundness, and that there would certainly be dire consequences if some of your observations and results turned out to be false. I think it is a really good way of pointing to accuracy and the imperative that this knowledge is really accurate and applicable. I take all of that as great opening remarks. You almost made me start to think about how we as western settlers need to decolonize our understanding in a sense. I think the systemic barriers are really entrenched in our ways of knowing.
I wanted to ask you what we're up against. I'm sure that if we are allies in the quest to remove those systemic barriers and really give indigenous traditional knowledge the legitimacy it so rightly deserves.... I want to rephrase that because we shouldn't be giving anything to anybody. At the same time, I think it's probably many of us settlers who have to change our mindset.
Can you help us with that? What advice could you give us that would aid in that journey?