Navigating change in fraught terrain: Transforming colonial conservation in Canada
I am a settler-Canadian with ancestral ties to England and Scotland. I was raised in Williams Treaty Territory, in Beaverton, Ontario, where my maternal family has lived for five generations. Today, I am grateful to live, work, and play on the treaty lands and territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit in what is colonially known as Guelph, Ontario. These lands and waters have been and continue to be a gathering place for many First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples. This place is also governed by the Dish with One Spoon Covenant, a treaty to peaceably care for and share this territory.
As a settler-Canadian practitioner and becoming scholar, I am interested in the complexities, dilemmas, and opportunities at the intersections of Indigenous-settler relations, decolonization, and conservation.
For fun, I enjoy gardening, reading fiction, hand embroidery, bike rides, and painting landscapes.
“In the Canadian context, Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas represent an opportunity for true reconciliation to take place
between Indigenous and settler societies, and between broader Canadian society and the land and waters”
— Indigenous Circle of Experts, 2018, pg. 6