IOF Weekly Seminars

Ḵii'iljuus (Barbara J. Wilson) is a Haida Kuuljaad (Boss lady) and an accomplished scholar who lives her Kuuniisii (ancestors) ancient knowledge by challenging colonial governments to uphold climate justice, advance food sovereignty, and maintain truth and transparency in governance. She is an honorary degree recipient from SFU, a fellow with the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions, and was an official observer at COP 21 in Paris. Globally, vii’iljuus voices the need for tll’yahda (to make things right) by removing the now legally discredited concepts of Doctrine of Discovery and terra nullius. On Haida Gwaii, “Healing and Learning with the Knowledge of the Kuuniisii” is the foundation of her dream, the creation of the Haida Heritage School. Today, Ḵii’iljuus is an adjunct professor and instructor with the Centre for Indigenous Fisheries at the University of British Columbia as well as a cultural advisor at Simon Fraser University. She inspires students to think holistically and beyond the walls of their formal training. After being told that university wouldn’t be her future, she quit school and worked in many fields from film to fish. After retirement, Ḵii’iljuus graduated in 2019 with a Masters of Arts from the Faculty of Education at SFU.

Anne Salomon is a distinguished professor of applied marine ecology and social-ecological system science at Simon Fraser University. Her research program aims to reveal the coupled social and ecological relationships that underpin our oceans’ resilience, productivity, and biodiversity to inform ecologically sustainable and socially just ocean policies. By bringing Indigenous and western knowledge systems into conversation, her lab aims to provide greater time-depth to our understanding of coastal ecosystems and democratize ocean science and governance. Salomon and her students link science to policy by co-designing, co-producing, and co-delivering research with Indigenous knowledge holders, resource users, and governments, with knowledge mobilization as a fundamental goal of her research program. Salomon was elected to the Royal Society of Canada College in 2019, named a Pew Fellow in marine conservation in 2013, and awarded the International Prize for Professional Excellence in Ecology in 2013.

"What do we need to change in ocean research, governance, and policy?" This is the foremost question we have been asking given current colonial laws and practices have failed to resolve crises of social inequity, biodiversity loss, and climate change brought about by centuries of colonial laws and practices. By combining research and action, several Indigenous-led transdisciplinary initiatives throughout the Pacific Rim are revitalizing and upholding ancestral Indigenous laws and governance systems that reflect generations of observing, experimenting, experiencing, and adapting to environmental change. For example, the Clam Garden Network, Indigenous Aquaculture Collaborative, and Coastal Voices are beginning to increase the social-ecological resilience, productivity, and biodiversity of coastal ocean communities amid extreme climatic events, predator recovery, and socio-political rhetoric. Key ingredients to success include uplifting Hereditary Indigenous leaders and their management knowledge, acknowledging past harms, bridging sovereign knowledge systems, engaging youth and community members anxious to make a difference, and experimenting with diverse care-taking practices grounded in respect, responsibility, reciprocity, and interconnectedness. Underlying these actions are collaborative, transparent, accountable, and long-term, reciprocal relationships. Ultimately, making meaningful change towards an ecologically safe and socially just future for our oceans, and all they encompass, demands replacing entrenched power inequities and siloed practices in biodiversity science and ocean policies with equitable governance processes, systems thinking, continuous learning, and tangible long-term actions.