ID54: Recent Advancements in Canadian Mountain Research
Details
Full Title
Recent Advancements in Canadian Mountain Research: Insights from Research Partnerships that Draw on Indigenous and Western Ways of Knowing
Scheduled
Convener
Co-Conveners
Shawn Marshall
Assigned to Synthesis Workshop
–
Keywords
Canada, research, knowledge co-creation, Indigenous Peoples, transdisciplinarity, transformation
Description
Canada – the 4th most mountainous country by area – has a long history of mountain-focused research. However, until recently such work was largely constrained to disciplinary silos and carried out without the respectful inclusion of Indigenous knowledges. However, this has begun to change in Canada, where there is a growing focus on supporting research that brings together Indigenous and Western ways of knowing to enhance understanding of mountain systems. This session aims to highlight recent research and knowledge co-creation activities that have operationalized this ideal, with a focus on profiling novel insights that have emerged from these collaborative research activities. In addition, the session will examine how these models for transformative transdisciplinary research can inform research activities with local communities and Indigenous Peoples in other mountain regions.
Program
Intro (5 minutes)
Presentations (max. 12 minutes)
Q&A (20 minutes)
Wrap up (5 minutes)
Registered Abstracts
Type: Oral Presentation | Place: SOWI – Aula
Hanly, Kate (1); Mcdowell, Graham (2)
1: University of Calgary, Canada
2: University of Calgary, Canada
Keywords: Canada, Mountains, Systematic Scoping Review
In Canada, the 4th most mountainous country in the world, mountains are important elements of the landscape, covering a staggering 2.26 million2 kilometres, and to the identity of Canadians, representing old and new relationships between mountains and people. However, our understanding of the state of research in Canada’s mountain systems is limited by a deficit in systematically collated information on when, what, where, and by whom mountain-related research has, and is, occurring. This limits our ability to synthesis key concepts, pinpoint research needs, and identify evidence that can inform practice and policymaking. As part of the larger Canadian Mountain Assessment seeking to clarify what we know, do not know, and need to know about Canada’s mountain systems, this paper presents a systematic scoping review of English and French language peer-reviewed literature on the mountain research in Canada, published between 1900-2021. The intent is not a disciplinary nor topical focus, but instead aims to identify all potentially relevant articles focused on Canadian mountain systems, defined by the K1 classification and all biological, physical, social processes, and relationships therein. 26,727 potentially relevant articles were identified, of which 2902 were included for full review. Results indicate that mountain research in Canada has increased over the last 121 years, with an average increase in publications of 85% per decade over the last 5 decades. The most studied mountain-related topic was found to be Ecosystems, biodiversity, and wildlife (40%), followed by Ice and snow (17%). The least studied, representing a concerning and substantial gap in the literature, was found to be Adaptation (0.07%), followed by Governance (0.21%). This research has overwhelming occurred within the Montane Cordillera (52%) and to a lesser degree, the Pacific Maritime (21%) and Boreal Cordillera (16%). The Taiga Cordillera (0.08%) and Interior Hill North (0.08%) represent the least studied Canadian mountain regions. Reflecting this geographic disparity, the most prolific scholars conducting Canadian mountain research predominately work at universities (85% of top 20 publishers), in western Canada (35% Alberta, 25% British Columbia) with few located in eastern Canada (15% Quebec, 5% Ontario). Our study represents the first attempt at systematically identifying and analysing all existing mountain-related research in Canada, providing a much-needed assessment of the state of Canadian mountain research. In doing so, we identify critical shortcomings in the literature, discuss their consequences, and make recommendations for future research that will more fully address the research needs of Canadian mountain systems.
Type: Oral Presentation | Place: SOWI – Aula
Snow, William (Bill) (1); Heuer, Karsten (2)
1: Acting Director of Consultation, Stoney Tribal Administration, Canada
2: Bison Reintroduction Project Manager, Banff National Park, Canada
Keywords: Canada, Mountains, Systematic Scoping Review
The recent reintroduction of plains bison to Banff National Park wove together Indigenous ceremony, monitoring and knowledge with modern science and translocation techniques to return this culturally important species to a corner of the Canadian Rocky Mountains after a removal of over 140 years. Opportunities to reintroduce North America’s largest land mammal to its historic range are limited by widespread agricultural, urban development, repressive government policies, public fear, and a historic lack of Indigenous inclusion and Traditional Knowledge. In the era of reconciliation, Parks Canada, the Stoney Nakoda Nations, and other Indigenous groups are overcoming these challenges by communicating, collaborating and combining Indigenous and Western knowledge, to produce a more holistic understanding of wildlife on landscapes, rather than relying solely on western science. The return of bison to Canada’s first national park, is providing important environmental and cultural results, for the world’s newest free-roaming wild bison herd.
Type: Oral Presentation | Place: SOWI – Aula
Higgs, Eric (1)
1: University of Victoria, Environmental Studies, Canada
Keywords: Canada, Mountains
From 1888 to 1958 several hundred highly trained federal and provincial land surveyors fanned out across the mountainous regions of what is now western Canada to create precise topographic maps. They did this using a made-in-Canada technique that used photography in the service of map-making (phototopographic surveying). Left behind were more than 100,000 high resolution photographic negatives on fragile glass plates. Largely overlooked for decades these photographs came to light in the late 1990s, when Eric Higgs and Jeanine Rhemtulla saw their potential for studying landscape change. For the last twenty-four years members of the Mountain Legacy Project (MLP) have repeated photographs that show vivid shifts in human settlement and patterns of use, forest composition and pattern, glacial recession, and changes in water flow. More than 10,000 historic and repeat digital images are publicly available through a custom-designed MLP Explorer app. This is the largest collection of high resolution, comprehensive and systematic mountain photographs in the world. But, the historic surveys were a preeminent, perhaps the preeminent, colonial endeavour. They covered the interior and coastal mountainous regions of what is now western Canada (Yukon, NWT, Alberta, British Columbia), including the homelands of dozens of contemporary First Nations and Métis peoples as well as settler communities. These landscapes have been modified, both physically and culturally, by the legacy of ongoing colonialism: settlement, resource extraction, and the displacement of Indigenous peoples. These ongoing tensions present as physical markers on the landscape, stretching across centuries. In this presentation we describe the long-term, painstaking archival research needed to daylight the collection, and the ways in which the resulting images may support decolonial projects of Indigenous peoples. The images themselves exhibit past practices in new ways–traditional patterns of fire, trails, fishing, camps–as well as the early and ongoing signs of European settlement (e.g., railways, mines, logging, agriculture, aquaculture). Our focus initially is on a partnership with the Stoney Nakoda Nation.
Type: Oral Presentation | Place: SOWI – Aula
Shaw, Pam (1); Lawrence, Anna (2)
1: Research Director, Mount Arrowsmith Biosphere Region Research Institute, Vancouver Island University, Canada
2: tba
Keywords: Canada, Mountains, SDGs, UNDRIP
The United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a global priority for
meeting the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Progressing towards the SDGs
requires inclusion, engagement, collaboration, and consultation with Indigenous knowledge
holders to ensure no one gets left behind. The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous
Peoples (UNDRIP) is an international instrument on the rights of Indigenous peoples, that
establishes the minimum standards for wellbeing. Bringing the SDGs and UNDRIP together,
initiatives funded by the Canadian Mountain Network (CMN) support research and
knowledge sharing among Canadian mountain systems through a holistic perspective based
on braiding Indigenous and Western ways of knowing. Vancouver Island University’s (VIU)
Mount Arrowsmith Biosphere Region Research Institute (MABRRI) has undertaken a
rigorous internal review of CMN’s research initiatives to report on the contribution to braiding
of knowledge systems in progress towards the SDGs, through an approach that aligns with
UNDRIP. The outcomes of this project will inform Canadians (and beyond) on the important
and necessary work that is happening under this umbrella, and to raise public awareness of
the SDGs, their interconnectedness with UNDRIP, and that braiding knowledge systems is a
critical step in the advancement of reconciliation and holistic sustainability.
