Celebrate International Mountain Day with Y2Y
In honor of International Mountain Day, join Y2Y and others on December 11 from 11am MT to 12:30 pm MT for ‘Mountains of Knowledge,’ a free virtual webinar. Join us to learn about how the findings from the Canadian Mountain Assessment (CMA) can support the work of Y2Y. The event will feature a 90-minute online gathering with an international audience and a panel profiling speakers from the CMA.
Engage with experts working at the intersection of Indigenous knowledges and academic research
Y2Y’s Director of Science & Knowledge, Dr. Graham McDowell, was the leader of the Canadian Mountain Assessment. Mountains of Knowledge offers a unique opportunity to hear directly from Graham, and other co-creators of the CMA about ways lessons learned can be applied to Y2Y’s work.
The event will create a platform for Indigenous and non-Indigenous individuals who have been involved in the recent Canadian Mountain Assessment – a first-of-its-kind look at what we know, do not know, and need to know about mountain systems in Canada. The multi-chapter assessment is based extensive knowledge sharing from First Nations, Métis, and Inuit knowledges of mountains, as well as findings from an extensive review of academic literature. The CMA’s inclusive knowledge co-creation approach brings multiple ways of knowing together to enhance our collective understanding of mountains, while respecting and maintaining the integrity of different knowledge systems.
This online event is FREE with registration. Don’t delay, as spots are limited!
About International Mountain Day
The United Nations has designated December 11 as International Mountain Day, observed and celebrated each year to create awareness about the importance of mountains and building alliances to bring positive change to mountain peoples and environments around the world.
About the speakers
Dr. Graham McDowell
Graham is the Director of Science and Knowledge at the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative (Y2Y). Prior to joining Y2Y, he founded and led the Canadian Mountain Assessment. He has also led community-engaged projects related to the human dimensions of climate change in the Nepal Himalaya, Peruvian Andes, Rocky Mountains, Greenland, and the Canadian Arctic. In addition, he is a two-time Contributing Author with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a member of the Advisory Committee for the Canada in a Changing Climate national assessment process, and a Canadian Steering Committee member for the UN International Year of Glacier Preservation. He was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society in 2021. Graham completed a Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Zurich and holds degrees from the University of British Columbia, the University of Oxford, and McGill University. Learn more about his research here.
Gùdia Mary Jane Johnson
Gùdia Mary Jane Johnson is a Lhu’ààn Mân Ku Dań Ashaw (Elder) who worked for Parks Canada and Kluane First Nation for over 40 years on protected areas, environment, cultural, and Indigenous language issues. She is a champion for Indigenous language revitalization while partaking in a community that actively lives their culture. She has has contributed an objective perspective to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Report Response Task Force addressing the TRC’s Call to Action #70 reporting to the Standing Committee on Canada’s Archives; to several boards and committees, and sits as an active committee member on: the Asi Keyi Natural Environment Park Management Plan Steering Committee; the Pickhandle Lakes Habitat Protection Area Steering Committee; the Canadian Mountain Network—Research Management Committee; the CMA—Canadian Advisory Committee; the Kluane Research Committee; and, the Tutchone Heritage Society. Gùdia is a retired, happy and busy Grandmother of eleven Grandchildren and one Great Grandson.
Dr. Dani Inkpen
I am the product of mixed heritages and I grew up in Treaty Six territory in Edmonton, Alberta. From a young age I loved exploring the trails of the Rocky Mountains and spent much of my early adulthood in the Rockies and Coast Mountains. Since obtaining my PhD in the history of science from Harvard University, I’ve used my training in environmental history and the history of science to examine the ways that knowledge gets made in and of mountain places. I now live and work in the unceded lands of the Mi’kmaq people in Sackville, New Brunswick where I am assistant professor of history at Mount Allison University. I came to the CMA with a desire to learn more about how people from all walks of life come to know, interact with, and love mountains. It has been an honour to work the people who have realized this project.
Dr. Gabrielle Weasel Head
Oki my name is Tsa’piinaki, Dr. Gabrielle Weasel Head and I am a member of the Kainai Nation, Blackfoot Confederacy. An Associate Professor in Indigenous Studies with Mount Royal University, my teaching background includes instructing on topics around First Nation, Métis, and Inuit history and current issues, Indigenous Studies (Canadian and International perspectives), Indigenous cross-cultural approaches, and Indigenous research methods and ethics. Research interests include meaningful assessment in higher education, Indigenous homelessness, intercultural parallels in teaching and learning research, Indigenous lived experience of resilience, Indigenous community-based research, parenting assessment tools reform in child welfare, anti-colonial theory, and anti-racist pedagogy. I am passionate and deeply committed to contributing to Indigenous cultural continuity and sustainability. My work with the CMA is but one area wherein my embodied perspectives on balance and maintaining good relations are mobilized in generative and mutually beneficial ways.
Keara Lightning
Keara Lightning is a PhD student in the Department of Renewable Resources at the University of Alberta. She is a member of Samson Cree Nation. She holds an MA in Native Studies and a BA in Indigenous Environmental Studies from Trent University. Her research centers on Indigenous-led science and environmental management, with a focus on collaborative research, environmental histories, and wildfire management.
Keara is a historian laureate for the Beaver Hills Biosphere, a research fellow at the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies, and she currently sits on Parks Canada’s advisory Indigenous Fire Circle. She teaches the course ‘Indigenous Peoples and Technoscience’ at the University of Alberta and has interned with the Summer Internship for Indigenous Peoples in Genomics. Her current research focuses on collaborating with Indigenous communities to apply mapping technologies and cultural burning practices for the mitigation of wildfire risk.
