EVENTS

Webinar Details:

Title:

Following Indigenous Leadership in Invasive Species Management

Webinar Description:

Globalized management approaches that focus solely on the eradication of newly arriving species as a default management strategy do not account for diverse perspectives around invasive species management. Indigenous responses to the arrival of new species rarely appear in the conservation literature. Commonly used conservation definitions of ‘native’ and ‘alien’ do not capture the array of relationships between Indigenous peoples, plants and animals. Invasive species plans that touch on Indigenous perspectives largely focus on perceived threats to cultural practices and not on cultural frameworks that provide just pathways to action. This presentation highlights meaningful and effective, place-based conservation initiatives rooted in knowledge of species and relationships with invasive species that are useful to and appreciated by Indigenous peoples. From this understanding, presenters identify needed shifts within the global conservation community regarding introduced species management. Use of multidimensional impact measurements (including positive and negative effects), as well as using deliberative engagement with communities upstream of policy creation or decisions matters to shifting power relations and decision-making authority from non-Indigenous conservation organizations and settler state government choke hold models towards Indigenous-led invasive species management.

Speaker details:

Dr. Katie Kamelamela is an Assistant Professor in the School of Ocean Futures and researcher in the Global Discovery and Conservation Science Center. She studies ethnoecology, ecological restoration, Indigenous conceptions of wealth, and Indigenous economies. Dr. Kamelamela’s research focuses on historical and contemporary Native Hawaiian forest plant-gathering practices and continues to expand policy that includes community input within forest and coastal community restoration management.

Dr. Nick Reo is an associate professor in the Indigenous Studies Department at the Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada. He is an enrolled member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians (Anishinaabe). He uses Indigenous methodologies to study and participate in Indigenous knowledge practices, Indigenous land and sea tenure, and Indigenous language revitalization. Dr. Reo also works to create spaces for Indigenous international knowledge exchange and expansion of Indigenous kinship networks. He holds a Canada Excellence Research Chair (2023-2031) focused on Coastal Regeneration and Relationalities.

Dr. Priscilla (Cilla) Wehi is an Associate Professor at the University of Otago, Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka,  and Director of Te Pūnaha Matatini Centre of Research Excellence in Complex Systems, in Aotearoa (New Zealand). She is a conservation biologist whose research centers around ecological knowledge and socioecological relationships including cultural environmental management. Priscilla supports cultural change and builds inclusivity in science to create broad platforms for intellectual advancement. In 2020 she received an Inspirational Alumna Award from the School of biological Sciences, University of Canterbury.