September 30th serves as a crucial reminder for all Canadians to engage in deep reflection, to learn, and to challenge our assumptions about the nation’s past and present. It is also a time to imagine a future where we share a just and reciprocal relationship with one another.

From April 24-27, 2023, the Restore, Assert, and Defend (RAD Network gathered on the unceded and unsurrendered Territory of the Wolastoqwiyik at St. Mary’s First Nation, at Sitansisk (also known as Fredericton, New Brunswick). The intent of the gathering was to foster connections, deepen our understanding of the current context of the work, and co-create a shared vision for the emergent RAD Network.

CRP’s first bilingual blog features a story from Maro Adjemian . Maro who shares her reflections on her doctoral research with Atikamekw Nehirowisw as they develop a management plan for an IPCA called Masko Cimankanic Aski, located in Nitaskinan, colonially known as the Haute Mauricie region of Québec.

Starting on International Women’s Day, 2022, and throughout the year, we have had the honour to hold a space to celebrate and learn from Indigenous women who carry, grow, and share love for the lands, waters, and communities they call home. 

Valérie Courtois, a member of the Innu community of Mashteutiatsh, reminded us that one key thing women bring to the world, and to the conservation movement more specifically, is love: “Love for our families, love for communities, love for land, love for language, love for who we are as people.”

By Chloe Dragon Smith and Robert Grandjambe

Our little home couldn’t be further from the bustle of Montreal. We live in Wood Buffalo National Park, between the towns of Fort Smith, NWT and Fort Chipewyan, AB. As two young northern Indigenous people, we are working hard to build a life that rehabilitates our ancestral ways, knowledge, and systems

By Dr. Justine Townsend

This blog builds on Part 1 and Part 2 of the Cultural Keystone Species blogs. These earlier blogs described how Canada’s Species at Risk Act contains mechanisms that support First Nations involvement in species at risk (SAR) management. (Photo: Photo: Moose traveling through lake by Lesly Derksen on Unsplash).

by Kai Bruce

We are excited to announce the release of a guide for Indigenous leadership who are engaging with Parks Canada’s management planning process. This guide aims to inform Indigenous leadership on Parks Canada’s collaborative management planning process for national parks, national park reserves, national marine conservation areas, and national historic sites. 

Compiled by Elena McCulloch

2022 was a great year for Indigenous-led conservation! In case you missed any of our community's achievements this year, or you would like to look back on and celebrate the work we accomplished, please enjoy this 2022 recap.

Reconciliation doesn’t happen in one day, nor is it a one-way street. It requires an ongoing commitment to build and maintain respectful and reciprocal relationships.

By Andrew Paul and the Karen Environmental and Social Action Network

The Salween Peace Park, nestled between Burma and Thailand, embodies a commitment to building peace and reconciliation that centres Indigenous self-determination and responsibilities to ancestral territories. Salween Peace Park offers a model for how IPCA governance can be scaled up to entire landscapes and territories. The park continues to shine a light for Indigenous self-determination, peaceful coexistence, and federal democracy in Burma despite ongoing conflict in the region.

By Leora Gansworth and Ian Attridge

In recent years, more Indigenous individuals and groups are examining and amending the land trust model to advance their community interests. Land trusts may be developed to support self-determination and the resurgence of Indigenous legal traditions, relationships, and priorities, including the land back movement. So how can land trusts be a mechanism for Indigenous self-determination/support visions for Indigenous conservation leadership?

By Steven Nitah, David Flood, Leora Gansworth, Mary-Kate Craig, and Lara Powell

There is an opportunity for environmental reconciliation, and for all people to reconsider their relationship with the living Earth. Indigenous-led conservation offers a path forward. One that addresses ecological devastation and envisions a powerfully connected future of living well together.

The IPCA Knowledge Basket holds and shares vital resources to support Indigenous leadership in their nature conservation efforts, including the creation of Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs).

By Heather Patterson and Kristy Tomkinson

The Conservation through Reconciliation website is a space for partners and affiliates to share their knowledge, research, and reflections about Indigenous-led conservation and CRP activities.

Highlights from 2021 including written and audio blogs, webinars, and academic articles are summarized within this blog, with links to the full-length versions.

A joint statement from the CRP Leadership Circle

After years of advocacy by survivors, families and community, September 30th, 2021 is the first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. It is a day to honour residential school survivors, those who did not make it home, their families, and their communities. It is also a time to reflect on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s Calls to Action.

By Robin Roth and Faisal Moola

In early August 2021, the Canadian Government announced a $130 million commitment to create a network of urban National Parks across the country. This commitment is a step forward in recognizing and valuing urban parks and forests for their ecological, educational, socio-cultural, and health benefits. While the announcement names Indigenous partners in a list of groups to “collaborate with,” it fails to recognize the potential for urban parks to advance Indigenous self-determination and reconciliation.

Prepared by Faisal Moola and Megan Youdelis.

The Conservation Through Reconciliation Partnership (CRP) was invited by Parks Canada to participate in its Horizon Scan. The CRP was also asked to contribute priority research questions to help inform Parks Canada’s broader research agenda going forward.

By Steven Nitah

People around the world increasingly see the urgent need to tackle the twin emergencies of climate change and biodiversity loss. We can make progress on both these fronts if the world also recognizes the leadership of Indigenous peoples who oversee the most healthy, biodiverse, and intact lands and waters left on Earth. Photo: Pat Kane

A joint statement from the CRP Elder’s Lodge

July 1st marks the anniversary of the Confederation of Canada. On this day, the Conservation through Reconciliation Elder’s Lodge share a collection of voices to honour the spirits of the children who never came home, to unite us in building a better future for generations to come, and to bring us back into balance with Mother Nature. The CRP family of Elders is taking this opportunity to say what is needed to be said in a good way.