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Canada’s historical reputation is of a country where living conditions were good, and there were ample economic opportunities - a “land of milk and honey.” Europeans were wooed to come to Canada, settle, and reap the benefit of its vast resources. And come they did, and reap the benefits they did.

It has been over three years (June 2, 2015) now since the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) of Canada released its summary report and 94 calls to action for reconciliation. Testimony gathered during a six-year period from over 7,000 survivors of the residential school system, forms the basis of the report.The calls to action (CTAs) targeted key institutionsincluding child welfare, health, justice, education, and business.

The announcement on August 30, 2018, that the Federal Court of Appeal had quashed the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion due, in part, to faulty consultation with Indigenous Peoples, has many Canadians puzzling over what meaningful consultation means.

The severity and impact of forest fires dominate the headlines every summer. In 2016, the Fort McMurray, Alberta, wildfire invoked the largest mass evacuation in Canadian history, with nearly 90,000 people forced from their homes. Many of the evacuees were Indigenous from urban areas and reserves.

For a very long time, mainstream Canadians were unaware of the horrors and conditions that 150,000 Indigenous children endured in the Indian residential schools over a period of more than 100 years. For many Canadians, the first inkling of the atrocities the children suffered was when then Prime Minister Stephen Harper delivered the Statement of Apology on behalf of Canadians for the Indian residential school system in 2008.

Traditional Indigenous knowledge (TK) and traditional resources have been managed by Indigenous communities since time immemorial. The arrival of Europeans and the ensuing insatiable demand for resources, coupled with colonizing policies and the imposition of western worldviews, undermined and threatened the continuity of traditional knowledge. However, over the past four decades, there has been an increasing appreciation of the value of traditional knowledge in resource development projects, environmental management, government policies, and co-management strategies. Increasingly, its role in climate change monitoring is considered critical.

I was recently included in a conversation on CBC’s The Current about the efficacy of anti-bias training. The host, Anna Maria Tremonti had three guests with different perspectives weigh in with their opinions. I was in pretty esteemed company - Javeed Sukhera, an assistant professor of psychiatry at the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry at Western University, and Frank Dobbin, a professor of sociology at Harvard University. Click the link below to read the transcript of the interview:

• Evidence shows Starbucks' anti-bias training may backfire 

We all belong to some form of culture and identify with that culture in varying degrees. Our understanding of our own cultural identity begins at birth and is developed by the environment in which we grow up. It may be a loose affiliation or the guide that directs our daily activities. Whatever the connection, our cultural identity provides a sense of belonging.

There are more and more articles in the news about the value of Indigenous traditional knowledge being taken into account in climate change studies, environmental assessments, wildlife management, plant species’ studies. That has not always been the case. Historically, traditional ecological knowledge was largely ignored by western ecological science practitioners.

In this article, we take a look at the many factors that had to be in place to support recognition of Indigenous traditional knowledge (ITK) from obscurity to being considered a valuable asset in environmental studies. At the time of this writing, May 2018, it is still not mandatory in the environmental assessment process.