Coming together to explore collaborations. Laurier President Dr. Deborah MacLatchy and Associate Vice-President, Indigenous Initiative Dr. Darren Thomas welcoming Délı̨nę Got'ı̨nę Government members Ɂekw’ahtide (Chief) Danny Gaudet, Deputy Ɂekw’ahtide Raymond Taneton and K’aowǝdó Leonard Kenny to the Waterloo campus of Laurier. While the majority of Partnership activities are based in the NWT, Laurier often hosts its NWT partners on its campuses to enhance opportunities for reciprocal exchange. A delegation from the Délı̨nę Got'ı̨nę Government came to Laurier to meet with the Executive Leadership team to explore shared priorities and opportunities for future collaboration. Future initiatives were enthusiastically discussed around Indigenous student training and community research capacity building on environmental monitoring and data analysis and management. The Délı̨nę delegation graciously listened to student research presentations and shared their experiences with northern research and living on the land

Reciprocal learning through community gardens. For people of the Ka'a'gee Tu First Nation in the tiny NWT community of Kakisa, eating isn’t just a matter of opening a fridge. In Hay River, 80 minutes away, three bags of groceries cost about $300. Traditional food is a major part of people’s diet but climate change is creating challenges to the access and availability of these foods. Forest fires in 2014 destroyed trails and changed where animals roam. Travel on the land is becoming more dangerous due to increasingly unpredictable weather and unstable ice conditions. In the face of these challenges, the people of Kakisa and several other NWT communities are working with Partnership researchers on multiple projects to enhance northern food security in the face of rapid climate change. One project saw Laurier researcher, Dr. Andrew Spring, working with community partners and youth to grow produce in raised beds and greenhouses. Community members shared their knowledge of how food sources have changed over the years and the impacts of colonial systems, such as residential schools, on the acceptance of western agricultural practises by their community. By merging traditional knowledge with western science, it is hoped that the community can begin to tackle food security in the North.

Training the next generation. A critical focus of the Partnership has always been to train the next generation of leaders needed to manage the complex challenges facing the NWT. Laurier PhD students Gifty Attiah and Alicia Pouw, connect with Ni Hat'ni Dene Guardian Chase Lockhart on Vee Lake outside of Yellowknife, NWT. The Partnership offers unparalleled opportunities for cross cultural exchanges to happen where each individual gains an increased understanding and appreciation of different ways of knowing. The Partnership is producing the next generation of individuals, both from local communities and academic institutions, who are equipped with a powerful blend of western science and traditional knowledge making them superbly prepared to address the challenges of the North in a manner that honours and respects Northern cultures, traditions and ways of knowing.

Understanding NWT wildlife. In a landscape as expansive and remote as the NWT, capturing a clear understanding of the local wildlife is an onerous task. Indigenous and Territorial Governments have struggled to make data-driven decisions as they strive to protect biodiversity. Through the power of technology and collaboration, that is changing. A network of academics and federal, territorial and Indigenous government partners have teamed up with Partnership researchers through the NWT Biodiversity Monitoring Program to document the occurrence of NWT wildlife across an unprecedentedly large area of the territory. Laurier graduate students Eric Jolin and Claudia Haas are working with Laurier Assistant Professor Dr. Frances Stewart on the Biodiversity Monitoring Program. The Monitoring program is centred in Thaidene Nëné National Park Reserve, Canada’s newest Indigenous-protected conservation area. More than 300 individual monitoring stations were installed there to represent the spectrum of different habitats. Much of the collaboration happens through Indigenous Guardian programs, meant to foster environmental stewardship. Indigenous communities are involved at every step of the research process, from determining sampling locations to processing data, and some have taken over data collection entirely. Indigenous culture is intrinsically linked with the health of the land, and the wildlife on it, and this data will be vital to communities being able to maintain their way of life and well-being.

Celebrating the opening of a Yellowknife research office. In 2017 Laurier opened a research office in Yellowknife, NWT allowing the university to maintain closer and more sustained contact with its valued partners. The office is home to year-round staff, primarily research associates and postdoctoral fellows. It also provides a workspace to visiting faculty, students and staff and serves as a base for Laurier’s research activities in the North, as well as for liaising with partners, including various levels of government and Indigenous communities.

Over 30 years of research. Nearly 4,000 km northwest of Laurier’s southern Ontario campuses, where mainland Canada meets the Arctic Ocean, lies Trail Valley Creek Arctic Research Station. Located the Inuvialuit Settlement Region, it is Laurier’s northern-most research station and 2020 marked its 30th anniversary. Now the longest-running hydrologically focused Arctic research station in Canada, Trail Valley Creek, led by Laurier Professor Dr. Philip Marsh, has become a productive field site and is central to the Partnership. Dedicated to understanding and predicting environmental changes near the treeline in the western Canadian Arctic, the research station is an interactive training ground for students and hosts international collaborators from organizations including NASA. Laurier has signed a long-term agreement with one of the Inuvialuit co-management boards to ensure collaborative decisions about research priorities on their territorial lands. Travel Valley Creek is one of over 50 sites across the expansive NWT. Many of this sites are linked closely with local communities and provide the necessary infrastructure for Laurier and GNWT government researchers to work alongside local community members and other partners to address the pressing issues facing the NWT and its people.

Partnering with the watchers of the land. Ni Hat'ni Dene Guardians, Mr. Chase Lockhart and Mr. Rubin Fatt, and Laurier researcher Dr. Homa Kheyrollah Pour discussing ice road safety. Ni Hat’ni Dene Guardians are Łu tsël K’é Dene First Nations members who are stewards of Thaidene Nëné — the watchers of the land. Ni Hat’ni Dene crews practice a traditional subsistence lifestyle, maintaining the integrity of cultural sites, conducting environmental monitoring and ensuring the safety of their community. For the community of Łutsël K'é ice is essential for survival. Łutsël K'é is home to approximately 300 residents, most of whom are Dënesųłiné and belong to the Łutsël K'é Dene First Nation. This isolated community is only accessible by air, boat or ice. Łutsël K'é experienced a tragedy in 2019 when three community members are believed to have fallen through the ice on snowmobile while travelling over Great Slave Lake. In response to this loss of life the community contacted Partnership researcher Dr. Kheyrollah Pour to collaborate on strategies for ice safety. In Łu tsël K’é, Dr. Kheyrollah Pour is working in close partnership with Ni Hat'ni Dene Guardians to install sensors on local lakes which collect ice thickness data every 15 minutes, letting the community know when it is safe to travel in real time. Dr. Kheyrollah Pour trains the Guardians on the use of the technology independently while the Guardians share their traditional knowledge about changes to the landscape they have observed and how to travel on the land safety.

On-the-land education. The Partnership is committed to supporting the education of northern youth when requested by a community. Often this takes the form of participating in, or hosting, on-the-land camps. On-the-land camps bring Indigenous youth to the Land where they can learn about changes happening in their homelands and to find ways to connect with the Land. The camps bring together Elders, youth, members of Territorial and Indigenous Governments, local Guardians, and Laurier faculty and students. Hands-on activities engage youth using scientific tools and equipment, cultural practices and traditional knowledge and local language. In a reciprocal exchange youth and community members learn more about what Partnership researchers are studying in the NWT, while the researchers learn more about local values, traditions, languages, and cultural practices, and how to engage respectfully with local communities.

Confronting a Fiery Future. Laurier researcher, Dr. Jennifer Baltzer, and manager of Fire Operations for the GNWT, Mr. Richard Olsen, discussing “zombie fires” in the NWT. In the aftermath of a forest fire, scenes of destruction remain. Though ominous, the scorched stumps and charred earth make way for regrowth and new life to emerge from the forest floor. Fire is critical to forest renewal. But what happens when fire reignites before regeneration can occur? In the boreal forests of Northern Canada, holdover fires continue to smoulder beneath the ground throughout the winter, insulated by peaty soils, and ignite again the following spring. These fires, commonly described as “zombie fires,” are a signal of a warming climate. Holdover fires could be damaging to northern ecosystems and communities, and the global effort to combat climate change. Fire preparedness is critical in a territory where almost everyone lives “mere steps” away from a forest. As wildfires become more frequent and severe and their footprint across the North increases, there are great risks to transportation routes, critical infrastructure such as power and telecommunication lines, and human life. Olsen is working with Baltzer and her collaborators to learn what conditions predict extreme fire behaviour, to better protect the people of the NWT.

Engagement at all levels. Laurier Assistant Vice-President, Research, Dr. Charity Parr-Vasquez, joins Ni Hat'ni Dene Guardian Mr. Chase Lockhart and Partnership researcher Dr. Homa Kheyrollah Pour in the field to observe collaboration in action. The success of the Partnership to date has, in part, been due to the engagement of all levels of the partners’ institutions (leadership, staff, researchers, students). At Laurier, the majority of the Executive Leadership Team and Deans have made the over 4000km journey to the NWT to nurture and cultivate Partnership relationships and see for themselves the work that is done. Laurier’s President Dr. Deborah MacLatchy and Vice-President, Research Dr. Jonathan Newman make frequent trips to the NWT to advance the Partnership and develop new Partnership initiatives and relationships. In turn, GNWT Deputy Minister, Environment and Climate Change and Senior Science Advisor, Mr. Andrew Applejohn, travel to Laurier for the same purpose. The Partnership has passionate champions on both sides and on all levels and these champions will drive Partnership activities in the years to come.