Indigenous teachers, government agencies, researchers, students, educators and community members will gather at Michigan Technological University on Monday and Tuesday, for the Indigenous Knowledges Symposium, an event created through partnership among the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community (KBIC), Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission (GLIFWC), Michigan Tech and Michigan Sea Great.
At the symposium, Indigenous teachers will lead workshop sessions on shared governance and stewardship, including the importance of Indigenous languages, climate change and resilience, and responsibilities associated with being in good relations with others. The event is intended to increase understanding of Indigenous knowledges and practices, strengthen relationships between partners, and enhance capacity for working with – and working as – natural resource and environmental science and policy professionals.
The symposium comes less than a year after the White House committed to incorporating and elevating Indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledge (ITEK) into federal scientific and policy processes, most notably in relation to climate change. Each of the primary symposium teachers are Indigenous to the Great Lakes, and their audience will be federal and state government staff, researchers, students, educators and community members. Speakers include:
- Michael Waasegiizhig Price, GLIFWC
- Margaret A. Noodin, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
- Dylan Bizhikiins Jennings, Northland College
- Austin Ayres, KBIC Natural Resources Department
- Kristin Arola, Michigan State University
Registration for the event is full.
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