Dancing with the Land (Nun ke’ Daahwéhsats)
“Having so many people put their focus and expertise on these issues made it feel like we were building collective capacity to more deeply understand the problems in front of us.”
Audrey was a recipient of the Centre for Community Engaged Learning’s Chapman and Innovation Grants in the 2022-23 school year.
Project Description
This project was designed to bring together UBC faculty and members of the West Moberly First Nations’ (WMFN) land use department to discuss climate impacts in WMFN territory. While WMFN has been highly engaged in monitoring the changes to their environment, climate change presents a whole new range of impacts that are not well understood. Because of this, WMFN is seeking to develop a research strategy for their nation in order to respond to the current and projected changes to their lands and waters. The goal of the Nun ke’ Daahwéhsats, or Dancing with the Land, workshop was to begin the establishment of a Cooperative Climate Research Agenda (CCRA) which will identify needs, gaps, priorities, and funding opportunities related to climate impacts This CCRA will identify immediate needs, knowledge gaps, future priorities, and funding opportunities for ongoing research to understand climate impacts, in line with WMFN community values and objectives.
Community Partners
West Moberly First Nations is a unified and self-sustaining community with a mission to positively enhance the progression of West Moberly First Nations ethics with respect, honesty, fairness, integrity, and self motivation by promoting open communication with members, Chief & Council and staff. For more information, we invite you to visit https://westmo.org/
The Centre for Climate Justice at UBC works with movements, communities, students, and policy makers to develop research and analysis that addresses climate breakdown in connection with multiple, interlinked, and cascading crises. The Centre’s belief is that climate justice at its best is the labour of repair, redistribution, and world building. More information about the Centre for Climate Justice at UBC can be found here.
Lessons Learned
Audrey shares her reflections and learnings from leading her “Dancing with the Land” project:
“Even though it was the premise of the gathering, the real interdisciplinary of the conversions left me surprised. Asking questions about climate change while having a climate scientist in the room: turns out, really helpful! Conversely, it’s easy to talk very abstractly about a climate impact, at which point hearing the long history of that particular issue within a community highlights all of the ways that these impacts are felt and may play out. Having so many people put their focus and expertise on these issues made it feel like we were building collective capacity to more deeply understand the problems in front of us.”
Project Outcomes
Audrey shares one of the many project outcomes which emerged from her community partnership with the West Moberly First Nations and Centre for Climate Justice at UBC:
“After the workshop was planned, we realized there was also an opportunity to host a public lecture by Chief Roland Willson. This lecture allowed many more people to be a part of the event than previously designed, including the students from UBC’s new “Climate Emergency” course. In the lecture, Chief Willson used maps, photographs, and stories to describe the cumulative effects of industrial development in Treaty 8 territory, and how these impacts relate to land and culture. Though these impacts are all happening within our province, we heard from many attendees that they did not understand the full scope of these issues – or West Moberly’s efforts to address them (e.g., lawsuits, monitoring, maternal penning of endangered caribou) – before the lecture.”
More information about Dancing with the Land’s project outcomes can be found here.
Advice for Future Applicants
Audrey’s main message to future applicants centres around fostering connection for a common cause:
“Bringing people together around a problem, question, or goal is often the most important first step. If there are individuals or groups that you want to bring into deeper collaboration, a CCEL grant can provide the support to thoughtfully and intentionally create these connections.”
Information about CCEL Grants
If you are a student interested in leading your own UBC CCEL project, you can learn more about the application process here. Year round advising for grant projects and applications are available via Zoom or in-person at our office on the UBC Vancouver office from Monday to Friday. For more information about year round advising, please email us at community.learning@ubc.ca to book an appointment.