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Students
2022 SFU Community Engagement Initiative Recipients
The Community Engagement Initiative (CEI) helps faculty and staff strengthen community-university relationships and create meaningful impact.
Sarah Gutzmann & Alyssa Allchurch
Assessing ecological, social, and economic trade-offs between Indigenous kelp fisheries and mariculture to inform climate-resilient and socially just ocean governance
Aiming to utilize the economic opportunities of wild kelp harvest and mariculture for coastal First Nations, Masters of Resource Management students Sarah Gutzmann and Alyssa Allchurch have received funding to aid their partnership with the Kwakiutl Nation. They will collaboratively conduct research with the goal of understanding wild kelp harvest and kelp aquaculture (farming) as ecologically sustainable, economically viable, and socially just uses for the natural resource.
Through a coastal experiment in collaboration with Indigenous lead commercial kelp harvesters, Alyssa will measure the ecosystem level impacts of kelp cultivation. Through interviews, surveys and workshops, Sarah will document the knowledge and experiences of Kwakiutl knowledge holders on the care of kelp forests.
The research will work to inform future Indigenous led management of kelp and empower decisions related to the social, economic and ecological effects of harvesting kelp.
Tammara Soma
Strengthening Values-based Local Food Procurement and Food Systems
Tammara Soma, Professor in the School of Resource and Environmental Management and Director of SFU’s Food Systems Lab, has received funding to help strengthen local food systems across British Columbia. In collaboration with Squamish Food Policy Council and Squamish Climate Action Network’s Good Food Program, Public Health Association of B.C Farm to School program and Closing the Supply Gap project in the Capital Region, this project aims to connect different initiatives across B.C. to create a digital local food procurement platform.
SFU’s Food System’s Lab will take the lead in identifying opportunities for community partners to contribute to values-based short food supply chain in the province. The team will work to define the needs of the various agri-food stakeholders to model how this system can be achieved in B.C. and mobilize action. In addition, this project will aid in the development of the ongoing work to create a food procurement platform and identify what infrastructures are key to achieving successful institutional local food procurement.
Rudy Reimer
Research that Informs the Squamish Nation and Provides Hands-On Training in Ta na wa Yúus ta Stitúyntsam (Squamish Nation Rights and Title)
SFU archaeologist, Rudy Reimer, is leading an SFU’s Community Engagement Initiative (CEI) to curate and assess Squamish Nation ancestral belongings and materials.
These materials were collected and stored as part of archaeological research conducted by a Cultural Resource Management company from the 1980’s through the early 2000’s to help in treaty negotiations.
With a substantial amount of materials collected, Reimer will supervise a graduate student in cataloguing and assessing the findings. In doing so, Reimer will also develop a teaching collection to train archaeological, cultural, and environmental field technicians in Ta na wa Yúus ta Stitúyntsam (Squamish Nation Rights and Title).
The teaching collection will give the Ta na wa Yúus ta Stitúyntsam a comprehensive understanding of the materials while allowing a graduate student the exposure to materials associated with their research. Their research will then extend beyond an academic contribution to assist the Ta na wa Yúus ta Stitúyntsam and the Squamish Nation community.
Merrill Farmer
A Community-Driven Approach to Removing Barriers to Postsecondary Education for Indigenous Students
Manager of SFU’s Department of Archaeology, Merrill Farmer, is leading a newly funded Community Engagement Initiative, “Training the Next Generation of Culture and Heritage Stewards: A Community Engagement Approach to Overcoming Indigenous Student Access to Postsecondary Education.” This project aims to overcome many barriers to access that are familiar to rural and Indigenous students, increase equity between rural and urban communities, and promote diversity in classrooms. The cause is one close to her heart, as Farmer grew up in the rural community of Ashcroft, BC., going on to focus her master’s research on Indigenous access barriers to postsecondary education.
Through conversations with the archaeology/Cultural Resource Management (CRM) sector within Nlaka’pamux Nation Tribal Council (NNTC) and Teck’s Highland Valley Copper (THVC) the idea of developing micro courses that were flexible and accessible for remote communities arose to strengthen careers and put archaeology further into the hands of local communities.
More insights came from discussions with Lytton First Nations (LFN) Education Manager and educators from Stein Valley Nlaka’pamux school, a First Nations registered independent school near Lytton, B.C around increasing access to applied learning of archaeology for local Indigenous high school students. Together, the idea of developing an applied learning project to teach and train students in archaeological field methods came about. “With this, the hope is to provide the skills needed to involve local students and community members in archaeological excavations that will be required prior to rebuilding the community following last summer's fire,” says Farmer.
Farmer shares that SFU Archaeology has seen a need to do things differently so having input from the communities is critical to creating successful pathways to postsecondary education. “This project will also further the Department’s commitment to advance training options, online learning technologies, and industry and community collaborations to engage learning and career opportunities for Indigenous students.”
Anne Salomon
Coastal Voices
Resource and Environmental Management Professor, Anne Salomon, has received funding to advance Coastal Voices—a collective of Hereditary Chiefs, Indigenous knowledge holders, and university researchers that have worked together since 2013. The team, including REM Doctoral Student, Hannah Kobluk, and SFU Alumna, Kii’iljuus Barbara Wilson, collects and applies Indigenous and scientific knowledge to support food security and sovereignty and social-ecological resilience among coastal communities in the face of sea otter recovery and climate change — and are negatively impacting access to shellfish.
The group’s research is guided by Steering Committee of Hereditary Chiefs and cultural advisors from 17 coastal First Nations in British Columbia and actively engages Indigenous rights-holders, knowledge holders, hunters, fishermen, artists, and youth. In July of 2022, the team hosted a three-day gathering where Indigenous knowledge holders and aquatics managers from Nuu-chahnulth, Heiltsuk, and Haida Nations, came together with university researchers to envision future Indigenous-led stewardship of sea otters, ancestral sea gardens, and coastal fisheries amid climate change. Throughout the gathering, the collective worked to capture how ancestral management practices affect seafood production, kelp forest habitat, and community identity, informing future management decisions by coastal First Nations, and demonstrating how the co-creation of knowledge can center equity, diversity and inclusion in the scientific process and uphold reconciliation.
Sarah Ozog
Reconciliation and Decarbonization policy integration: Examining opportunities for UNDRIP implementation in the Haida energy transition
In 2018, the people of Haida Gwaii, through citizen declaration, committed to transform their remote community electrical systems to clean and renewable energy. Working in collaboration with the Haida Nation, Skidegate Band Council and Old Massett Village Council, Sarah Ozog, a graduate student in SFU’s School of Resource and Environmental Management, aims to explore the potential pathways to a net zero Haida Gwaii, analyze existing economic barriers, identify trade-offs, and provide insight into the multilevel policy solutions required for Haida Gwaii to achieve their vision.
With approximately 10,000,000 litres of diesel burned annually, emissions on Haida Gwaii represent more than 50% of total remote community electricity emissions in the province of British Columbia and more than 5% of Canadas. This poses a particular problem but also an opportunity for various governments to serve Haida Gwaii in solving given the multilevel government commitments to decarbonize remote communities as well as implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).