This talk explores the methodologies and findings of our 2017 SSHRC Knowledge synthesis grant project on plural Indigenous Knowledge systems and the Global Extinction Crisis. In this panel, we explore two key findings of our final report: first, that Indigenous knowledges of extinction are sidelined by the colonial disciplinary practices of Western academia. Second, we demonstrate that within Indigenous knowledge systems, what Western science calls ‘extinction’, and indeed, the broader category of ‘ecology’ cannot be understood in isolation from the social, political, legal, economic, and spiritual context of a community. We elucidate ways that Indigenous legal traditions, cosmologies, stories, and protocols can be brought to bear on the overwhelming universalist/colonial discourse of ‘extinction’ in contemporary environmental governance. Finally, we suggest ways to decolonize and reformulate the questions that currently drive scientific discourses of the Sixth Mass Extinction event, and species loss more generally, here in Canada and beyond.

Dr. Audra Mitchell is a settler of Ukrainian, Polish, Scottish and English descent who was born in Treaty 6 and grew up on unceded Musqueam and Sḵwx̱wú7mesh lands. She currently lives and works as a guest on Haudenosaunee, Anishinaabeg and Wendat lands governed by the Dish With One Spoon Treaty, and on Haudenosaunee, Anishinaabeg and Attawandaron land within the Haldimand Tract. Her research and community-based work involves learning from and collaborating with Indigenous communities across Turtle Island, Australia, Hawai’i and elsewhere in order to confront global patterns of structural violence and their profound effects on the relationships between communities, plants, animals and other relations. In particular, her work focuses on global patterns of plant and animal extinctions, and it aims to support the Indigenous-led, land-based projects of resurgence that are actively combatting them. In particular, she is interested in how the dismantling of colonial systems of governance can help to address global ecological destruction. Audra is the CIGI Chair in Global Governance and Ethics at the Balsillie School of International Affairs and an Associate Professor at Wilfrid Laurier University.

Mr. Pitseolak Pfeifer is currently building on over 25 years of Inuit advocacy in his M.A. in Northern Studies at Carleton University. His research interests lie at the intersection of sustainable Northern community development and socio-cultural and political transformations in Inuit homelands. He combines his interdisciplinary studies with consulting work and with participation in applied and community-based research projects related to Indigenous issues. Often a guest lecturer on Arctic matters, he has also brought his contributions to Carleton’s Aboriginal Education Council and to the summer Institute on the Ethics of Research with Indigenous Peoples. He remains an active member of the Inuit community both in Iqaluit and in Ottawa, offering his skills and experience to help address community needs.

Dr. Zoe Todd (Métis/otipemisiw) is from amiskwaciwâskahikan (Edmonton), Alberta, Canada. She writes about fish, art, Métis legal traditions, the Anthropocene, extinction, and decolonization in urban and prairie contexts. She also studies human-animal relations, colonialism and environmental change in north/western Canada. She holds a BSc (Biological Sciences) and MSc (Rural Sociology) from the University of Alberta and a PhD (Social Anthropology) from Aberdeen University. She is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Carleton University. She was a 2011 Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation Scholar.