Beyond Fires & Floods: Part 7
MEDIA INDIGENA 372 // Synopsis
Moderated by Candis Callison—jointly-appointed Professor in the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs as well as the Institute for Critical Indigenous Studies at UBC—she sat together with panelists Warren Cardinal McTeague, Keara Lightning, Leonard Linklater, and Bernard Perley.
LISTEN > https://pod.fo/e/41a68b
PANELISTS
Metis and Cree from northeastern Alberta with family from Lac La Biche, Warren Cardinal-McTeague (he/him) grew up in Fort McMurray. A botanist by training, he now works to support Indigenous peoples leading their own scientific research with a focus on new tools such as genomics. He is a co-lead of the Summer internship for INdigenous peoples in Genomics (SING) Canada, and Assistant Professor in UBC’s Faculty of Forestry. Named a Canada Research Chair on Indigenous Peoples, Governance & Environmental Relations in 2023, he emphasizes collaborative, community-based research on Indigenous-led environmental questions.
Keara Lightning (Samson Cree Nation) is a PhD student with the Wildfire Analytics Lab at the University of Alberta. Her research supports the revitalization of controlled burning practices, and explores how mapping and modelling tools can strengthen Indigenous fire governance and planning. Her earlier work examined how environmental management constructs narratives that erase Indigenous presence and land use. An Indigenous Liaison Officer with the Canadian Forest Service’s Northern Forest Mapping (NorthForM) Program, she partners with Indigenous Nations to develop wildfire and fuel mapping projects, and organize trainings that build capacity for Indigenous-led fire stewardship. She also supports the prescribed burning program at Elk Island National Park and serves on Parks Canada’s Indigenous Fire Circle.
Leonard Linklater, born and raised in Inuvik, N.W.T., lives in Whitehorse, Yukon, the territory where he’s primarily been a journalist for the past 40 years. A member of the Vuntut Gwitchin of Old Crow, Leonard has hosted the CBC Radio show Midday Café for the past 13 years. Besides journalism, he writes plays and plays soccer.
Bernard Perley is Wolastokwiyik from Nekwotkuk, Wabanakiw (Maliseet from Tobique First Nation, New Brunswick). A Professor in the Institute for Critical Indigenous Studies (UBC) who teaches courses in First Nations and Indigenous Studies (FNIS) and First Nations and Endangered Languages (FNEL), his work aims to transcend disciplinary boundaries to reimagine possible futures for Indigenous languages, cultures, and lifeways. Bernard’s critical discourse analysis shifts metaphors of “language death and extinction” toward metaphors of “language life and vitality” (Perley 2011, 2012), to assert an Indigenous praxis of “emergent vitality,” empowering communities working toward language life. Recent publications focus on Indigenous languages and climate change, transformative justice, and rethinking sustainability.
To learn more about BFF: Beyond Fires & Floods, including our core sponsors, visit the BFF home page.
