Date: Wednesday, January 20, 2027, 1-2pm MBT/ET
Language: English
Introduction
Access to clean water is a primary indicator of health and well-being and has been a looming crisis for decades in First Nations communities. This webinar explores the research by the Indigenous water research program, Ohneganos, on how critical vulnerabilities of Indigenous people, such as a lack of access to clean water, affects the mental, maternal, and physical well-being of Indigenous people.
Access to clean water is a critical indicator of human health and disease prevention. Restoring the health of source water is restoring human and ecosystem health.
Indigenous Knowledge (IK) is increasingly recognized as a valuable resource for building resilience and adapting to environmental change by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (UN IPCC) and other climate change experts.
Indigenous ways of knowing and being have shaped and co-developed innovative approaches to assessing ecosystem health though monitoring and designing interventions led by Indigenous knowledge holders and scholars working within a culturally-informed framework. The Ohneganos team, led by Indigenous scholars, the Six Nations community, and interdisciplinary experts, has developed strategies that prioritize Indigenous rights, health, and community-led solutions that are co-created by community leaders and scientist and that center Indigenous knowledge and ways of knowing. For example, the Indigenous Knowledge/Traditional Ecological Knowledge (IK-TEK) framework of Ohneganos applied culturally informed Indigenous epistemologies, pedagogies, and methodologies to work collaboratively with diverse disciplines within Western science. Key considerations are:
- Reframing societal well-being as interconnected to the natural world;
- Linking humans to biodiversity; and
- Linking climate change as a key determinant of human and ecosystem health.
The presenters encourage attendees to explore the peer-reviewed journal articles produced by Ohneganos which can be found at https://www.ohneganos.com/journal-articles
Speakers
Dr. Dawn Martin Hill, Professor Emeritus, Indigenous Studies Department, McMaster University
Dr. Dawn Martin Hill is Mohawk and resides at Six Nations of the Grand River with her family. She was the first Indigenous cultural anthropologist in Canada and continues to break barriers in education and research. She founded the Indigenous Studies Program at McMaster University as a Master’s graduate student. Recently her work has had global policy influence — the Ohneganos research report has been officially entered into the Parliament Record for FN Water Bill C-61 and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change drew from Kayaní:yo (a good path)—Warrior Science Ohneganos—Indigenous ecological knowledge in its 2024 strategy paper Technical guidance and training materials to support the implementation of the UAE Framework for Global Climate Resilience to support its call for more incorporation of Indigenous knowledge and improved environmental health services in Indigenous communities. Her current research is applied in and by community ecological knowledge, from Indigenous mapping, climate change modelling, digital learning platforms, film, and art to increasing capacity in water monitoring and management.
Dr. Martin Hill holds numerous research grants including: the US National Science Foundation (NSF), the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), the Global Climate Change Center, Indigenous lead, Climate Adaptation and Resilience Strategies (CLARS), Global Water Futures (GWF) Co-Creation of Indigenous Water Quality Tools (Canada First Research Excellence Fund) and Traditional Ecological Knowledge, as well as Training & Co-Creation of Mixed Method Tools, (Canada First Research Excellence Fund). She led numerous community research grants in partnership with Six Nations Polytechnic (SNP). She is also a member for Canada in the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Hydrology Committee, and a board member of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research – Institute of Indigenous Peoples’ Health (CIHR- IIPH) board member. She has numerous peer reviewed publications and informal community publications housed at www.ohneganos.com and the Royal Society Library. Her research has gained international acclaim such as the water science award from the University of Oklahoma, and the Ohneganos’ podcast ‘water is life’ won the David Suzuki People’s Choice Award. Recently she was honoured by the McMaster Indigenous Research Institute (MIRI) with MIRI renaming a community scholar award after her. Dr. Martin Hill is currently producing a virtual reality ‘Skyworld’ to disseminate her team’s research findings. She is currently collaborating with SNP to establish a TEK Haudenosaunee Research Institute to sustain training, monitoring and community research.
Dr. Hiliary Monteith, Researcher Associate, McMaster University
Dr. Hiliary Monteith recently completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship in Indigenous Studies at McMaster University supporting the Ohneganos research program and working at the intersections of Indigenous health and wellbeing, climate change, food sovereignty, and water security. She holds a PhD in Nutritional Sciences in partnership with Sandy Lake First Nation from the University of Toronto. She is currently collaborating with Sandy Lake First Nation and Six Nations of the Grand River with a focus on early life factors impacting health and wellbeing, water security initiatives, and traditional ecological knowledge for climate action. Dr. Monteith supports the Global Center for Climate Change and Transboundary Waters as a Project Manager, collaborating with transdisciplinary researchers committed to resilient water futures and the leadership of Indigenous Knowledge and Traditional Ecological Knowledge. She is also a Registered Dietitian and aims to support the integration of knowledge to practice within community environments and policy. Dr. Monteith is a settler of Scottish, Irish, French, German, and English ancestry currently residing in Haudenosaunee and Anishinaabe territory, which is part of the dish with one spoon agreement and the two-row wampum. Her family are settlers residing in Wabanaki territory in so called New Brunswick.
Moderator
Signy Baragar, NCCID