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.