Please join us at the Faculty of Forestry on the unceded territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) people for Aboriginal Initiatives’ first speaker series. The week will feature talks by Indigenous and settler speakers sharing their perspectives on how Forestry in Place is framing forestry practices in our province. All are welcome.
Monday, March 5 – 12pm-1pm – FSC 2916 – Natalie Swift, Rami Rothkop & Marion Hink “I’m putting you on a time out,” said the Tsilhqot’in to the settler
Natalie Swift is a forestry project coordinator for the Yunesit’in Government – one of the six member governments for the Tsilhqot’in Nation. She holds a diploma in Ecosystem Management Technology from Fleming College, a degree in Natural Resources Conservation from UBC, and and is now back at UBC working on masters research affiliated with the establishment of the Yunesit’in Forest to Frame wood products business. Natalie is passionate about supporting communities in the central interior of BC – a region that has been affected by the confluence of industrial forest operations, the mountain pine beetle epidemic, and recent wildfire season.
Rami Rothkop is a sawmill manager and consultant who is providing business development advice to the Yunesit’in Forest to Frame management and staff. He got started in the entrepreneurial world when he was 22, when he created his own tree-planting company. After sixteen years, he sold the business and became involved in numerous public service and activist-related initiatives including the BC “Commission on Resources and the Environment” and ‘’Protected Areas Strategy”. Rami was instrumental in creating Harrop-Procter Forest Products – a well-known and respected provider of competitively priced, locally sourced forest products.
Marion Hink is the assistant sawmill manager with the Yunesit’in Forest to Frame wood products business. She has lived in Yunesit’in most of her life and is a proud mother of two young daughters – Hanna and Helona. In addition to her responsibilities at the sawmill, Marion is also receiving mentorship in business communications and pursuing certification as a health care aid. She has a strong desire to serve her community, with a particular interest in addressing the need for housing, providing support to youth, and sharing Tsilhqot’in culture.
Tuesday, March 6 – 12pm-1pm – FSC 2964 – Garry Merkel “Engaging With First Nations – How and Why”
Over the past 30 years, Garry Merkel (RPF) has worked with various First Nations across Canada, the USA and internationally in areas such as political advocacy, negotiating treaties, developing governments, business development, land management infrastructures, and traditional ecological knowledge inventories. Garry hails from the Tahltan Nation in the Stikine River area of northwest British Columbia, and currently lives with the Ktunaxa Nation in Kimberley, British Columbia. Garry helped form the Faculty of Forestry’s First Nations Council of Advisors (FNCOA) in 1994, and he currently serves as co-chair of FNCOA.
Wednesday, March 7 – 12pm-1pm – FSC 2916 – Gaagwis Jason Alsop and Dr. Carlos Ormond “Haida Gwaii Semesters: A Cross-Cultural, Community-based Initiative”
Gaagwiis is a member of the Ts’aahl eagle clan of the Haida Nation and has lived the majority of his life on Haida Gwaii immersed in the culture and community of the beloved islands. His work experience has centred around serving the community as a manager and leader, including managing Haida Heritage sites, visitor interactions, tourism infrastructure and planning related to Haida culture & language and tourism development on Haida Gwaii and in the Northern BC region. In addition to being one of the instructors of the Haida Gwaii Higher Education Society (HGHES)- Haida Gwaii Semester in Reconciliation Studies, he is also an Executive Committee member of the Council of the Haida Nation; a member of the Archipelago Management Board of Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve, National Marine Conservation Area Reserve, and Haida Heritage Site; and a Director of the ‘Laanas Dagang.a Swan Bay Rediscovery Program.
For the better part of 15 years, the focus of Dr. Carlos Ormond’s work has been to develop and participate in strategic initiatives to support the continuous improvement of communities and the ecological systems they are dependent upon. Carlos is the Executive Director of the Haida Gwaii Higher Education Society (HGHES) which has, since 2010, been offering the experiential and transformative Haida Gwaii Semester programs – in partnership with University of British Columbia Faculty of Forestry – that are inspired by the people, environments and communities of Haida Gwaii. HGHES’ vision is to shape the future by sharing Haida Gwaii with the world.
Thursday, March 8 – 12pm-1pm – FSC 2964 – Dr. Lisa Cook “Indigenous Settler Relations and colonial structures in land management practices”
Dr. Lisa Cooke is an Associate Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, BC. Her research and teaching focus on Indigenous-Settler relations in the territory now most dominantly known as Canada and the ways that contemporary settler colonial cultural forms work to reconstitute particular relations of domination and dispossession. In this talk, Lisa invites participants to think about the ways that settler colonialism operates as a structure—not an event—and how things like policies, laws, epistemologies, and practices work in the maintenance of this structure. Together we’ll think about land and place and who we are in relation to it. From there we can consider the various ways that our professional and personal practices, as articulations of ways of knowing and being, can either reinforce settler colonial structures of domination and dispossession, or interrupt them, in the spirit of actualized reconciliation.
Friday, March 9th – 12pm-1pm – FSC 2916 – Andrea Lyall “Aboriginal Peoples and Professional Forestry in BC”
Andrea Lyall, RPF and PhD Candidate is working on her PhD dissertation, and is a sessional lecturer for CONS 370: Aboriginal Forestry at the University of British Columbia, Forest Resources Management department. Andrea has over 20 years of professional forestry experience and has worked for large corporations, including Canfor and Western Forest Products. She has also worked with over 30 Indigenous Peoples and oversaw full-phase forestry operations in British Columbia, Washington, Alaska and Ontario. Andrea is a citizen of the Kwakwaka’wakw Nation.
Refreshments will be provided.
For more information contact:
Alison Krahn, Aboriginal Initiatives Coordinator
Phone: 604 822-6177
Email: alison.krahn@ubc.ca