Indigenous-Led
Since its inception, the SCRS has served the Dehcho as an “outdoor classroom/laboratory” for monitoring and studying climate change impacts. After many years of preparation, the SCRS officially transformed into Canada’s first Indigenous-led research station on 15 August, 2022 under the leadership of the LKFN, making it a flagship for scientific-indigenous collaboration throughout the circum-polar region. The LKFN will ensure that the Station remains a locus for inclusion of Indigenous Canadians in research, empowering Indigenous youth (students / Guardians) through education/training initiatives, and facilitating engagement between Indigenous community members and researchers/students through respectful sharing of knowledge and experiences. As such, LKFN’s research station is helping to build positive and enduring collaborations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians, while remaining a state-of-the-art, inter-disciplinary scientific observatory. As an Indigenous-led research station, the SCRS is a unique fusion of scientific and Indigenous knowledge and one that recognises that Indigenous communities are especially linked to the land which they rely on for food and water and for their spiritual and cultural well-being.
By hosting educational programmes throughout the year, the SCRS serves as a centre of engagement for students and other community members and researchers to come together as “partners in learning” to exchange experiences and ideas, co-develop new knowledge, nurture the next generation of collaborations between western scientists and Indigenous knowledge holders, and nurture the community decision makers of tomorrow. Co-development of new knowledge is empowering to communities, solidifies researcher-community collaboration and is consistent with the LKFN’s expectation for co-development and co-application of knowledge.
By providing a space for on-the-land learning with researchers and community members, the SCRS brings community members, including present and future decision makers, closer into the process of generating new knowledge and methods, and provides them with a deeper understanding of their meaning, application and limitations. This approach increases community inclusion and the likelihood that management and policy decisions will be well-informed and confidently applied. It also increases the likelihood that new knowledge will lead to effective community uptake and response. Providing a space for researcher-community learning and collaboration has generated numerous community-led projects, such as the Dehcho Collaborative on Permafrost (DCoP) described in a short film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Niy7R0sXeZg.
LKFN leadership of the SCRS is an investment in the region’s knowledge economy, which ultimately benefits, not only the LKFNmembership, but also the Dehcho region, the NWT, and all Canadians. Investment in an Indigenous-led research station also helps to advance sustainable development (UNSDG, UNESCO), sustainable land use (IUCN), and Indigenous rights to manage our lands and resources (UNDRIP).
