Grant: Project Grant

Leveraging data collected from a previous CIHR-funded Project Grant, Indigenous communities are building their capacity to assert their autonomy over the governance of environmental decision-making around environmental impact assessment processes impacting the health of Indigenous communities and their members. Guided by Etuaptmumk (Two-Eyed Seeing) and continuing to build on established Indigenous-led community-based partnerships, the research proposes to work with the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, Fort Chipewyan Métis Nation, and Mikisew Cree First Nation, impacted by decisions made in the Athabasca Oil Sands, and Oneida Nation of the Thames, experiencing the impacts of the landfill for the City of Toronto sited adjacent to their community. Having collected baseline health data, the four communities propose to make that data work for their decisions around children's environmental health, tailings ponds and wastewater, the increasing incidence of wildfires and subsequent displacement from community, landfills and microplastic exposures, and whether economic impacts of industrial development on the health of their members are fully accounted for. We continue to support the efforts of Indigenous communities to assess their own environmental health status and to share their findings effectively and safely with their members. Broadly, our project shows how Indigenous-led research can result in more effective decisions, while building the capacity of researchers and trainees to work in a good way with Indigenous communities.