Indigenous Engagement

Totem poles designed and carved by notable Indigenous carvers Wayne Carlick and James Lewis of the Tlingit/Taltan Nation, located in the Capilano Suspension Bridge Park. Capilano comes from the Squamish Nation’s Kia’palano, which means “beautiful river.”

Indigenous Climate Action Data Quilt Project

=  With encouragement from the BC Assembly of First Nations, the West Coast Climate Action Network (WE-CAN) launched the Indigenous Climate Action Data Quilt Project in Spring 2022. 

What is the Data Quilt Project?

The Indigenous Climate Action Data Quilt Project is a dynamic visual dashboard. It is a digital quilt that will map every Indigenous climate action initiative in the land currently known as British Columbia. It is being developed in a partnership between WE-CAN, Cree8iv Collaboration Inc. and DEVA Training & Staffing Solutions. It is funded by a small grant from the Glasswaters Foundation.

The Data Quilt will include data on climate action initiatives in seven categories: Renewable energy – Sustainable housing – Sustainable food and farming – Sustainable forestry and land – Climate adaptation – Climate education – Resistance to fossil fuel projects that cross traditional Indigenous territories. See the beta-version of the quilt here.

The Data Quilt was originally compiled using publicly available information. We are in the process of confirming and expanding this data by contacting the various project owners. WE-CAN is committed to the OCAP (Ownership, Control, Access, and Possession) principles – a set of rules relating to data concerning First Nations which state that First Nations should have ownership and control over the collection of data concerning their communities, and how that information is used. Our goal is ultimately to transfer the Data Quilt to First Nations ownership.

Who is WE-CAN?

The West Coast Climate Action Network is a growing network of 241 climate action groups and organizations which share a deep concern about the climate emergency, and the threat it poses to nature and humanity. Our purpose is to serve, support, amplify and promote the work of our member organizations, which are working to end the causes of the climate crisis, and to support the solutions Earth needs. To contact WE-CAN about the project, email katherine@westcoastclimateaction.ca 

Who are Cree8iv Collaboration Inc and DEVA?

Cree8iv Collaboration Inc. was founded by Sharon Marshall, a Métis/Cree entrepreneur who lives in Lantzville on the traditional lands of the Snaw’naw’as and Snuneymuxw First Nations on Vancouver Island. DEVA Training & Staffing Solutions was founded by Sharon to provide  temporary recruitment, digital literacy and virtual administrative training services for Indigenous women through a 20-week online training program. 

How Can I Add to the Data Quilt?

If your First Nation or Indigenous organization is engaged in a climate initiative in one or more of the categories listed above, and you would like to add some stitches to the Climate Action Data Quilt, we would love to hear from you. Please contact Sharon Marshall at sam@digitaldeva.org. 

WE-CAN’s Digital Quilt Team

  • Sharon Marshall, Métis/Cree, Project Lead for the Indigenous Climate Action Data Quilt Project
  • Jessica Jack, Okanagan Indian Band Member, Outreach DEVA for the Indigenous Climate Action Data Quilt Project
  • Jordan Brubacher, environmental health scientist; background in ecological restoration and map-making
  • Guy Dauncey, author and change-maker. Co-founder and Co-chair of WE-CAN
  • Roz Isaac, climate and Indigenous rights activist
  • Katherine Maas, WE-CAN Director, community organizer with Dogwood. Leader of WE-CAN’s Indigenous Engagement Team
  • Sebastian Sajda, WE-CAN Secretary, Past-President of Force of Nature
  • Tara Shushtarian, WE-CAN Director, active with the BC Poverty Reduction Coalition, Dogwood Initiative Force of Nature Alliance, Director of Fair Vote Canada
  • Miah Shull Olmsted, WE-CAN Director, Co-Founder Okanagan Climate Hub
  • Sunil Singal, President of Force of Nature Alliance, WE-CAN organizer
  • Tim Takaro – Physician-Scientist in planetary health and Professor Emeritus in the Faculty of Health Sciences at SFU
  • Megan Misovic – mother and volunteer

Indigenous Engagement Dec 1, 2022

Are you or do you know someone who is First Nations, Métis or Inuit who might like to join us in our climate action work, contributing their perspective and collaborating with us in whatever role they would like?

We see our movement as inseparable from the movements for racial, social, and economic justice, and for Indigenous rights, so it is in our mandate to grow our collective power and build the world we need.

Contact Us

Indigenous Perspectives on Climate Action

A Four Part Webinar Series

Indigenous Perspectives on Climate Action

This webinar was the second of a four-part series, hosted in partnership with RAVEN, in which Indigenous climate action leaders in BC have shared their thoughts and experiences. In this webinar, we got to hear from guest speakers
Pansy Wright-Simms, a member of the Luutkudziiwus, a traditional “wilp,” or house group, of the Gitxsan Nation, and Leona Humchitt, Councillor, and Climate Action Coordinator of the Heiltsuk Nation.

Busting the Fossil Fuel Corridor

This was the first of four webinars, hosted in partnership with RAVEN, on Indigenous perspectives on climate action.  In this webinar, we got to hear from Rueben George, and Chiefs Smogelgem and Roland Willson about their resistance in the face of TMX, Coastal GasLink, and Site C-Dam.

Sifting through the woefully inadequate “CleanBC Roadmap to 2030” released ahead of COP26, it appeared that B.C.’s plan was to force through infrastructure for long-term fossil fuel projects, over the objections of First Nations and in violation of treaty and Aboriginal rights.