Public lecture: Indigenous women: environmental issues and link to the land

Institute of Culture, Language & History invites you to a public lecture by Canadian researcher Suzy Basile titled: "Indigenous women: environmental issues and link to the land".

Here is a short description of the public lecture:

Indigenous women still have a particular link to the land, a primary element of the colonial quest in the world, because of the principle of responsibility they have towards it, the symbiotic vision they have of all its components and the essential role they play in the ongoing transmission of the knowledge associated with it.

A study on the consolidation of the link to the land of Indigenous women through pregnancy and childbirth was conducted with three communities in Quebec, Canada. Its main purpose was to document the processes by which the link to the land may have been transformed by government programs and medical policies.

Interviews with 15 Atikamekw and Innu women identified the extent to which the link to the land could be updated to revitalize leadership and governance practices formerly associated with pregnancy and childbirth and to identify practices and arrangements made to strengthen the link to the land since childbirth has moved to the city.

Suzy Basile, of Atikamekw First Nation origin, is a professor at the School of Indigenous Studies at UQAT's Val-d'Or campus.

In 2017, she set up a Research Laboratory in Indigenous Women's Issues - Mikwatisiw and since January 1, 2020, she holds a Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Women's Issues. Since 2010, she is member of the steering committee of Aboriginal Peoples Research and Knowledge Network (DIALOG). Since June 1, 2016, she is a member of the UQAT’s Research Ethics Board (REB). Between 2017 and 2019, she was co-director of the research sector at the Public Inquiry Commission on relations between Indigenous peoples and certain public services: listening, reconciliation and progress, known as the Viens Commission. From 2019 to 2022, she sat on the board and on the Ethics & scientific integrity Committee of the Fonds de recherche du Québec – Société et culture. Since 2022, she has co-chaired the Task Force to ensure the leadership of Indigenous Peoples in research of the Fonds de recherche du Québec (FRQ). Since 2020, she is a member of the Reference Group for the Appropriate Review of Indigenous Research (Canada). She is co-author of a report published in November 2022 on Free and informed consent and imposed sterilizations among First Nations and Inuit women in Quebec.