Centring Indigenous Fisheries in Ways of Being, Knowing, Doing and Connecting

Indigenous fisheries have so often been ignored, overshadowed, or in many cases supplanted by Western and dominant approaches to fishing since the onset of colonization. Our work in the Centre for Indigenous Fisheries in the Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries at the University of British Columbia, on xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) territory, is to challenge this frame and re-centre Indigenous fisheries as sites of knowledge building and sharing as well as community practice and connection. This talk by Dr. Andrea Reid, citizen of the Nisga’a Nation and Assistant Professor of Indigenous Fisheries at UBC, will introduce listeners to the Centre for Indigenous Fisheries – its membership and partnerships – and its commitment to delivering science for the shared benefit of fish, people, and place.

Dr. Andrea Reid is a citizen of the Nisg̱a’a Nation and an Assistant Professor with the University of British Columbia’s Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries. She has launched and is leading the Centre for Indigenous Fisheries, working to build an inclusive hub for the study and protection of culturally significant fish and fisheries. She is an Indigenous fisheries scientist who employs community-based approaches and Indigenous research methodologies. Her freshwater and coastal research creates space for fishers, knowledge keepers, youth and other community members to be full partners in the research process. Together, they investigate: leading threats to aquatic ecosystems and their interactive effects for fish, people and place; consequences of fisheries-related stressors for fish and methods to ameliorate survival; Two-Eyed Seeing approaches to assessing aquatic ecosystem and fish health, and evaluating associated changes through time and space; and Indigenous understandings and methodologies for effectively stewarding fish and waterways.

Andrea Reid completed her BSc and MSc at McGill University, and her PhD at Carleton University, which centered on multiple stressor effects on wild Pacific salmon using tools and insights from Western and Indigenous sciences in tandem. This dissertation was recognized with the Governor General’s Gold Medal and University Medal for Outstanding Graduate Work at the Doctoral Level in 2020. Reid is also a cofounder of Riparia, a Canadian charity that connects diverse young women with science on the water to grow the next generation of water protectors, a National Geographic Explorer and a Fellow of The Explorers Club.