One of Canada’s most celebrated young leaders is Yellowknife’s Chloe Dragon Smith. A member of the North Slave Metis Alliance, Chloe is a definitive voice on the importance of bringing culture into conservation. She advises Indigenous communities on land management, and has worked with both the government of the Northwest Territories and the federal minister of environment to design their protected areas strategies. With the Canadian Parks Council, she spearheaded The Nature Playbook to encourage a new generation to connect with nature. And she has worked internationally to bring an Indigenous youth voice to The World Parks Congress, The World Conservation Congress, The World Commission on Protected Areas, and The Youth Conference on the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Though at risk of burning her dinner, Chloe joined us in conversation via Skype from Yellowknife.
What do you think?
- Is our relationship with the land based on our cultural upbringing?
- How do we bridge cultural divides and take seriously the perspectives we have little experience with?
- What if in trying to bridge divides, we find ourselves disagreeing with a different perspective? Should we hold fast with our opinions, or as Chloe said, must we be humble and side with traditional knowledge keepers even if we disagree with their decisions?
- In complex debates, steeped in hard history, is there room for disagreement?
- Is there a risk of linking social justice and the environment, when both issues are urgent and might not always align?
More on Chloe
Read the articles: The North American Association for Environmental Education, Canada 92/150: Chloe Dragon Smith, Yellowknife woman first to win Nature Canada’s young women environmental leadership award