Article

Annual public meeting 2021

A dark-blue banner announcing the 2021 edition of the CFI Annual Public Meeting.

FREE ONLINE EVENT

Traditional Knowledge as a powerful driver in research

How new generations of students and researchers are increasingly integrating Indigenous insight into their work to address critical issues like climate change

The Right Honourable Paul Martin
21st Prime Minister of Canada

In conversation with

Chantelle Richmond
Biigtigong Nishnaabeg
Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Health and Environment,
Associate Professor of Geography and Environment
Western University

and

Tania Willard
Secwépemc Nation
Artist and curator, Assistant Professor in Visual Arts
University of British Columbia Okanagan

with moderation by

Roseann O’Reilly Runte
President and CEO of the CFI

In this virtual session, to help mark the CFI’s 25th anniversary celebrations, the speakers will bring their interdisciplinary perspectives on issues such as:

  • Balancing land and humankind, traditions and evolution
  • Caring for the environment and restoring our health
  • Building a career from a young researcher’s standpoint.

Together, they will explore what our society and each individual can do to fully participate in a thriving Canada in the years to come.

CFI officials will also report on the activities of the CFI.

December 8
11 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. EST

REGISTER TODAY

Once you have registered, you will receive instructions by email on how to join this online event.

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FEATURED SPEAKERS

The Right Honorable Paul Martin posing for a photo.
The Right Honourable Paul Martin
21st Prime Minister of Canada, Minister of Finance from 1993 to 2002 and Founder of the Martin Family Initiative

The CFI was created in the late 1990s during Paul Martin’s tenure as Minister of Finance. Also during that time, he erased Canada’s deficit, subsequently recording five consecutive budget surpluses, and set Canada’s debt-to-GDP ratio on a steady downward track.

 

In 1999, as co-founder of the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors, he served as its inaugural chair and continued in that position for three years.

 

As Prime Minister, he set in place a 10-year plan to improve health care and reduce wait times. He signed agreements with the provinces and territories to establish the first national early learning and childcare program and created a new financial deal for Canada’s municipalities. Following an 18-month consultation process involving Canada’s provinces, territories, First Nations, the Métis Nation and Inuit Leaders, the Federal Government reached a historic consensus with the 2005 Kelowna Accord to eliminate funding gaps in health, education, housing and clean water for Indigenous people.

 

After leaving politics, he founded the Martin Family Initiative, a charitable organization focusing on the early childhoods and elementary and secondary education of Indigenous children and youth.

 

Find out more

Western University's Chantelle Richmond posing for a photo.
Chantelle Richmond
Biigtigong Nishnaabeg
Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Health and Environment, Associate Professor of Geography and Environment, Western University

Chantelle Richmond is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography at Western University in London, Ont., where she holds the Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Health and the Environment.

 

She is Leader of Ontario’s Indigenous Mentorship Network . Her research is based on a community-centred model that explores the intersection of Indigenous people’s health and knowledge systems within the context of global environmental change. Along with colleagues and community partners in Canada, Hawaii and New Zealand, her current research examines concepts and applied processes of environmental repossession.

University of British Columbia's Tania Willard posing for a photo.
Tania Willard
Secwépemc Nation
Artist and curator, Assistant Professor in Visual Arts, University of British Columbia Okanagan (UBCO)

Tania Willard works with bodies of knowledge and skills that are conceptually linked to her interest in intersections between Indigenous and other cultures and within the shifting ideas around contemporary and traditional as it relates to cultural arts and production.

 

Willard has worked as a curator in residence with grunt gallery and Kamloops Art Gallery, and her public art projects include Rule of the Trees in 2019, (Commercial-Broadway SkyTrain station in Vancouver) and If the Drumming Stops in 2021, with artist Peter Morin, on the lands of the Papaschase First Nation in Edmonton.

 

As assistant professor in Creative Studies at UBCO, Willard’s current research focuses on Secwépemc aesthetics, language, land rights and interrelated Indigenous art practices. She also has an ongoing collaborative project, BUSH gallery, which is a conceptual land-based gallery grounded in Indigenous knowledge and relational art practices.

 

Willard received her Master of Fine Arts at UBCO.

MODERATOR

CFI President Roseann O'Reilly Runte posing for a photo.
Roseann O’Reilly Runte
President and CEO of the Canada Foundation for Innovation

Read Dr. Runte's bio