Guardians & Industry

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Indigenous Guardians programs help create economic certainty on the landscape.

When guardians are on the land and bring this knowledge into meeting rooms, we foster conversations between communities, leaders and company representatives. Good relationships are a precondition to achieving free, prior and informed consent, and guardians help establish strong relationships on the land.

Professionally trained guardians have the skills to analyze proposals, build trust between communities and companies and clarify when development can proceed and under what conditions. They also serve as a vital safety backstop, at times discovering spills or leaks before anyone else, reducing the impacts to the land, and lowering clean up bills for industry.

When a mining company first proposed building the massive Voisey’s Bay Mine in Labrador over two decades ago, some Innu and Inuit communities initially opposed the project. Acceptance grew when the Innu Nation’s Minashkuat Kanatukuataku Guardians became on-site monitors to ensure the agreements with the Innu Nation were respected. Now guardians have full access to the site—the largest nickel mine in the world—as independent, third-party observers. They report their findings to the community, and they relay community input back to the mine.

Six Indigenous Nations in the Northwest Territories have established a similar monitoring partnership with Debeers at the Gahcho K’ue Diamond Mine. Ni’Hadi Xa Guardians patrol the site and maintain a community monitoring camp where hunters and elders use traditional knowledge to detect changes in wildlife and the regional environment.

Like guardian programs across the country, these projects confirm that establishing proper channels to discuss development projects benefits Indigenous Nations and industry alike.