National Network

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A network that links Indigenous Guardians programs together multiplies our transformative power.

When guardians are organized in regional hubs, we host joint training and knowledge exchanges. We compare notes on the best apps for collecting data. We share tracking information on caribou, salmon and other migratory species. And we communicate about shifting conditions like fires or algae blooms.

The Coastal Stewardship Network, for instance, supports the work of the Coastal Guardian Watchmen up and down the Pacific Coast. It offers standardized training and shares monitoring data.

Linking guardians together across the country also strengthens Nation-to-Nation relationships. Managing traditional territories rests at the core of Indigenous Nationhood, and guardians can improve communication and understandings between Indigenous Nations and Crown governments.

That’s why the Indigenous Leadership Initiative has been advocating for a National Indigenous Guardians Network. The Assembly of First Nations passed a supportive resolution in 2015. And the Government of Canada committed $25 million in the 2017 federal budget to support a pilot Indigenous Guardians Initiative over five years.

In September 2018 Environment and Climate Change Canada and the ILI created the First Nations-Federal Pilot Joint Working Group for Guardians to ensure a new type of partnership with a new approach to spending the pilot funds—focusing on making the case for future investment in guardians and a permanent, Indigenous-led network.

The members of the Joint Working Group include eight First Nations Knowledge Keepers, four federal representatives and several agreed upon ex-officio members. First Nations members of the Joint Working Group have dozens of years of hands-on experience in managing and coordinating guardians programs and initiatives and are leaders in this field.  

The Joint Working Group has established preliminary criteria for future funding to guardian programs, a training framework and a proposed structure for the national network.

This is an important beginning, but more support and long-term funding is needed. The National Indigenous Guardians Network is a chance to create a new way for Indigenous Nations and the Government of Canada to work together on stewardship.