National Network
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.
In 2015, the Assembly of First Nations passed a supportive resolution calling for a National Indigenous Guardians Network. The Government of Canada committed $25 million in the 2017 federal budget to support a pilot Indigenous Guardians Initiative over five years.
“This Indigenous Guardians network has the potential to be a leadership body to set an example for other people to follow.”
—Isabelle Males, Timiskaming First Nation
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. Together, they established preliminary criteria for future funding to guardian programs, a training framework and a proposed structure for the national network.
On December 9, 2022, the The First Nations National Guardians Network (NGN) was launched at the COP15 Biodiversity Summit in Montréal. It was established to administer federal funding to support Guardians programs across Canada and also to develop programming to connect Guardians and enable knowledge sharing and capacity building.
“We look at government now and say, “We are the stewards of our own land.”
—Gregory Jeddore, Miawpukek First Nation