Lawrence Ignace

Notice of the Final Oral Examination for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy

Topic

Reconceptualizing Cumulative Effects Assessment and Management Through Indigenous Knowledge Systems

School of Environmental Studies

Date & location

• Wednesday, September 2, 2026
• 3:00 P.M.
• Clearihue Building, Room B017
• & Virtual Defence

Reviewers

Supervisory Committee

• Dr. Natalie Ban, School of Environmental Studies, University of Victoria (Supervisor)
• Dr. Trevor Lantz, School of Environmental Studies, UVic (Member)
• Dr. Deborah McGregor, Department of Earth, Energy and Environment, University of Calgary
  (Outside Member) 

External Examiner

• Dr. Dyanna Jolly, Department of Environmental Management, Lincoln University 

Chair of Oral Examination

• Dr. Morgan Mowatt, School of Child and Youth Care, UVic  

Abstract

The management of Canada’s natural resources remains a top-down colonial
endeavour that continues to lack a consistent and comprehensive response for
cumulative effects, with Indigenous peoples being some of the most impacted. This
approach also fails to recognize the important relationships and identities Indigenous
peoples, and their knowledge systems, have achieved in weaving an inter-connected
everlasting presence across the landscapes. Indigenous peoples remain caught within
the intersection of the dominant system’s response to uphold the public’s interest in the
economy first versus the need to advance reconciliation and self-determination. Within
these competing pressures, the overarching goal of my dissertation was to centre
Indigenous self-determination, cultural resurgence, well-being and systems
transformation within cumulative effects assessment and management. Throughout
this dissertation, I bring forward different approaches to reconceptualize and address
the braiding of Indigenous knowledge systems and cumulative effects assessment and
management, with the aim to shift the power imbalance between knowledges, broaden
understanding and develop shared co-governance approaches.

Taking a comprehensive view of what it means to reconceptualize cumulative effects
assessment and management, my dissertation focused on several scales of
governance and application that are essential to uphold Indigenous existence. At an
international scale (Chapter 2), within existing tools like the United Nations Declaration
on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) lies the opportunity to shift research to
uplift Indigenous rights. In reviewing the articles of UNDRIP, I situated Indigenous
rights as an enduring goal that is relevant across the research landscape, highlighting
how research can make meaningful contributions in the lives and continued existence
of Indigenous peoples. At a conceptual level (Chapter 3), I conducted a literature
review to bring the lens of Indigenous identity into social-ecological systems and
cumulative effects assessment literatures. I found that there are commonalities across
literatures on the transformative governance of cumulative effects, Indigenous
knowledge, and social-ecological systems that can help to shift cumulative effects
assessment and management. At the community level (Chapter 4), partnering with
Lhù’ààn Mân Ku Dań/ Kluane First Nation in southwest Yukon using Indigenous and
mixed methods, I co developed a knowledge map based upon community interviews
and workshops. The map identifies seven elements of Lhù’ààn Mân Ku Dań/Kluane
First Nation’s Indigenous knowledge system important to their continued existence and
supported by eight socio-cultural drivers. Together, these elements and drivers can
improve local and regional application of cumulative effects assessment and
management. My research found that Indigenous research methods can create the
time and space needed for communities to ground who they are within these kinds of
assessment and management processes. Directed at a national level (Chapter 5), I
uncover the elements of what an Indigenous cumulative effects assessment and
management process could look like. I held a workshop of seven Indigenous experts
and practitioners from across Canada, the first of its kind. The group found it is core to
center Indigenous existence and worldviews, knowledge transmission, jurisdiction and
authority in the development of a cumulative effects assessment and management
processes. Across all these chapters, Indigenous communities’ existence and identity
continues to define the kinds of relationships, governance and management
approaches that can re-shape social-ecological systems’ sustainability.

In a world where environmental harms continue to result from climate change,
cumulative effects and loss of biodiversity, Indigenous environmental governance
spaces being created by peoples for Indigenous peoples provides hope. In Canada,
the importance of Indigenous existence and knowledge systems needs to be
recognized and centred to change colonial reasoning. I highlighted in my dissertation a
range of tools and approaches that can be co-developed to meet future co-governance
and environmental challenges.