Indigenous Stewardship of the Environment and Alternative Development (INSTEAD) Case Study

Contemporary territories of Indigenous peoples are often faced with innumerable cumulative impacts from land development, extractive industry, urban expansion, and exercise of local, provincial and federal government jurisdictions.  Working with publicly available datasets, researchers in UVic's Ethnographic Mapping lab have created a series of maps to illustrate these issues for the territories of the Hul'q'umi'num' peoples on Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands, who are engaged in ongoing efforts to exercise their rights of free prior and informed consent with respect to their ongoing relationship to their unceded territories.

This project has been developed in association with the INSTEAD and CICADA projects, and the UVic Ethnographic Mapping Lab.  Brian Thom was interviewed about the project here: https://www.uvic.ca/socialsciences/info-for/faculty-staff/announcements/research-profile-brian-thom.php

The project has been published in:

 Thom, Brian and Kathleen Johnnie (2026) Mapping the Aspirations and Challenges of the Hul’q’umi’num’ Peoples. Pp. 179-228 in INSTEAD: Indigenous Stewardship of Environment and Alternative Development, edited by Colin Scott, Evodia Silva Rivera and Katie Sinclair. Toronto: UTP Press.

Resources

• Centre for Indigenous Conservation and Development Alternatives
• HTG Case Study (INSTEAD) Website
• Indigenous Stewardship of the Environment and Alternative Development
• Mapping Contemporary Challenges to Island Hul'q'umi'num' Peoples Territories