Fraser Basin Council
Home  |  CONTACT US: Offices AND Staff  |  Site Map
header_image

Elizabeth Henry Scholarship - 2017 & 2018 Fund Recipients > 2017
Kim-Ly Thompson
“We Monitor by Living Here”: The Gitga’at Environmental Knowledge Project

2017<br>Kim-Ly Thompson<br>“We Monitor by Living Here”: The Gitga’at Environmental Knowledge Project

posted on 6:38 PM, September 12, 2017

Bio

eh_scholarship-2017-ly_300px.jpgKim-Ly is a Masters student at the University of Victoria’s School of Environmental Studies (Coast Salish Territory). She is of Vietnamese, Scottish and Irish ancestry and was raised along the shores of the Grand River in Southwestern Ontario (Haudenosaunee Territory). She earned a Bachelor’s of Science in Biology and Environmental Studies at McGill University in 2015 (Haudenosaunee Territory).

During the last two summers of her undergraduate studies, Kim-Ly was privileged to be welcomed to the Territory of the Gitga’at Nation where she studied the feeding behaviour of local humpback whale populations. Upon completing her B.Sc., she worked for the Gitga’at First Nation as a biological data analyst, working closely with the Gitga’at Guardians to study the health and abundance of traditional foods and other environmental indicators. Through her Masters project, she hopes to contribute to the well-being of a place and people who have offered her innumerable lessons.

"I am very grateful for Elizabeth Henry Scholarship’s support of a project that aims to bolster the voice of Gitga’at harvesters and knowledge holders in the ongoing stewardship of their territory in a time of rapid social and ecological change." - Kim-Ly Thompson

Project Summary

Ninety percent of Gitga’at people consume traditional seafood on a daily basis; the relationship held between Gitga’at and the ocean since time immemorial is alive and well. However, this social-ecological system is being stressed by a changing climate, resource mismanagement, industrial shipping proposals and other barriers to passing on ancestral teachings. Kim-Ly’s Masters research was designed with community leaders and seeks to inform a Gitga’at-owned monitoring program to document information and knowledge produced by Gitga’at people while harvesting and preparing traditional coastal resources. In the words of Hereditary Chief Albert Clifton: “We monitor our environment by living here”. The program will inform Gitga’at marine resource management, climate change adaptation, and bolster intergenerational knowledge transfer.

Our Vision

Social well-being supported by a vibrant economy and sustained by a healthy environment.

About the Fraser Basin Council

The Fraser Basin Council (FBC) is a charitable non-profit organization that brings people together to advance sustainability in the Fraser River Basin and throughout BC. Established in 1997, FBC is a collaboration of four orders of government (federal, provincial, local and First Nations) along with those from the private sector and civil society. We work with people in multiple sectors, helping them find collaborative solutions to today’s issues through a commitment to the social, economic and environmental dimensions of sustainability. Our focus is on healthy water and watersheds, action on climate change and air quality and strong, resilient communities and regions.

FBC Project and
Partner Sites

Plug in BC:
www.pluginbc.ca

Emotive:
www.emotivebc.ca

ReTooling for Climate Change:
www.retooling.ca

FBC Youth:
fbcyouthprogram.ca

Climate Action Toolkit:
www.toolkit.bc.ca 

Salmon-Safe BC
www.salmonsafe.ca

Contact Us

FBC has offices in Vancouver, Kamloops, Williams Lake and Prince George. We also have staff located in Abbotsford and Vernon.

To reach us, see FBC Offices and FBC Staff.

Our main office is:

Fraser Basin Council
1st Floor, 470 Granville Street
Vancouver, BC V6C 1V5

T: 604 488-5350
F: 604 488-5351
E: 

We are grateful at the Fraser Basin Council Society to live and work on the unceded ancestral
territories of the Indigenous Nations of British Columbia.