Students share research at CINE Student Symposium

Last week, Kanahsohon, Faithkeeper and community member of Kahnawà:ke, opened the CINE Student Symposium with a teaching on gratitude, asking the room a simple question: “do you have a belly button?”, as a reminder of where we all come and of our connection to those who came before us. 

The symposium is an annual student-led event that highlights research at CINE and creates space to reflect on how McGill, AES, CINE, and students can contribute to reconciliation through research and education.  Held as part of the 15th Annual Indigenous Awareness Week at McGill, it brought together members of the Macdonald Campus community to share their work on food, health, and environment.  

In her welcome remarks, Salwa Karboune, Dean of AES and Associate Vice-President, Macdonald Campus, emphasized the importance of research that has a real, positive impact on the communities it touches, and the important role students play in carrying that work forward.  

Treena Wasonti:io Delormier, Associate Professor in McGill's School of Human Nutrition, Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Food Sovereignty and Nutrition, and Director of CINE, followed with a look back at CINE’s origins. In 1989, Indigenous leaders Bill Erasmus, Rosemary Kuptana, and Norma Kassi came together to lay the groundwork for what would become CINE, established in 1993. Indigenous leadership has shaped CINE's work from the start, through an advisory board that continues to guide CINE's research today. Professor Delormier spoke about the importance of funding and infrastructure for research to carry forward, but noted that the most important infrastructure, and most often overlooked, is trust: building relationships that can hold a partnership together. 

Presentations that followed covered a wide range of research: environmental contaminants monitoring in Kanehsatà:ke and Kahnawà:ke, Type 2 diabetes prevention in Kahnawà:ke schools, Indigenous-led plastic pollution advocacy, and community-based wildlife monitoring with Eeyou land users in James Bay, among others. 

Three awards were presented. Best panel presentation went to Caroline Hunziker, PhD candidate in the School of Human Nutrition. Best poster presentation went to Samantha Delisle, MSc candidate in the Department of Natural Resource Sciences, for a project using camera traps and audio recorders to monitor wildlife in the Eeyou Marine Region of James Bay, a biodiversity monitoring priority identified by four Cree communities. Lastly, a People's Choice award, voted on by attendees, was given to Lynn Jacobs, PhD candidate in the Department of Natural Resource Sciences, for her research on Indigenous science and rights in the plastic pollution crisis. 

The day closed with a food-sharing gathering featuring local Indigenous foods, with dishes such as bannock with sweetgrass butter, bison and rabbit skewers, and green beans with ground elk, among others. 

Thank you to the organizers, presenters, and the many attendees who filled the room, and to the community partners whose knowledge and collaboration make this research possible. The symposium is made possible with support from the McGill Sustainability Projects Fund. 

Learn more about CINE here: https://www.mcgill.ca/cine/