This research project was a collaborative community/academic initiative co-led by Zoe Dalton from the University of Toronto, and the Walpole Island Heritage Centre (community supervisors Clint Jacobs and Aimee Johnson). The Walpole Island Heritage Centre is the research arm of Walpole Island First Nation (see map below). The project began in 2007 and was completed in 2010.
The purpose of our project was to help improve First Nations/non-Aboriginal relations in conservation. Our initiative focused particularly on First Nations/non-Aboriginal relations in research and applied conservation work surrounding species at risk in southern Ontario, Canada.We aimed to learn about challenges, and to use research findings to develop a model for improvement. Our collaborative research model allowed us to fulfill community-based priorities as well as interests and needs raised by non-Aboriginal conservationists in the southern Ontario region; the project served as the basis for the doctoral dissertation developed out of the research.
