My son, Tiger, and I are looking forward to attending the Braiding Knowledges Canada ( BKC) 2026 Gathering in Saskatoon, March 4-6, 2026.
With Tiger's technical assistance, on the 4th, I will be conducting a three-hour training for their Board on Four Worlds Sixteen Indigenous Principles for Building a Sustainable, Harmonious, and Prosperous World, our Principles of Consultation, and Talking Circles.
On the 5th, I will be doing the Keynote. I have entitled it: Language, Knowledge Braiding, and the Shift from Extraction to Relationship in Canada’s Scientific Culture.
Braiding Knowledges Canada is doing exactly what needs to be done if we are to make the changes necessary to prevent planetary environmental, social, and economic collapse. This is a brief summary of the Vision and Process:
Braiding Knowledges Canada (BKC) is a new national not-for-profit (established in 2024) created to carry forward the Canadian Mountain Network (CMN) and expand its reach beyond mountain landscapes to serve communities and ecosystems across the whole country. It is built as a collaborative network, linking Indigenous organizations and communities, universities and knowledge centres, governments, and other partners, so that research is not something done to places, but something done with places, in ways that can actually guide decisions.
BKC’s five-year strategic plan (2024–2029) is centered on one clear purpose: Reconciliation through Research. The plan says, in plain language, that Canada needs research that helps us respond to rapid environmental and social change, supporting conservation, restoration, adaptation, and well-being, while being self-determined, place-based, and co-produced.
The deeper aim is to shift Canada’s “science culture” so that Indigenous and local knowledge approaches are not treated as add-ons, but become equitable influences in public policy, regulation, and decision-making, alongside Western science.
At the heart of the plan is a core value named All Our Relations, a reminder that we are connected to, dependent on, and responsible for the land, water, ice, air, plants, animals, and one another.
BKC commits to building trusting, authentic, reciprocal relationships through inclusive, decolonizing practices, and to making shared governance real—so that decision-making and actions are informed by both Indigenous and Western ways of knowing, not one dominating the other.’
The plan also makes its ethical commitments explicit. BKC states that it will braid Ethical Space and Indigenous principles in everything it does, and it affirms a rights-based approach grounded in Indigenous self-determination, including commitments to UNDRIP and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Calls to Action, alongside Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Justice (EDIJ) principles.
BKC describes its work unfolding in three phases. First is a Building phase (2024–2027) focused on establishing multiple Indigenous-led or co-led Knowledge Hubs across Canada, in partnership with First Nations, Métis, and Inuit organizations.
These Hubs are meant to support community-defined priorities while strengthening local capacity through training, land-based learning, and knowledge networks, and by engaging Elders, Knowledge Holders, Guardians, and youth.
Second is an Impact and Growth phase (2027–2029), during which BKC expects braided knowledge to increasingly shape policy and practice, while the organization also begins securing funding beyond the initial federal support.
Third is 2029 and beyond, where BKC aims to remain sustainable and expand its influence locally to internationally, with a strong link between research and practice so that knowledge actually improves decision-making.
BKC organizes its work through four connected program areas: Culture, Research, Knowledge Mobilization, and Nurturing Talent & Growing Capacity.
“Culture” is about making sure governance and operations themselves model knowledge braiding, supported by Ethical Space training and ongoing improvement of EDIJ practices.
“Research” focuses on sustaining and expanding a national network of Indigenous-led and co-led Environmental Knowledge Hubs, including distinctions-based First Nations, Métis, and Inuit hubs.
“Knowledge Mobilization” is about moving braided knowledge into real-world use, through Impact Connector Initiatives, on-the-land events, and work at decision tables, so that policy and regulation are genuinely informed.
“Talent and Capacity” is about training and supporting people along a learning continuum, youth, students, Guardians, emerging Indigenous scholars, and knowledge-braiding leaders, so Canada develops a generation that can work well across knowledge systems.
The plan is also very concrete about how progress will be tracked. It lays out outcome statements (immediate, intermediate, and ultimate). It includes many measurable indicators, such as participation targets for Indigenous researchers and trainees, numbers of hubs and products, numbers of trainings and land-based learning camps, and measures of whether Indigenous communities and federal partners see braided knowledge reflected in how information is used.
The intent is not only to produce research but to demonstrate improved ways of working, stronger reciprocity, and clearer pathways from knowledge to decision-making.
BKC is governed by an Indigenous-majority Board of Directors and committees (including governance, finance/audit/risk, and research management), as well as an Indigenous Circle of
Advisors to help ensure that protocols, ethics, and Indigenous perspectives are respected and protected in decision-making.
BKC also describes reciprocal braiding between place-based priorities and federal responsibilities and priorities, so that community-defined work and federal science priorities learn from one another rather than competing.
Overall, the strategic plan is saying this: Canada is facing rapid change, and the old approach, where knowledge systems sit in separate compartments, cannot meet the moment. BKC’s role is to build the conditions in which braided, co-produced knowledge becomes the norm in how we do research, train leaders, and guide policy, so that reconciliation is not only spoken but also practiced through how decisions are made.
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