Paper short abstract:

Will efforts in Canada to re-conceptualize conservation as a from of reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples consider Indigenous ways of knowing and healing? An Indigenous feminist lens is imperative to to answering this question toward transforming conservation practice as authentic reconciliation.

Paper long abstract:

There are efforts in Canada to re-conceptualize conservation practice as a form of reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples. From a Mi’kmaw/Indigenous perspective, healing is a crucial part of the reconciliation process. Conservation practice, however, is often enacted as another way of dispossessing Indigenous Peoples from their ancestral homelands and waters. Therefore, will conceptualizing reconciliation and healing in conservation be only in a context of a conservation futurity, while leaving the already damaged human and natural world relations in place? Reconciliation and conservation through the lens of Indigenous feminism is imperative to answering such critical questions toward transforming conservation practice as a truthful and authentic reconciliation and healing process.