The Graham Lecture

The 2019 Katherine A.H. Graham Lecture on Indigenous Policy featured Deborah McGregor, Associate Professor at York University & Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Environmental Justice.The event was held on Monday, June 10, 2019.

Indigenous Environmental Justice, Knowledge and Law
This presentation explored ideas around the potential for advancing environmental justice (EJ) through engaging with Indigenous intellectual and legal traditions. By grounding EJ in Indigenous epistemological and ontological foundations, a distinct and alternative EJ framework emerges. It is anticipated that such engagement will be lead to a renewed vision for achieving justice. In support of this goal, Dr. McGregor highlights the philosophy referred to by the Anishinabek as mino-naadmodzawin (“living well” or the “good life”), common to a number of Indigenous epistemologies, that considers the critical importance of mutually respectful and beneficial relationships not only among peoples, but among all our relations. Mino-naadmodzawin provides a foundation for standard of conduct that will be required if society is to begin engaging in appropriate relationships with all of Creation, thereby establishing a sustainable and just world.