A University of Guelph researcher is helping to build a future where Indigenous leadership informs and guides chemical risk management decisions.
Dr. Susan Chiblow, professor in the School of Environmental Sciences, Ontario Agricultural College, will lead a research project looking at glyphosate impacts on the lands and residents of the Robinson Huron Treaty territory, and use this as an example of Indigenous-led chemical risk management to shape environmental and health assessments going forward.
“We’ve come to a fork in the road as humans and if we want to continue to live on this planet, we need to develop real, life-changing solutions for chemical pollution,” says Chiblow. “Indigenous knowledge is crucial for addressing this need. We want to use Indigenous research methods to evaluate current systems and transform them by including this expertise right from the start.”
The end goal is to create a chemical risk assessment platform based on Indigenous laws and guidance that can be adopted by decision-makers all over the world.
Decolonizing the chemical risk assessment process
Chiblow, a member and lifelong resident of Garden River First Nation in the Robinson Huron Treaty territory, has been working with the Elders there for many years. She says they have been concerned about glyphosate and its effects on animals, plants, humans, and the ecosystem for a long time.
“When you walk into an area where glyphosate was sprayed after a forestry operation, there is dead silence and a feeling of loneliness,” says Chiblow. “You don’t hear any birds chirping or insects buzzing. We try to explain this to people but it’s more effective to bring them in and let them experience it so they can understand.”
The project team will bring experts, regulatory officials and other decision-makers to the Robinson Huron Treaty territory so they can learn from community Elders about how Indigenous people define health, and how to design risk assessments in a way that respects and protects the environment.
For example, Chiblow says Anishinaabe peoples talk about health in terms of four components: physical, emotional, mental and spiritual. An Indigenous-led process for identifying chemical health risks would consider all these components. The Elders will also teach visitors about Anishinaabek law so it can be part of decision making.
Building an interdisciplinary network of Indigenous and non-Indigenous experts creates room for collaborative discussions about how to determine which chemicals are allowed into the country, what the best practices are and how they can be improved, and how to ensure that Indigenous expertise is involved at all stages.
Improving environmental health through Indigenous expertise
In addition to risk assessments, Chiblow and her team will apply the same principles in laboratory settings and classrooms. This includes building chemistry curriculums that ensure Indigenous science is in the educational framework to train future leaders.
Another aim of the project is to link Indigenous experiences with chemical policy development across different geographies to transform risk management practices on a global scale.
“The Inuit people in the Arctic have been working with chemicals for years through the Northern Contaminants Program,” says Chiblow. “The Māori people in New Zealand are doing similar work. We want to learn how their findings have impacted international policy development, but also what more they want to do to and how our work can help them. Instead of reinventing the wheel, we want to add to it.”
Chiblow’s work is part of a project led by Dr. M. Murphy at the Technoscience Research Unit, University of Toronto and Dr. Gunilla Öberg at the University of British Columbia, with more than 20 collaborators across Canada and Aotearoa (the Māori name for New Zealand). The project will receive over $22 million in federal funding from the New Frontiers in Research Fund – Transformation Stream.
“Research excellence requires us to encourage and leverage diverse perspectives, especially when it comes to environmental and health issues that affect us all,” says Dr. Shayan Sharif, interim vice-president, research and innovation. “We thank the federal government for supporting Dr. Chiblow and her colleagues as they work to transform the way chemical pollution risks are defined and managed.”