Gitwinksihlkw, B.C. - How do researchers and practitioners hold space for Indigenous knowledge in their fields of study and work?

The question forms the basis of Harry Nyce Jr.’s proposal for his PhD in Natural Resources and Environmental Studies at UNBC. 

“Whether it’s social work, natural resources, business or whichever the research field might be, one of the final questions my research will ask people to think about is how they hold space for Indigenous knowledge — how do they include it into their research or practice,” says Nyce. 

Reimagining ways to research, educate and learn while advancing Indigenization is at the core of a new Geography course the PhD candidate will co-instruct when students gather in the Nass Valley to study the Sii Aks volcano on July 15.

While conducting his research at the Wilp Wilxo’oskwhl Nisga’a Institute (WWN) in his home community of Gitwinksihlkw, Nyce has been working with Elders, community leaders and faculty members in UNBC’s Department of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences to make GEOG 298: Sii Aks Volcano course a reality. 

WWN and UNBC have a long-standing federated agreement and have been working collaboratively to deliver academic programs to residents living in northwestern B.C for more than three decades. This new course realizes an idea raised several years ago by the late UNBC Chancellor Dr. Joseph Gosnell Sr. when visiting professors first started coming to WWN to research volcano.

“He suggested we have our own course so students could learn about our history as well as the physical and chemical aspects of volcanology. It’s a special course,” says Nyce “It will be a combination of my instruction for the first two days on the Nisga’a Volcano Story and Nisga’a culture, and the remaining four days will be led by two volcanologists – one from the University of Lancaster and the other from Simon Fraser University – who have been researching and studying the Sii Aks volcano in our valley for quite some time.”

Beginning at WWN’s campus in Gitwinksihlkw, students will connect with Elders assisting with the course, have the opportunity to hear the Nisga’a language and learn the meaning of the language as Nyce conveys the volcano story and other aspects of Nisga’a history. Students will also tour the area and will spend time at the Sii Aks volcano cone for exploration and data gathering relevant to the scientific portion of the field course.

“No matter where the students come from, this course connects them directly to the history of this territory,” says Nyce. “It’s pretty amazing to be able to mix culture and traditions with science and make connections to a place for people that they wouldn’t ordinarily have made. This is the goal of my PhD research for holding space for Indigenous knowledge, as well.”