Researchers at the University of Toronto are working with colleagues in Canada and Aotearoa, the Māori name for New Zealand, to position Indigenous experts as leaders in figuring out ways to evaluate and manage pollution risks.
Led by the Technoscience Research Unit (TRU) at U of T, the effort marks an innovative shift by placing Indigenous leadership at the forefront of chemical-risk evaluation - expertise that is rarely included in frameworks under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act (CEPA), the European Union's Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) and the United States' Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA).
"Indigenous Peoples are not only disproportionately exposed to chemicals but also disproportionately have their bodies subjected to testing and evaluation with little control over research design," says M. Murphy, a professor in U of T's School for Environment and Women & Gender Studies Institute in the Faculty of Arts & Science who is co-director of the TRU and co-leader of the project.
A Red River Métis from Winnipeg, Murphy is a feminist anti-colonial technoscience studies scholar and a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Science and Technology Studies and Environmental Data Justice. They are also a member of the Acceleration Consortium , a U of T institutional strategic initiative .
With the support of $22 million from the federal government's New Frontiers in Research Fund, the collaborative, Indigenous-led research initiative - "Transforming Chemical Risk Management with Indigenous Expertise" - aims to reduce emissions of climate-changing gases and pollutants through innovative approaches to chemical risk management.
It's one of six projects in Canada - and one of two at U of T - that received support through the fund's 2024 transformation stream, which supports "large-scale, Canadian-led, interdisciplinary research projects that address and have the potential to realize real and lasting change."
"I would like to congratulate Professor Murphy and the entire research team on receiving this most-deserved investment from the New Frontiers in Research Fund," said Leah Cowen, U of T's vice-president, research and innovation, and strategic initiatives.
"By centering Indigenous Knowledges in the critical cause of managing chemical pollution impacts, Professor Murphy and their collaborators are advancing research that lies at the intersection of multiple longstanding challenges for Canada and the world.
"Combining perspectives from Indigenous communities located as far apart as Aamjiwnaang First Nation and the Robinson Huron Treaty Territory in Ontario and Aotearoa, or New Zealand, this project is poised to have a transformative impact on chemical risk evaluation and response, benefiting Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities alike.
The project acknowledges that sustainable environmental relationships for future generations are at the heart of Indigenous approaches to caring for land, waters, air and each other - and draws on Indigenous research methods to transform chemical risk management for Indigenous community-based practices, university labs and classes, regulatory practices and policy development.
As outdated methodologies are replaced with new ones, the importance of Indigenous Knowledges about land, water, animals and plants is crucial, the researchers say.
The project also creates Indigenous methods for assessing chemical risk for future generations. By bringing diverse Indigenous Knowledges together in solidarity and co-learning, the research program seeks to develop protocols, tools and policies for chemical risk management in Canada, Aotearoa and the world more broadly. With a focus on intergenerational impact and transformation, the program will also train the next generation of chemical risk professionals to lead chemical risk assessments for their communities and beyond.
In addition to U of T, the project includes researchers from Guelph University, the University of British Columbia and the University of Calgary; Manaaki Whenua - Landcare Research and the University of Auckland in Aotearoa; Indigenous Elders and Knowledge Holders from multiple Indigenous communities in Canada, as well as collaborators in the governments of Canada and New Zealand and Te Ao Mārama Inc., a mandated Māori organization that supports local tribal members in environmental matters including mitigating chemical pollution.
The project and the funding that supports it represent an opportunity for Indigenous communities at a time of growing environmental crisis. It will create tools, methods and expertise that serve Indigenous Peoples' own needs and visions - and takes the innovative approach of learning on the land. It also features Indigenous community researchers as experts in their own lands and lives in Aamjiwnaang First Nation and across the Robinson Huron Treaty Territory and Aotearoa. It will focus on collaborating with community researchers and scientists to build an Indigenous chemical risk platform, change curriculum and develop lab protocols.
Along with Murphy, project leads include Sue Chiblow (Garden River First Nation) of Guelph University, and Gunilla Öberg (recent settler from Sweden) of UBC. At U of T, research will be co-led by Kristen Bos (Red River Métis), co-director of the TRU and an assistant professor of Indigenous science and technology studies in the department of historical studies at U of T Mississauga with a cross-appointment to the Women & Gender Studies Institute. Other U of T collaborators include: Milica Radisic in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering, Élyse Caron-Beaudoin at U of T Scarborough and Alán Aspuru-Guzik in the Faculty of Arts & Science.
With files from Technoscience Research Unit
