Research, COVID, and Balance

By Mackenzie Roop. 1st year MDP student

 

As my field placements came to a close, I reflected on how much I expanded my goals and career interests. Throughout this year I had the opportunity to hone my interests towards impact assessment and renewable energy, and it was amazing to be able to gain deeper insight and experience in these areas through my field placements.

Thinking critically about the jurisdictional distinctions between Canada and Australia in the context of Indigenous participation in the energy sector has been eye-opening. I learned that the Australian government has its own distinct set of circumstances despite having a similar history.

My work with the Australian National University was in response to a request to investigate the Canadian context due to the comparable opportunity for Indigenous involvement and ownership in the Canadian energy sector. What I learned was that there are many different types and levels of participation, as government incentives and programs range provincially and federally. In Canada, federal support for Indigenous participation is built largely through a mesh of policies, laws, and agreements. Each Indigenous group has a unique set of goals, capacities and relationship agreements. Thus, while examining opportunity from a jurisdictional lens was helpful to understand the context of federal law in the energy sector, growing opportunity for Indigenous participation is and should continue to be determined by Indigenous groups themselves, led by community values and aspirations. 

 

My work for the Public Interest Law Centre increased my skill set in qualitative research and deepened my understanding of First Nation participation in the federal Impact Assessment Act (IAA) 2019. I produced a report that analyzed various First Nations’ recommendations and concerns of the previous IA, and developed a framework which uncovered these recommendations’ applicability to the IAA 2019. This report hopes to serve PILC and its clients in future deliberations of First Nation rights and opportunity during the impact assessment process.

 

Researching remotely as a non-Indigenous person during COVID-19 is not a light responsibility. While my work was in response to requests, I recognize that my work reflects my own positioning, produced from a non-Indigenous lens in a largely western-academic framework. Non-Indigenous researchers in particular must be careful when engaging in Indigenous related research, especially in times of COVID-19 where circumstances for capacity and accessibility are changing. My experience working remotely was thus difficult as it lacked a necessary tenet of basic Indigenous research methodology: building relationships and accountability with Indigenous groups that the research may represent. I look forward to building my field placement experience and knowledge gained into future projects and relationships.

 

In my previous blogpost, I reflected on the difficulties of working from home amongst the pandemic. This challenge was an important part of my learning process and personal management. I learned that balance is an essential component of producing good work, and that achieving this is a long term process. As COVID continues to influence the ways of the world, the lessons I have learned throughout my placement under COVID will also grow and adapt.