ID: 1651
Presenting Author: Eve Desroches-Maheux
Session: 684 - Cumulative Effects Assessment: does it make a difference?
Status: pending
Innu and university partners discuss how community-grounded CEA can make a real difference for Indigenous governance through the Shipeku-Uinipeku project
While cumulative effects assessments (CEAs) are increasingly recognized as essential tools to inform sustainable decision-making and planning, current practices remain centered on state-led frameworks and Western scientific paradigms. As a result, Indigenous experiences of cumulative effects are rarely captured. This can, in turn, exacerbate the very impacts CEAs are meant to address.
The Shipeku-Uinipeku (sea, river and littoral in Innu-aimun) project, seeks to move beyond these shortcomings by centering the assessment on Innu perspectives and priorities. Shipeku-Uinipeku is a culturally grounded cumulative effects assessment (CEA) of maritime activities on Innu communities along the St. Lawrence River, funded by Transport Canada. It has been carried out collaboratively by researchers from Université Laval and Innu partners and Elders from seven communities.
From project design to knowledge dissemination, aligning the process with Innu perspectives, values, and community needs has been a central concern. Doing so has required unlearning conventional academic approaches and negotiating governmental frameworks to meaningfully engage with Innu ways of being and knowing.
Drawing on the principles of Two-Eyed Seeing, this session features a dialogue between an Innu partner and a university researcher reflecting on how they worked differently—and how this difference matters for making CEA more relevant and transformative. Their discussion will highlight how co-led CEAs can foster mutual learning, support community governance, and ultimately reorient assessment practices toward m
Eve Desroches-Maheux is both a Master's degree candidate and aspiring ally, supporting Indigenous-led cumulative effects assessment that transforms environmental governance by centering Indigenous kno
Coauthor 1: Bernard Lafontaine