2018 Workshop

Theme: Interdependence of human and environmental health

SING Canada’s inaugural program took place from 29 July – 4 August 2018 at Simon Fraser University. Through a relation-based approach to genomics, Indigenous participants were led by a multi-disciplinary team of faculty members in investigating the interdependence of human and environmental health. Participants gained knowledge of the genomic methodologies and techniques used in clam, lamprey, ooligan, and salmon restoration and governance. They were also trained in decolonial bioethics wherein participants considered the ethical, environmental, economic, legal, and social (GE3LS) implications of genome sciences as well as Indigenous approaches to relational health. British Columbia is a unique landscape biologically as well as politically with respect to Indigenous title and rights and the SING Canada program will account for these place-based policy questions. The underlying goal of SING Canada 2018 was for students to take away knowledge of the ongoing colonial politics in British Columbia especially regarding the tensions between environmentalism and resource management, pipelines and dams, and Indigenous knowledge, governance, and sovereignty.