“The real catalyst [to the summit] is the strength of the women, our ancestors and the matriarchal societies that I come from,” she adds.
The two-day event begins with the official launch of Parent’s appointment as the UNESCO Co-chair in Indigenous Knowledge Research Governance and Rematriation. The second day features teaching, workshops and reflections from matriarchal leaders.
The process
Now in its third year, the summit’s origins trace back to Parent’s 2022 appointment to the Canada Research Chair program. The professor has experienced “deep frustration” during her previous rematriation work for the Nisga’a Nation – a feeling that resulted from “institutional racism and systemic tensions.”
“How can we in the future make the university come to us, as B.C.’s First Nations?” she asks. “How can we challenge some of these larger research funding ecosystems to be more accountable to Indigenous nations and our self-determination and rematriation priorities?”
According to Parent, rematriation is an “ongoing form of social organization” for many B.C. First Nations on the northwest coast. While each community has its own “diverse social structures,” the professor points out that First Nations of this region are usually matrilineal.
“We inherit who we are, where we come from, the house structures…based on our mother’s line,” she explains.
For the professor, rematriation is about more than returning “cultural treasures and ancestors’ belongings.” It also includes a return of governance structures.
“It’s really about the return of our cultural and political and leadership governance systems which center the role of women in balance with everyone in the community,” she says.
Parent sees the summit as more than a standard academic conference. One of its unique aspects is the fostering of mentees: each invited leader is asked to identify a mentee who will accompany them at the summit.
“We provide support for their travel and their accommodation,” the professor shares. “That really creates a nice energy in terms of intergenerational knowledge transmission.”
Past mentees have ranged from an elementary school aged participant to a second-year law student. The professor herself hopes to directly mentor one or two Indigenous doctoral students in the future and create an Indigenous graduate course on matriarchal pedagogies.
Goals of the summit
Parent sees the summit as involved in “cycles of growth” – a term drawn from her background in education studies. She adds that registration numbers have increased since the summit’s first year, reflecting the “commitment and enthusiasm” of returning attendees.
“We continue to learn and grow together as a collective and in terms of expanding our circles outwards to include more Indigenous rights holders in the work that we are doing,” she says.
For the summit’s first year, the organizers focused on inviting “distinguished leaders”: B.C. First Nations women or two spirited people and other gender diverse folks with a reputation for “transforming colonial systems and their own communities.”
They also paid attention to diverse representation in terms of regionality and professional sectors. This attention to diversity extends to this year’s summit as well. Parent works to ensure the programming is “transdisciplinary” – which recognizes the holistic and integrated nature of Indigenous knowledge.
“It’s really about ensuring that the integrity of Indigenous knowledge stays intact,” she explains. “The university has a structure that is colonial and alien to us which wants to separate and disconnect knowledge through disciplines.”
To ensure a transdisciplinary approach, the summit’s line-up is designed to include speakers conducting research in various areas. This year’s distinguished leaders and presenters include lawyer Terri-Lynn Williams-Davidson, Bonaparte First Nation councillor Verna Billy-Minnabarriet and environmental conservation negotiator Lauren Terbasket.
The summit will also feature Parent’s UNESCO co-chair Sonajharia Minz of the Oraon Tribal Peoples. Minz is a professor of computer science at Jawaharlal Nehru University in India.
“I started this journey with a vision for us to develop our own B.C. First Nations Research Council,” says Parent. “It’s not something that can be determined by one person or smaller groups of people…it’s an ongoing question of what is needed.”
For more information, see https://ccej-sfu.ca/event-annoucement-2025-bc-first-nations-womens-2-spirit-self-determination-rematriation-research-governance-summit
