NCCIH

Webinar - What does meaningful engagement mean: “Drinking tea” with practitioners of Indigenous-led community-based participatory research (ILCBPR)

March 2026

Webinar description

Despite several approaches to Indigenous participation and engagement proposed by the federal government, Indigenous communities are demanding that the development of distinctions-based and culturally relevant Indigenous specific HIA require a stand-alone Indigenous specific HIA process informed by guidance, expectations, and standards established by Indigenous communities themselves. In this webinar, Drs Diana Lewis and Heather Castleden will share their experiences of working in collaborative and meaningful relationships with Indigenous communities across Canada. At the core of a community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach is the equitable and meaningful involvement of community partners in all phases of the research process, from the focus of study to knowledge mobilization (Castleden et al., 2012; Lewis et al., 2025). This webinar provides transferable insights for “how to” do meaningful engagement in research to health impact assessment.

Learning objectives

Explore the implications of Indigenous community-specific models of health and well-being for HIA processes in Canada.
Review the tools, guidelines, and resources that exist in Canada and internationally to support Indigenous HIA processes.
Examine best practices from the literature on achieving Indigenous leadership and/or meaningful engagement in IA processes as defined by Indigenous communities.
Discuss the challenges and opportunities to Indigenous leadership in IA that have been identified by key stakeholders in these processes, including Indigenous communities, researchers, industry, and government.

Bios

Dr. Diana Lewis is a member of Sipekne’katik First Nation and Associate Professor/ Canada Research Chair (Tier II) in Indigenous Environmental Health Governance in the Department of Geography, Environment & Geomatics, University of Guelph. She is also Director of the IndigenERA Lab and a Member of the Royal Society of Canada (2025). Her research focuses on promoting understanding of Indigenous worldviews in environmental decision-making and advocating for Indigenous-led approaches to give communities baseline health data and sovereignty over the data in environmental decision-making. She is currently working with Indigenous communities across Canada to develop an Indigenous-led environmental health risk assessment approach.

Dr Heather Castleden (she/her), identifies as a white settler scholar, with British ancestry. She is a planetary health geographer and does community-based participatory research (CBPR) in solidarity with Indigenous Peoples in their communities and with their organizations and Nations. Together, they identify priority research issues that engage with the nexus of culture, place, power, resistance, resurgence, and relational accountability to the land and each other. She has held a CIHR New Investigator Salary Award, a Canada Research Chair, and she is now a Full Professor and the President’s Impact Chair in Transformative Governance for Planetary Health at the University of Victoria. She is the Scientific Director of the HEC Lab, Co-Director of the Archipelagos of Indigenous-led Resurgence for Planetary Health project and podcast. Dr Castleden is an elected member of the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars, Artists, and Scientists.