This talk will introduce attendees to the concept of Indigenous geographies, and will encourage them to think about the field as not just an academic area of study, but a lived experience and something that they can experience, whether they are Indigenous or not. Weaving together personal anecdotes, stories, and examples of the integrated ways that Indigenous communities live in good relation with their environments, this talk will provide the audience with tangible, enjoyable ways to build their own relationships with their broader environments and geographies.

Niiyokamigaabaw Deondre Smiles (Niiyokamigaabaw: “Stands on Four Earths” in Ojibwemowin) is an Indigenous geographer of Ojibwe, Black, and Swedish descent and a citizen of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe. He/they (Ojibwemowin: wiin) works at the intersections of Indigenous geographies and epistemologies, science and technology studies, and tribal cultural resource preservation and protection.

He is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the School of the Environment at the University of Toronto and an Adjunct Professor with UBC’s Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability and Bemidji State University. He directs the Geographic Indigenous Futures Collaboratory and is affiliated with the EGESTA Lab (UBC), the Technoscience Research Unit (University of Toronto), and the Rising Voices, Changing Coasts Hub (UCAR/Haskell Indian Nations University). He holds leadership roles in the American Association of Geographers and the Canadian Association of Geographers, serves on several editorial boards, and sits on the Board of Trustees of Leech Lake Tribal College.

Free and open to the public.