Session Description
Indigenous-led impact assessment (ILIA) work can begin long before the first study is commissioned. As pressure mounts in many jurisdictions to rapidly assess and approve major projects, early preparation by Indigenous communities is increasingly important. This session explores how Indigenous community preparation to identify and express their values, laws, priorities, and desired outcomes shapes ILIAs and negotiated agreements. The session will explore how Indigenous laws and values define the questions asked, methodologies used, evidence gathered, analysis of evidence, determination of significance, and identification of benefits and mitigations, and how these flow through to specific negotiated outcomes, for example, financial benefits, siting decisions, environmental monitoring systems, cultural and social funding and programs, and heritage protections.
By tracing the path from community values to assessment design to negotiated outcomes, the session highlights how community preparation and Indigenous-led assessment can shift impact assessment from a compliance exercise to a decision-making process grounded in Indigenous laws and governance.
Session Summary
Preparatory work by Indigenous communities to express their values, laws, and priorities can shape Indigenous-led assessments and negotiated agreements. The session will explore how preparatory work shapes the evidence gathered, determination of significance, identification of mitigations, and negotiated outcomes.
Session Chair
Tara Lamothe
Firelight
Canada
Session Co-chair
Ciaran O'Faircheallaigh
Griffith University
Australia