2026 Arts Inspire Grant Announcement - Whitefish Knowledge Sharing Gathering

Lab co-director Dr. Sabrina Perić, faculty associate Dr. Luis Virla, Cecilia Fitzpatrick, and Ryan Grandjambe recently received a 2026 Arts Inspire Grant for a Whitefish Knowledge Sharing Gathering at Moose Lake, on the traditional territories of the Fort McKay First Nation (FMFN). The goal of the gathering is to create a space to understand the changes in lake whitefish populations in the wake of climate change and how it impacts FMFN. The gathering will welcome visitors and guardians from the Dehcho First Nations, who have been running their own lake whitefish monitoring program from nearly a decade. This represents an early stage of project knowledge sharing and will also further research at the Creeburn Living Lab.

Moose Lake

The Gathering (to be held in late August) will create a shared space to: 1) share traditional knowledge about lake whitefish through an on-the-land camp at Moose Lake, one of the most important lake whitefish habitats on FMFN traditional territories; 2) share scientific knowledge about lake whitefish. More specifically, Dehcho guardians will share their experience building collaborative monitoring and management programs over the last 10 years; and 3) create connections between Dehcho and Fort McKay’s youth guardians through joint knowledge building and sharing activities at Moose Lake.

Lake whitefish