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SFU students studying environmental planning this summer spent a day by the Coquitlam River learning about the impacts of 150 years of colonization and the Nation’s approach to traditional environmental stewardship.

An integral part of PLAN 408, field trips allow students to take the fundamentals of environmental planning that they learn in the classroom and observe them in action. After all, it’s by visiting the spaces they develop that planners can best gain the perspective of those who live their day-to-day lives there.

Philip Bradshaw, PhD candidate in the School of Resource and Environmental Management and the instructor for the course, calls the practice “meeting people where they are,” which means taking the time to properly understand what is important to individuals and communities and trying to see places through their eyes.

“Being able to share different understandings of the world can help us identify the values or what's important to ourselves, to others, and to our communities. And then being able to create plans that better reflect those shared understandings and values can help guide us to a more inclusive future. All of that starts with walking the land and meeting the people who know their land best,” he says.

This year’s collaboration with the Kwikwetlem Nation started when, at the suggestion of adjunct SFU professor Craig Orr, Bradshaw met with staff members who work in water planning for the Nation, including SFU alumni Hannah Laing and Melissa Goodman.

“That blossomed into Councillors George Chaffee and John Peters and Cultural Coordinator Nancy Joe agreeing to spend time with us by the Coquitlam River,” Bradshaw explains.