Ogimaawabiitong Kenora Chiefs Advisory (KCA) Youth and Family Wellness Camp plant biodiversity project

• Main Author: Tania, Nawrin
• Other Authors: McLeod, Sheldon (Natural Resources Institute), Haines, Ryan (Kenora Resource Consultants), Payne, Melissa (Kenora Chiefs Advisory), Davidson-Hunt, Iain
• Format: Master Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2024
• Subjects: Plant biodiversity; Kenora; Environmental interpretation; First Nations
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1993/38010

Kenora Chiefs Advisory (KCA) provides social, health, and educational services to the associated First Nations communities that improve their expertise and well-being. As a project of KCA, the Ogimaawabiitong Kenora Chiefs Advisory Youth and Family Wellness Camp opened in July 2021. In addition to serving as a cultural hub for the surrounding communities, this 326-acre site in Kenora, Ontario, is home to a variety of local plant species of Northwestern Ontario. Understanding the potential of the Camp's vegetation to provide future educational and recreational opportunities for youths and Elders, the Ogimaawabiitong KCA Youth and Family Wellness Camp Plant Biodiversity Project was started as a knowledge-sharing initiative in collaboration with the Camp. The main objective of this project was to survey and list the plant diversity of the KCA Youth and Family Wellness Camp. To accomplish this objective of listing the observed plant biodiversity, deliverables were developed that included a list of all the observed plants at the selected stands and patches, including their GPS coordinate points, a summary report of the habitat, common characteristics, indigenous and modern uses of the observed plants, a map of the selected patches and a booklet that summarized all these information. As this project was intended for learning purposes, the deliverables have provided KCA staff with resources to develop other products and services relevant to the programming they deliver at the Camp. The strategy of inquiry applied to this project was a qualitative strategy named ethnography, and the methodologies to produce the deliverables were observation and document review/analysis. This practicum document contains the deliverables and a critical reflection on the project, explaining what I learned from implementing it. An appendix containing the Integrated Project Plan, which served as a guide for project execution, is also included. May 2024 University of Manitoba Graduate Entrance Scholarship (Tania), Graduate Enhancement of ...