Staff Spotlight – Christine Hutchinson
Six months ago, Christine Hutchinson joined the Indigenous Centre for Cumulative Effects (ICCE) in the new role of Indigenous Cumulative Effects Advisor.
Christine is a member of Lac La Ronge Indian Band in north central Saskatchewan. A lawyer for 24 years, she has worked primarily with First Nations and for Indigenous-owned organizations. Prior to joining ICCE, Christine was legal counsel at the Canada Energy Regulator, where she advised on regulatory and administrative law matters. A highlight of that work was supporting the CER advance Canada’s reconciliation commitments and implementing UNDRIP.
Since joining ICCE, Christine has supported the launch of ICCE’s new CIRCLE program, Community-led Cumulative Effects Initiatives for Resilience, Culture, Land and Environment. Through the program, 11 Indigenous communities and organizations received grants to build capacity for community based cumulative effects assessment, monitoring, and management last year. Each of the communities advanced work and research grounded in Indigenous values and knowledge systems, while embracing modern data technologies to record and communicate this work.
To date, Christine has also contributed to Cumulative Effects 101, a primer written in collaboration with ICCE staff and the Technical Advisory Committee’s CE 101 working group, soon be released that will provide tools and resources to communities building capacity to undertake cumulative effects initiatives in their territories. CE 101 is centers Indigenous-led frameworks including cultural rights, natural laws, and relationality.
Congratulations to Christine, on her six-month anniversary at ICCE! We look forward to her continued collaborations and bringing her innovative and grounded contributions from her lived experience and her legal background to ICCE.
Catch Christine, when she speaks on May 7th at a collaborative webinar with RAVEN entitled Cumulative Impacts: Defend the Treaties with Beaver Lake Cree Nation.