Carrying Denésuliné Knowledge Forward for Land and Legacy (Traditional Knowledge Stories Mapping Project)
WHO THEY ARE?
The Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (ACFN) are Denésuliné people whose homelands centre on the Peace-Athabasca Delta and the shores of Lake Athabasca K’ai Tailé Dené, “people of the land of the willow.” These waters and wetlands have sustained language, livelihood, and ceremony for generations. A Treaty 8 signatory based in Fort Chipewyan, ACFN upholds inherent and Treaty rights while stewarding a globally significant freshwater delta at the heart of the boreal. Governance, advocacy, and planning are grounded in responsibilities to land and water carried forward for future generations.
Knowledge lives in stories, placenames, and travel routes law, memory, and use held by Elders and knowledge-keepers to share across the community. That living record guides how decisions are made and how youth connect to language, places, and protocols. In recent years, ACFN has formalised consultation and advanced rights-based monitoring and knowledge-centre work bringing cultural memory into well-organised, retrievable forms that strengthen day-to-day planning, consent processes, and community connection.
WHAT THEY NEEDED
To launch a Traditional Knowledge Stories map, ACFN needed a Nation-led planning framework that honoured Denésuliné protocols and would stand up under scrutiny. The path had to be phased setting up the effort, gathering and organising stories responsibly, then making them usable in everyday decisions so cultural memory could be protected and applied with confidence. Because stories, place-names and Elders’ accounts carry rights and responsibilities, the work also needed firm cultural governance: Elders’ oversight, clear consent pathways, tiered access, and archival rules that keep ownership and control with the Nation through digitisation, storage and use aligned with OCAP® (First Nations data-sovereignty principles) and ACFN’s consultation policy, and interfaced with the Community Knowledge Keeper records system.
Central to this, the framework had to bridge knowledge systems without diluting either: traditional protocols and language alongside a simple, repeatable planning discipline with clear checkpoints and roles. This would give leaders both internal legitimacy and external credibility with partners and funders as the project moved from idea to durable practice.
WHAT WE DID
Led an in-community project planning workshop that established the governing framework for ACFN’s Traditional Knowledge Stories Mapping initiative.
Set mandate, boundaries, and direction through a Project Proposal, supported by a two-level deliverables breakdown that sequenced the work from implementation through to handover and program delivery.
Made roles, responsibilities, and communications rhythms explicit, supported by a Stakeholder Analysis that mapped sponsors (Chief & Council), team members, and demonstration/update cycles to keep decision-makers informed.
Consolidated planning into a coherent Project Proposal, through a decision-ready framework providing governance, sequencing, and stakeholder structure for subsequent delivery phases.
The path was built to protect cultural integrity while ensuring usability:
- Early funding and internal setup were confirmed.
- A recognised interview protocol was integrated.
- A database-and-map structure was defined, linked to ACFN’s Records and Archiving project and the Community Knowledge Keeper system.
RESULTS WE GOT
ACFN now has a unified, Nation-led planning baseline for its Traditional Knowledge Stories Mapping initiative, a practical, defensible framework to organise, protect, and use community knowledge.
The Project Proposal set direction and parameters, while matched summary and detailed breakdowns sequenced the path from implementation to hand-over.
Decision-readiness improved across the Nation, roles, sponsors, and update cycles were defined, replacing ad-hoc coordination with a shared governance playbook.
Interview work already completed was recognised and embedded, while the database and map structure was aligned with ongoing records and archiving projects, ensuring continuity and data sovereignty.
The path to resource and deliver was clarified, funding, gap analysis, and program transfer were staged, allowing leadership to pace investment and align teams with confidence.
IN NUMBERS
1 Traditional Knowledge Stories Mapping Baseline Established
Nation-led governance foundation sequenced from implementation to hand-over: sponsors, roles and oversight set
3 Phases, 10 Core Deliverables Sequenced
Pacing funding, interviews and database/records linkage through to program hand-over
1 Records/Archiving Integration Pathway Defined
Database and map readied to link with Community Knowledge Keeper (CKK) and the Nation’s records/archiving project, preserving ACFN ownership and control.
