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30 MINUTE YARNING CIRCLE / CULTURAL ACTIVITY - Marking Indigenous Stewardship: Making Iyethka Traditional Eagle Staffs for Land-Based Reconciliation

Tracks
Tully 3
Wednesday, July 29, 2026
11:00 AM - 11:30 AM

Speaker

(prefer not to say) Audrey Lefort
MA Anthropology Student
University of Saskatchewan

30 MINUTE YARNING CIRCLE / CULTURAL ACTIVITY - Marking Indigenous Stewardship: Making Iyethka Traditional Eagle Staffs for Land-Based Reconciliation

ISE Congress 2026 Abstract

This cultural activity will address the importance of marking where Indigenous knowledge keepers have exercised their rights to protect and preserve medicine and spirits through traditional studies. Focus will be given to the traditional eagle staffs used by Iyethka people to signal their heritage and stewardship within the Canadian Rocky Mountains, situated in the province of Alberta. Colonial Canadian legislation prevented the physical trademarking of burial grounds, traditional research areas, and spiritual and medicinal harvesting sites. Consequently, the decomposed eagle staffs have been replaced by stake flags, fences, and signs that now dictate how Iyethka people can protect and access their home. Over the years, Wyanne Smallboy Wesley and her family have challenged the written documentation of the landscape by government and industry that dismiss their Traditional Oral Knowledge. They have worked with Provincial and Federal Parks to reconcile their relationship and educate the public on the holistic expertise of their knowledge holders. They wish to demonstrate Indigenous people's contribution to science by returning the eagle staffs to harvesting, healing, and spiritual sites, and securing the areas with Iyethka documentation. Audrey Lefort, an anthropology master's student from the University of Saskatchewan, joined Bighorn community members during the summer of 2025 to collect stories and plant samples at these sites with the goal of investigating how new coal mining projects could impact the caretaking practices of Iyethka people. The 60-minute cultural activity will allow 20-40 participants to design a small eagle staff with ribbons and wax string while learning about Wyanne’s and Audrey’s Two-Way Science collaboration. The different components of the staff will be explained and tied to the relationship between Iyethka people, spirits and medicines that are being threatened by growing industries in the Canadian Rocky Mountains. Participants will leave the activity with their own personal marker and Iyethka knowledge.

Biography

Audrey Lefort is an Anthropology master's student at the University of Saskatchewan supervised Dr. Clinton Westman and Dr. Janelle Baker. Wyanne Smallboy Wesley is an Iyethka Neweyo knowledge holder and consultant from Chiniki First Nation. They use Iyethka Traditional knowledge to recognize longstanding Indigenous stewardships of the Canadian Rocky Mountains.
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