Laura Goyhenex

LAURA GOYHENEX, then a graduate student at University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, Scotland, was awarded funding in April 2022 to aid research on “Following Dene Ch’ani’ . Roads for Tth’b’tth__ D’nes____ne to Inhabit Changing Subarctic Landscapes (NWT and Alberta, Canada),’ supervised by Dr. David George Anderson. This research was co-constructed with a Dene First Nation located in Alberta and Northwest Territories, Canada. It focuses on intertwined pathways of transportation, specifically traditional and industrial trails and routes. As a part of the First Nation-led initiative to clean up uranium ore transported and spilled on its traditional territory between the 1930s and 1960s, the research investigates how trails and paths are remembered, through uses of the land and water, memory, and dreams. It also highlights how (nuclear) contaminations continue to affect First Nations members in the region, their relationships to the land and beings, and their Treaty Rights in general. Traditional and industrial trails and routes, whether safe or intoxicated, are understood in relationships with stories passed on and told, and with regards to Dene spiritual pathways.