Copper Joe Jack

INDIGENOUS LAND PLANNER
Elder Copper Joe Jack is a highly respected Indigenous Knowledge Holder from Kwänlin Dän Kwächʼǟn (White horse, Yukon) who has spent decades working as a negotiator, Indigenous land use planner, and community leader.

Copper has 25 years of experience in Land Claims Agreement & Self-Government Agreement negotiations, and 30 years of experience in leadership and management roles within YFNs at the local and regional levels. His negotiation experience also includes leading complex, multi-party negotiations between First Nation, Territorial/Provincial and Federal Governments in the Yukon Umbrella Final Agreement (UFA), Gwich’in Tribal Council SGA, and Northern Shuswap Tribal Council negotiations processes.

Copper possesses a two-year Renewable Resource Diploma, Yukon College Business Administration Certificate, Justice Institute of British Columbia Conflict Resolution Certificate and has completed an MBA program in Community Economic Development.

Among his many successful endeavors, Copper owned and operated a small adventure travel and cultural tourism business in the Yukon in the 1990’s, called Atsi Tan (Grandpa’s Trails) Tours that included Elders home visits, entertainment shows, high-mountain trekking, and river canoe trips.

Copper Jack is also the creator of the Land & Peoples Relationship Model -  a consent-based decision-making tool that has guided numerous collaborative planning processes in the North. He will share this model with us and invite us to explore how it can shape ongoing ethical and relational approaches to knowledge-sharing in research, policy, and governance, as they relate to waters, land and ways of knowing.