PhD student Jocelyn Joe-Strack awarded Vanier Scholarship

Valued at $50,000 per year for three years, Vanier scholarships recognize top-tier PhD students who demonstrate excellence in academia, research impact and leadership at Canadian universities. A member of the Champagne and Aishihik First Nation, Yukon, Jocelyn's research will tell the story of her community’s journey towards self-determination and Indigenous-led reconciliation through development of a new, community-directed approach to land use planning.

“Our lessons and experience will have relevance across Canada and for the world’s Indigenous nations striving towards the same goal: to safeguard the future for our generations to come,” said Joe-Strack, who is supervised by Douglas Clark, Centennial Chair in the School of Environment and Sustainability.

“I am honoured to receive the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship,” she said. “This award will help me balance my academics, community and family.”

Jocelyn and her story were also covered in a CBC North story by Priscilla Hwang:

Jocelyn Joe-Strack was just 10 years old when her dad handed her a weighty historical document.

"I'll never forget my dad coming in and handing me his wrinkled piece of paper that was the [Umbrella Final] Agreement, and he was like, 'This is for you,'" said Joe-Strack, a member of the Champagne and Aishihik First Nations in the Yukon.

Her father, Willie Joe, was a member of the Yukon Native Brotherhood's executive council — one of the bodies that eventually became the Council of Yukon First Nations. The council negotiated the Umbrella Final Agreement (UFA), a political framework that several First Nations were able to use to negotiate settlements in the Yukon.

Read the full story here.