Danilo (Giniw) Caron is advocating for decolonizing engineering design and project delivery by incorporating Indigenous ways of knowledge into Western engineering principles.
While applying to UBC in 2016, Caron didn’t consider how his Anishinaabe background would impact his engineering education. It wasn’t until his undergraduate studies began that he became aware of the knowledge gap about Indigenous cultures in academia.
“I started to see avenues that were less explored or less understood around Indigenous cultures,” said Caron, now a second-year UBC PhD student in civil engineering.
The recipient of the Indigenous and Black Engineering and Technology Momentum Fellowship — which provides $25,000 support per year for 4 years for Black and Indigenous students to study and conduct research at UBC — Caron researches the architecture, engineering and construction industries.
The heart of Caron’s research is benefitting the communities that infrastructure serves by changing design methods and construction. Although civil engineering is often thought of as great feats of altering the natural landscape (think: the Empire State Building and the Golden Gate Bridge), Caron highlighted that it can also look like working with ecosystems holistically and developing infrastructure such as water systems.
“Things that get less attention but they really provide wellness to communities,” said Caron. “That’s why I think civil engineering is a really great place to start to decolonize.”
Supporting intercultural ties
Part of Caron’s research explores the impact of Indigenous law and governance on construction, as Western engineering education doesn’t typically provide students with insights into Indigenous legal orders or pre-colonial practices.
This involves examining project delivery methods, where designers, contractors and other stakeholders collaborate to develop a product.
In an environment where Indigenous elders and Western-trained professionals work together, intercultural collaboration is crucial in ensuring smooth project delivery. According to Caron, the process isn’t always easy.
“It’s not as simple as putting them in the room. There has to be a cultural competency built up over time really hinging on relationship based on trust,” said Caron.
In many cases, Indigenous knowledge can also be exploited by non-Indigenous interests.
Biopiracy, for example, is the unauthorized extraction and patenting of biological resources and associated traditional knowledge.
Exploiting the medicinal qualities of plants by pharmaceutical industries without credit or compensation further erodes the trust between Indigenous communities and academia.
Caron also analyzes case studies, aiming to introduce culturally relevant methods into modern engineering.
“The research ideally is mutually beneficial, so that what we learn together has value for the community,” said Caron. “It has value for our industry partners, and it also has value to me as someone who’s on a learning journey.”
Toward a more inclusive environment
According to a 2022 Engineers Canada survey, just over one per cent of students in accredited undergraduate engineering programs identify as Indigenous, making Indigenous students vastly underrepresented in the engineering community.
To help address this, Caron works as an Indigenous student engagement coordinator at UBC, where he organizes community events and opportunities for Indigenous engineering students.
“Students who actively come out to events, they find some measure of comfort in knowing that they’re not the only Indigenous students,” said Caron.
Caron is also working on a Pathways program, which is based on similar programs from the University of Manitoba and the University of Saskatchewan,, to help Indigenous students lacking first-year prerequisites improve their academic requirements for engineering.
He hopes to achieve an enrolment level on par with the percentage of Indigenous Peoples in the Canadian population within a few generations.
“We have a long way to go.”
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