Brenda l. Parlee
Professor,, Bieler Chair in Northern Climate Change and Sustainability
McGill University
Selected Publications
Climate Change and Governance in Northern Canada and the Arctic
MacKay, M., Parlee, B., & Parkins, J. R. (2021). Towards energy security in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region: insights from community members and local residents. Local Environment, 26(9), 1128-1144.
Dokis-Jansen, Kelsey L., Brenda L. Parlee, Łutsël Ke, Dëne First Nation, David S. Hik, Benoit Gendreau-Berthiaume, Ellen Macdonald, Christina Stinn, and Nicole Giguère. "These Trees Have Stories to Tell." Arctic 74, no. 3 (2021): 290-305.
MacKay, M., Parlee, B., & Karsgaard, C. (2020). Youth engagement in climate change action: Case study on indigenous youth at COP24. Sustainability, 12(16), 6299.
Khalafzai, M. A. K., McGee, T. K., & Parlee, B. (2020). Frequent flooding and perceived adaptive capacity of subarctic Kashechewan First Nation, Canada. Arctic, 73(4), 433-449.
Parlee, B. (2020). The Poltics of a Polar Bear Crash. In I. Krupnik & A. Crowell (Eds.), Arctic crashes: People and animals in the changing north. Smithsonian Scholarly Press.
Khalafzai, M. A. K., McGee, T. K., & Parlee, B. (2019). Flooding in the James Bay region of northern Ontario, Canada: Learning from traditional knowledge of Kashechewan First Nation. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 36, 101100.
Parlee B. (2016). Mobilizing to Address the Impacts of Oil Sands Development: First Nations in Environmental Governance. Adkin L. First World Petro-Politics: The Political Ecology and Governance of Alberta. University of Toronto Press: 329-355.
Parlee, B. (2012). Finding voice in a changing ecological and political landscape—Traditional knowledge and resource management in settled and unsettled claim areas of the northwest territories, Canada. aboriginal policy studies, 2(1).
Northern Sustainability
Karsgaard, C., Parlee, B., Catholique, A., & MacKay, M. (2024). The “gift” of Indigenous knowledge and critical, place-based curriculum development through ethical relationality. Curriculum Inquiry, 54(3), 208–230. https://doi.org/10.1080/03626784.2025.2456811
Southcott, Chris, Frances Abele, David Natcher, and Brenda Parlee, eds. Resources and sustainable development in the Arctic. Routledge, 2018.
Parlee, B. (2018). Resource development and well-being in northern Canada. In Resources and Sustainable Development in the Arctic (pp. 132-155). Routledge.
Parlee, B. (2022). Impacts of Mining on Well-Being: A Disconnect between Theory and Practice. Extractive Industry and the Sustainability of Canada's Arctic Communities, 278.
Southcott, C., Abele, F., Natcher, D., & Parlee, B. (2018). Beyond the Berger Inquiry: Can Extractive Resource Development Help the Sustainability of Canada's Arctic Communities?. Arctic, 71(4), 393-406.
Parlee, B. L. (2015). Avoiding the resource curse: indigenous communities and Canada’s oil sands. World Development, 74, 425-436.
Amati, C., Parlee, B., & Krogman, N. (2015). Experiences of opportunity in the northern resource frontier. Northern Review, (41), 181-206.
Parlee, B. (2015). The social economy and resource development in Northern Canada. Northern communities working together: The social economy of Canada’s North, 52-73.
Parlee, B., & Furgal, C. (2012). Well-being and environmental change in the arctic: a synthesis of selected research from Canada’s International Polar Year program. Climatic Change, 115, 13-34.
Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainable Use
Mariam Wallet Aboukakrine, Brenda Parlee, Zoé Boirin-Fargues, Alejandro Argumedo, Clint Carroll, Maria Eugenia Choque Quispe, Hanna Guttorm, Carwyn Jones, Irja Seurujärvi-Kari, Wasiq Silan/I-An GAO (高怡安), Prasert Trakansuphakon, and Sherry Pictou. 2025. Ărramăt: an example of Indigenous Peoples’ holistic approach of health and well-being. FACETS. 10: 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1139/facets-2023-0191
McDowell, G., Stevens, M., Marshall, S., Higgs, E., Jacob, A., Johnson, G. M. J., ... & Lancaster, S. (2023). Canadian Mountain Assessment: Walking Together to Enhance Understanding of Mountains in Canada. In Canadian Mountain Assessment. University of Calgary Press.
Mansuy, N., Staley, D., Alook, S., Parlee, B., Thomson, A., Littlechild, D. B., ... & Didzena, F. (2023). Indigenous protected and conserved areas (IPCAs): Canada's new path forward for biological and cultural conservation and Indigenous well-being. FACETS, 8, 1-16.
Fromentin, J. M., Emery, M. R., Donaldson, J., Balachander, G., Barron, E. S., Chaudhary, R. P., ... & Tittensor, D. (2023). Status, challenges and pathways to the sustainable use of wild species. Global Environmental Change, 81, 102692.
Clark, D. A., Brook, R. K., Doney, E. D., Frank, B., Jung, T. S., Lee, D. S., ... & Parlee, B. (2021). Collaborative and consensus‐based approaches for human–wildlife coexistence: response to Treves and Santiago‐Ávila 2020. Conservation Biology, 35(4), 1334-1336.
Oloriz, C., & Parlee, B. (2020). Towards biocultural conservation: Local and indigenous knowledge, cultural values and governance of the White Sturgeon (Canada). Sustainability, 12(18), 7320.
Fisheries and Watershed Management
Silvano, R. A., Baird, I. G., Begossi, A., Hallwass, G., Huntington, H. P., Lopes, P. F., ... & Berkes, F. (2023). Fishers' multidimensional knowledge advances fisheries and aquatic science. Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 38(1), 8-12.
Parlee, B., Huntington, H., Berkes, F., Lantz, T., Andrew, L., Tsannie, J., ... & Howlett, T. (2021). One-size does not fit all—a networked approach to community-based monitoring in large river basins. Sustainability, 13(13), 7400.
Martin, C., Parlee, B., & Neyelle, M. (2020). Fishing Livelihoods in the Mackenzie River Basin: Stories of the Délįne Got’ine. Sustainability, 12(19), 7888.
Spicer, N., Parlee, B., Chisaakay, M., & Lamalice, D. (2020). Drinking water consumption patterns: an exploration of risk perception and governance in two first nations communities. Sustainability, 12(17), 6851.
Caribou and Wildlife Health
Parlee, B., Ahkimnachie, K., Cunningham, H., Jordan, M., & Goddard, E. (2021). “It’s important to know about this”-risk communication and the impacts of chronic wasting disease on indigenous food systems in Western Canada. Environmental Science & Policy, 123, 190-201.
Parlee, B. L., Sandlos, J., & Natcher, D. C. (2018). Undermining subsistence: Barren-ground caribou in a “tragedy of open access”. Science Advances, 4(2), e1701611.
Parlee, B. L., & Caine, K. J. (Eds.). (2018). When the caribou do not come: Indigenous knowledge and adaptive management in the Western Arctic. UBC Press.
Wheeler, H. C., Berteaux, D., Furgal, C., Parlee, B., Yoccoz, N. G., & Grémillet, D. (2016). Stakeholder perspectives on triage in wildlife monitoring in a rapidly changing Arctic. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 4, 128.
Parlee, B., Manseau, M., & Łutsël K'é Dene First Nation. (2005). Using traditional knowledge to adapt to ecological change: Denésǫłıné monitoring of Caribou movements. Arctic, 26-37.
Community Health and Well-being
Bruno, G., Bell, R. C., Parlee, B., Lightning, P., Bull, I., Cutknife, B., & Oster, R. T. (2022). Mâmawihitowin (bringing the camps together): Perinatal healthcare provider and staff participation in an Indigenous-led experiential intervention for enhancing culturally informed care—A mixed methods study. International Journal for Equity in Health, 21(1), 1-10.
Chiu, A., Goddard, E., & Parlee, B. (2016). Caribou consumption in northern Canadian communities. Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health, Part A, 79(16-17), 762-797.
Salokangas, R., & Parlee, B. (2009). The influence of family history on learning opportunities of Inuvialuit youth. Études/Inuit/Studies, 33(1), 191-207.
Parlee, B., & O’Neil, J. (2007). “The Dene way of life”: Perspectives on health from Canada’s North. Journal of Canadian Studies, 41(3), 112-133.
Gender and Resource Management
Parlee, B., & Wray, K. (2016). Gender and the social dimensions of changing caribou populations in the Western Arctic. Living on the land: Indigenous women’s understanding of place, 169-90.
B., Berkes, F., & Gwich’in, T. I. (2005). Health of the land, health of the people: a case study on Gwich’in berry harvesting in northern Canada. EcoHealth, 2, 127-137.
Teetl’it Gwich’in Renewable Resources Council, Parlee, B., Berkes, F., & Teetl’it Gwich’in Renewable Resources Council. (2006). Indigenous knowledge of ecological variability and commons management: a case study on berry harvesting from Northern Canada. Human Ecology, 34, 515-528.
Collaborative Research Methods
Wray, K., Soukhaphon, A., Parlee, B., D’Souza, A., Freitas, C., Heredia, I., ... & Spicer, N. (2020). Aligning intentions with community: Graduate students reflect on collaborative methodologies with indigenous research partners. Sustainability, 12(18), 7534.
Nesbitt, R., Hutchinson, N., Klein, H., Parlee, B., Hart, J., & Manzo, L. (2019). The “One Voice” method: Connecting Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit with western science to monitor Northern Canada’s freshwater aquatic environment. Polar Knowledge: Aqhaliat Report, 1, 70–77. https://doi.org/10.35298/pkc.2018.09
Land Acknowledgement
McGill University is on land which has long served as a site of meeting and exchange amongst Indigenous peoples, including the Haudenosaunee and Anishinabeg nations. We acknowledge and thank the diverse Indigenous peoples whose presence marks this territory on which peoples of the world now gather.