Position
2013-2014, 2015-2016 Former Visiting Research Fellow
Centre for Global Studies
Contact
Office:
Sedgewick C192
Eli is a Nuu-chah-nulth Canadian political scientist who has focused in Constitutional Law, International Dispute Resolution and Ecological Governance. Co-founder of the Ha’uukmin Tribal Park in Clayoquot Sound on the west coast of Vancouver Island. Eli is the great grandson of Nah-wah-sum - public speaker and historian for Wickaninnish, Tyee Ha’wiih of Tla-o qui-aht. A proud father of five, Eli holds himself accountable to Future Ancestors and invests his time in several related capacities: Committee Member - Canadian Commission for UNESCO Man and the Biosphere National Committee; Director - Plenty Canada; Business Development Liaison - Ecotrust Canada; and as the North American Regional Coordinator for the Indigenous Peoples' and Community Conserved Territories and Areas Consortium (ICCAs).
Through the natural education (Ha’huupa) provided by his elders, Eli has gained an appreciation for the profound simplicity of Hishuk-ish Tsawaak (everything is one and interconnected) - applying this perspective in his life and work through the pursuit of common ground, alternative pathways to economic certainty, environmental stewardship and assertion of Aboriginal Rights and Title. Building on experience in a variety of community development areas at the Tyhistanis Equilibrium Community Development site in the Pacific Rim National Park Reserve and at Opitsaht in the Meares Island Tribal Park, Eli has developed an Indigenous Watershed Management Area Program which aims to compliment an Ecological Governance approach with a well thought out Ecological Economics component.