Emilee Gilpin

Advisor, First Nations Forward Victoria, B.C. English, Portuguese, Spanish

, Energy, Politics, Culture, Indigenous rights, Clean energy, land and water policy and projects

About Emilee Gilpin

Emilee Gilpin is a key advisor for National Observer's 'First Nations Forward' special report. Emilee produced most of the reporting on the first two years of the series from 2017-2019. With a keen focus on inspirational stories of leadership and success, she traveled through British Columbia, building relationships and documenting stories of governance, self-determination and alternative ways forward. For the past year, she served as Managing Director.

Her stunning visual, verbal and written journalism for First Nations Forward twice earned her the Canadian Association of Journalists nomination for "Emerging Indigenous Journalism."

A Michif nomad, she worked in the first 9 months of 2020 from Bahia, Brazil. She is Métis, Filipina, European (3rd & 4th gen. settler). She now resides in the traditional territories of the W̱SÁNEĆ Peoples.

94 Articles

How we save the land and water from ourselves

We listen. We watch. We remember.

First Nations Forward

Opinion, Entertainment, Energy, Politics, Culture | October 14th 2020

The land is our dinner table

Chief Malii came to understand quite well what his grandfather had meant when he said the land is hanii tohowxt, or what could only be loosely translated to “dining table.” “My grandfather meant the whole lax yip (territory) provided moose, salmon, berries, medicines. All the things that provide for your dinner table, the land provides."

First Nations Forward

News | September 18th 2020

How Gerry Oldman forgave and fought his way to freedom

Gerry Oldman said he used to be a body bag of hurtful and hateful memories before he learned two important lessons: forgiveness is to cast out and let go, and though his spirit could lose the will to live, it would never die.

First Nations Forward

News | August 26th 2020

If Haida children can understand risk and respect, why not a sport-fishing lodge?

First Nations Forward

News | July 22nd 2020

COVID-19 crisis tells world what Indigenous Peoples have been saying for thousands of years

Deforestation, loss of biodiversity and expansion of large-scale industrial development are related to pandemics, Indigenous leaders say.

News | March 24th 2020

We desperately need to be talking about food sovereignty

Dawn Morrison has dedicated a large part of her life to educating around the unsustainability of the global food industry, which moved from local place-based foods and traditional harvesting, hunting and fishing after the industrial revolution. She says COVID19 should be a massive wake up call for people to stop placing profit over people, and to return to ways that nurture food sovereignty.

First Nations Forward

News, Energy, Politics, Culture | June 9th 2020

Indigenous people in Brazil hit hard by COVID-19

Brazil is second in the world for total highest COVID-19 cases and death rate, following the U.S. But it is Brazil’s Indigenous communities who have been hit especially hard, highlighting the ongoing political, social and geopolitical conflict.

First Nations Forward

News | July 7th 2020

Timely words of wisdom from a master weaver and graduate of the school of life

Debra Sparrow is a master weaver from the Musqueam First Nation who graduated from the school of life. She was decolonizing before it was cool, she said during a First Nations Forward Facebook live interview. Sparrow followed her grandfather around for 15 years, researched stories of her people in museums, and thread by thread, found herself, and what it meant to be successful.

First Nations Forward

News | July 3rd 2020

Indigenous-led conservation, natural law and a different future

“Our stories are true,” Tyson Atleo's great-grandmother used to tell his father growing up. Tyson Atleo's father taught his son the same words. Throughout his life, Atleo came to understand what those words, "our stories are true" meant.

First Nations Forward

News, Energy, Politics, Culture | June 24th 2020

If life before this was ‘normal,’ I don’t want to go back

Systemic racism, unfettered capitalism and environmental destruction have reached a boiling point in 2020.

First Nations Forward

Opinion, Politics | June 2nd 2020