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Abstract

In the context of intensifying climate impacts, especially increasingly frequent and severe wildfires, this thesis examines how current wildlife and land-use governance in British Columbia, Canada, both constrains and could be transformed by Indigenous-led stewardship. Focusing on mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus), a species central to the St’át’imc Nation’s food systems, the research explores the misalignment between provincial legislation and Indigenous values, rights, and ecological priorities. A combined legislative and literature review revealed critical gaps in existing statutes, including the absence of climate-adaptive habitat protections, salvage logging practices that undermine post-wildfire recovery, wildlife conservation policies that fail to uphold food sovereignty, insufficient access management in fire-affected areas, and the systemic exclusion of Indigenous knowledge systems. These gaps highlight a misalignment between BC’s legislative commitments, such as the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA), and actual land and wildlife governance. Through interviews, workshops, and community dinners with St’át’imc hunters, Elders, Land Guardians, and Knowledge Keepers, this thesis further documents how community-led stewardship grounded in St’át’imc hunting practices are rooted in relational accountability, food security, and land-based knowledge, that upholds St’át’imc food sovereignty rights and may already provide a climate resilient framework for mule deer management. Participants shared visions for adaptive, inclusive, and culturally grounded management that responds to both the ecological realities of mega-wildfires and the ongoing impacts of colonization. The research underscores the need for transformative governance that centers Indigenous food systems, enables co-governance, and creates space for Indigenous laws and knowledge within wildlife and land-use decision-making. It contributes to growing calls for legislative reform that goes beyond symbolic commitments, advancing pathways toward food systems justice, climate resilience grounded in Indigenous hunting and knowledge systems, and Indigenous self-determination.