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Dene Kayeh Institute

Photo courtesy of Dene Kayeh Institute
The Dena Kayeh Institute (“DKI”) is a non-profit society that was established in 2004 and created to empower, preserve, and protect the Kaska Dena language, oral traditions, history, culture, and traditional knowledge. The BC Kaska communities have designated DKI as their representative to administer the collection and management of their Traditional Knowledge, which focuses on the collection, storage and management of traditional ecological knowledge that provides for:
  •  Reclaiming our role as stewards of land and resources in our ancestral territory;
  • Development of a long-term capacity to promote and implement a Kaska land ethic;
  • Recognition that land stewardship requires our communities to be healthy and it is our belief that economic activity that generates jobs and wealth can be achieved consistent with our land ethic; and ultimately; and
  • The mission of the DKI is using the tools of traditional knowledge and western science to protect the ecological integrity of our lands and waters and enhance the cultural heritage and socio-economic well-being of our people.
The primary work of DKI over the past year is to work with the Kaska communities on designing an Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area (IPCA) within the Kaska Ancestral Territory in BC. Our efforts will include numerous community meetings, interviews with Elders and land stewards, reviewing traditional knowledge within our database, developing and implementing communication strategies to reach those Kaska citizens living out of the communities and to begin to illustrate how the Dane nan yḗ dāh land guardian program will be incorporated into the management of the IPCA.