The Aboriginal Sustainability Network： Post－Workshop Report

How have aboriginal communities tried to balance their needs for sustainable development with growing global demands for resources? Could the horizontal sharing of strategies among these communities improve outcomes for all of them? This paper reports on the establishment of a trans-national knowledge network (TKN) linking five aboriginal nations in four countries. Combining a series of in-country workshops with an Internetbased “community of practice”, the network facilitates the exchange of knowledge and strategies among communities working to develop environmental sustainability. Workshops held in several communities in Taiwan and Canada in May-June 2007 combined presentations, group exercises and techniques derived from participatory research to facilitate a knowledge exchange among participants and invited experts about approaches to environmentally sustainable socio-economic development. This paper discusses the relevance of the project to contemporary theoretical work in geography, progress to date, experience of participants and hurdles encountered.