Kelsey Leonard’s WAMPUM Lab puts an Indigenous science lab on the road
A retrofitted 2014 bus with wet and dry lab space, solar panels and refrigeration will carry community-led research to remote sites.
Kelsey Leonard (Shinnecock) holds the Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Waters, Climate and Sustainability. She is a professor in Waterloo’s Faculty of Environment. Her WAMPUM Lab, which works on Indigenous ocean, water and climate justice, has built a mobile laboratory so community-led research can happen where people live.
Leonard says Indigenous nation leaders the lab works with proposed the idea, and it gained momentum at environmental conferences before COVID. The aim was a welcoming space where elders and youth can practise place-based science.
The team retrofitted a 2014 bus instead of buying a new vehicle and added solar panels. It carries wet and dry lab space, a desk, refrigeration for water and soil samples, and outdoor worktables for jobs such as fish and shellfish cleaning. Onondaga pop artist Frank Buffalo Hyde designed the exterior, with sweetgrass on one side and wampum belt designs, whales and a quahog clam on the other.
Future plans include Indigenous community events and powwows. Funding for the infrastructure came from the John R. Evans Leaders Fund of the Canada Foundation for Innovation.
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