Challenges and opportunities facing rural, northern and Indigenous communities in Canada —with a focus on the implications of remoteness for sustainable livelihoods —will be at the heart of a Brock University-led conference in Canada’s north next week.

Kyle Rich, Associate Professor with Brock’s Department of Recreation and Leisure Studies, is collaborating with the Canadian Rural Revitalization Foundation and Yukon University to host the Northern Dialogues Conference from Tuesday, May 21 to Friday, May 24 at Yukon University in Whitehorse.

The conference is one of several outreach activities related to Rich’s research. He studies how community, policy and social inclusion/exclusion shape experiences in sport, recreation and physical activity programs, especially in rural and remote municipalities. Funded by the Government of Canada through a Connection Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the knowledge mobilization initiatives Rich has planned under the grant will connect academics with practitioners, policy-makers and community members invested in rural and northern issues.

“When we talk about ‘rural,’ it’s always about distance and density,” says Rich. “Specifically, population densities or long distances to large population densities. Remoteness is the idea of being far away from other things.”

The Northern Dialogues Conference will focus on the intersection of remoteness and sustainable livelihoods across three interrelated themes: innovation and community development; education, health and social systems; and culture, heritage and well-being.

Kyle Rich, Associate Professor with Brock’s Department of Recreation and Leisure Studies.

Topics are intentionally broad, says Rich, touching on innovation, economic development, mining, food security and welcoming newcomers into rural communities.

“That’s the rich and interesting part of these types of meetings,” he says. “All the issues are discussed together under one roof. It’s at the core of how rural scholars and practitioners collaborate.”

Rich will be joined by several Brock students in presenting research on the experiences of migrant health-care workers settling in rural communities; provincial sport organizations’ perspectives on rural and remote communities in Ontario; and the logistics and decision-making processes of recreation organizations in northeastern Ontario.

Rich will also present research on the way Canada’s territories manage sport and recreation, which he says is very different than in the provinces.

“Sport and recreation are much more closely linked in the territories and geography is an important factor in shaping these activities,” he says. “In Nunavut, for example, hockey teams may have to fly into each other’s communities to play in a tournament.”

Conference attendees will also participate in excursions within Yukon communities, visiting local farms, hiking to an Indigenous heritage site and making a trip to Carcross to learn about the history of Yukon University and the Carcross/Tagish First Nation.

While in-person registration is closed, virtual attendance is still welcome, which includes admittance to select sessions.

“These interdisciplinary knowledge mobilization opportunities are so important to connect diverse audiences around themes that are important to communities,” says Rich. “With rural and remote places often being spread out and unable to connect otherwise, coming together for these discussions is even more important to support capacity building and resiliency.”