We are delighted to announce that the 2025 NiCHE Prize for Best Article or Book Chapter in Canadian Environmental History has been awarded to Mayana Slobodian for her article “The Bare Island Bird Sanctuary and the Myth of Indigenous Consent: Land Theft and Conservation in British Columbia, 1912–16” in The Canadian Historical Review. Slobodian is currently a National Indigenous Homelessness Council Cultural Insights Advisor in British Columbia. She received her PhD from the University of Toronto in 2024.

We would also like to make an honourable mention of Arianne Sedef Urus’ “’A Spirit of Encroachment’: Trees, Cod, and the Political Ecology of Empire in the Newfoundland Fisheries, 1763-1783” in Environmental History. Urus is an assistant Professor of Early American History and Fellow at Christ’s College at the University of Cambridge.

Winner: Slobodian, Mayana C. “The Bare Island Bird Sanctuary and the Myth of Indigenous Consent: Land Theft and Conservation in British Columbia, 1912–16.” The Canadian Historical Review 105, no. 4 (2024): 498-523.

Telling a rich and multi-layered story of conservation, dispossession, and activism, Mayana Slobodian alerts us to the intertwined histories of sustainability, conservation, and settler colonial jurisdictional violence whilst exposing the myth of Indigenous consent. Showing how the W̱SÁNEĆ refused to surrender their reserve for the creation of a bird sanctuary at Bare Island in BC, near the provincial capital—the only such instance where an Indigenous nation successfully withheld permission—Slobodian argues that conservation and consent were bargaining chips for settler governments trying to distribute Indigenous land profitably amongst themselves. Slobodian tells a hitherto unheard story in the history of colonization in Canada involving actors often left out, including non-governmental conservation organizations. The story of the ultimately failed attempt to create a bird sanctuary at Bare Island near the provincial capital is one, as Slobodian shows, of the multi-scalar transformations envisioned, as well as the multiple sites of settler colonial violence. “The Bare Island Bird Sanctuary and the Myth of Indigenous Consent: Land Theft and Conservation in British Columbia” stands out for its original contribution to Canadian Environmental History. 

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Honourable Mention: Urus, Arianne Sedef. “’A Spirit of Encroachment’: Trees, Cod, and the Political Ecology of Empire in the Newfoundland Fisheries, 1763-1783”. Environmental History 28, no.1 (2023): 85-108.

NiCHE would also like to make a special mention of Arianne Sedef Urus’ ““A Spirit of Encroachment”: Trees, Cod, and the Political Ecology of Empire in the Newfoundland Fisheries, 1763-1783”.  Writing about Newfoundland Fisheries in the 18th century, Urus examines the relationship between the environment, empire, and the law, Urus uses a political economy approach showing how rival empires used law to manipulate cod production to serve their geopolitical aims. Urus’ innovative political ecology approach brings the role of law and legal strategies into sharp focus as well as the importance of cod fisheries despite their lacking economic value. Urus’ methodological and theoretical approach, combined with a novel reading of sources pushes the boundaries of environmental history in exciting ways. 

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The NiCHE Prize for Best Article or Book Chapter in Canadian Environmental History is awarded every other year to a meritorious publication that makes important and innovative contributions to the field of Canadian environmental history, broadly conceived. It is generously sponsored by a donation from NiCHE’s founding director, Alan MacEachern.

NiCHE wishes to thank the members of this year’s prize jury (Michèle Dagenias, Liza Piper, and Ramya Swayamprakash [chair]) for their service, and to congratulate Mayana Slobodian and Arianne Sedef Urus!