Biography
My name is Lauren King, and I am a second-generation settler Canadian. My maternal grandparents, Ivy Brown and George Davies, immigrated from England and settled in Simcoe, Ontario, and my paternal grandparents, William King and Eva Hyde, immigrated from Japan and England and moved to Edmonton, Alberta. My parents are Elaine Davies and William King.
I was born and raised in Mississauga, Ontario on Head of the Lake Purchase Treaty No. 14 land of the Huron-Wendat, the Seneca, and Mississaugas of the Credit. I now live in Somba K’é (Yellowknife), Denendeh (Northwest Territories) on Treaty 8 territory of the Dënesųłıné and Métis with my husband, Sean Magee, and our wonderful daughter’s Isla and Ivy King.
I began my PhD in 2013 in the School of Environment, Resources, and Sustainability. My research is with the Łutsël K’é Dene First Nation on the establishment of Thaidene Nëné Indigenous Protected Area as an expression of Łutsël K’é self-determination. I took a three-year hiatus from my formal studies to work as the Manager of the Wildlife, Lands, and Environment Department for the Lutsel K’e Dene First Nation. As the Manager, I had the privilege of working on a wide range of activities including land-based programming, a guardian program, stewardship planning, wildlife co-management, a community-based digital archive, environmental assessments, and regulatory processes. During this time, my husband and I welcomed our first daughter, Isla, in summer 2017. In 2019, my family and I moved to Somba K’é where I continued to support Łutsël K’é and work on my PhD until our second daughter, Ivy, arrived. I recently began working for the Territorial Government as a Protected Areas Management Planner in November 2021. I am currently inactive but plan on resuming my studies on a part-time basis.
Research interests
Indigenous protected and conserved areas, protected areas co-governance, Indigenous self-determination, decolonization, community-based participatory research.
My
research
interests
center
around
relationships.
My
dissertation
research
focuses
on
the
relationship
between
Indigenous
Protected
and
Conserved
Areas
and
Indigenous
self-determination;
between
Crown
and
Indigenous
governments;
between
settler
and
Indigenous
participant-researchers.
Research highlights
Land-based
methodologies
and
disrupting
settler
colonial
legacies
in
parks
and
protected
areas:
lessons
from
Tracking
Change
One-size
does
not
fit
all
–
A
networked
approach
to
community-basedmonitoring
in
large
river
basins
A
decolonizing
settler
story
Creating
an
Indigenized
Visitor
Code
of
Conduct:
the
development
of
Denesoline
self-determination
for
sustainable
tourism
The
role
of
tour
operators
in
delivering
a
Leave
No
Trace
program:
The
case
study
of
Algonquin
Provincial
Park