Announcing the recipient of the 2022 Peter Jacobs Indigenous Scholarship and BC2 Indigenous Scholarship, Jordan Cantafio
Jordan Cantafio is a Red River Metis student studying at the University of Manitoba currently completing his practicum to receive his Masters of Landscape Architecture. His practicum focuses on utilizing macrophytes in a Canadian climate to extract mercurial contamination from a large scale aquatic environment. Specifically, his research looks at the water contamination of the English-Wabigoon River system in western Ontario originating from the Dryden chlor-alkali plant that has greatly affected both the aquatic ecology and the communities along the watercourse such as Grassy Narrows and Whitedog First Nation.
Jordan Co-Chairs the Indigenous Design & Planning Students Association (IDPSA), whose mandate is to promote and maintain Indigenous representation in the Faculty. Jordan is working to integrate specific and reliable Indigenous content into curriculum and coursework, while ensuring recognition of context specific differences in communities and cultures. Jordan currently works closely with the Elder in Residence and is engaged in several projects, both at the University and in community.
Jordan expresses his sincere and full appreciation for being recognized and awarded with these scholarships. The awards will significantly aid him in the focus of his practicum, and allow for him to maintain the schedule to present a final practicum in May 2023, and graduate by October 2023. The support for Indigenous students in this field is greatly important to the present and future of Landscape Architecture, and allows for Indigenous voices to be at the forefront of this profession, displaying an abundance of knowledge and experience with the Land.