Welcome, I’m Allison Bishop
My family immigrated from the United Kingdom as agricultural labourers in the late 1800’s. Our family continues to live in the homelands of the seven Williams Treaty Nations.
Today, I am grateful to call Guelph, Ontario home. Guelph is situated in the treaty territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, and is adjacent to the Haldimand Tract, lands promised to the Haudenosaunee following the American Revolution.
These lands and waters are part of the Dish with One Spoon Covenant - an agreement between the Anishinaabe of the Three Fires Confederacy and the Haudenosaunee Confederacy to peaceably share and care for the abundant life within the Great Lakes Basin.
My Work
Spanning public policy, post-secondary and public education, and, more recently, research, my work has always contributed to social justice and reconciliation.
From 2019-2025 I served as the Partnership Manager for the Conservation through Reconciliation Partnership, an Indigenous-led national network that aimed to catalyze and support Indigenous-led conservation in Canada.
In 2026, I completed a PhD in Social Practice and Transformational Change at the University of Guelph. My dissertation, "Navigating change in fraught terrain: Towards transforming colonial conservation in Canada", supports the resurgence of Indigenous self-determined conservation futures by examining how non-Indigenous actors in the conservation sector are responding to Indigenous leadership and by examining the barriers and possibilities for decolonial change.
I am currently serving as Research Lead with the Unama’ki Institute of Natural Resources, supporting the Etuaptmumk (Two-Eyed Seeing) Co-Learning Hub for Indigenous-Led Nature-Based Climate Solutions. The Hub is creating opportunities for co-learning, research, and relationship-building in support of Indigenous-led climate and conservation initiatives in Mik’ma’ki and beyond.