Dara Kelly

Speaker Bio:

Dr. Dara Kelly is from the Leq'á:mel First Nation, part of the Stó:lō Coast Salish. She is an Assistant Professor of Indigenous Business at the Beedie School of Business, SFU. She teaches in the Executive MBA in Indigenous Business and Leadership program, and on Indigenous business environments within full-time and part-time MBA programs. Dr Kelly's research helps fill in gaps in the literature on the economic concepts and practices of the Coast Salish and other Indigenous nations. She has presented in numerous conferences and public spaces in an effort to challenge conventional economical practices and inform positive change by drawing on knowledge of Indigenous economics. She is co-Chair of the Indigenous Caucus at the Academy of Management and serves on the board of the Association for Economic Research of Indigenous Peoples.

Presentation: Feed the people and you will never go hungry: Illuminating the Ethics of Coast Salish economy

In this presentation, Dr Kelly presents a Coast Salish philosophy of freedom, unfreedom, wealth and reciprocity and how that shapes Coast Salish philosophy of economy. Within the economic institutions of feasting, each living generation lives through and contributes to the stories of the ancestors, just as they lived through and contributed to the stories of theirs. Each voice in oral history is valued for their individual insights, but all are also part of an interconnected story guided by the wisdom of elders past, present and future who pass on the Teachings as a foundation for all Coast Salish knowledge. Embedded within Indigenous economies are ethical foundations for Indigenous futures of intergenerational wellbeing, freedom and belonging.