CONNECTING YOUNG WOMEN
& SCIENCE ON THE WATER
Free trips on Canadian rivers and lakes to steward a love for science, learning and fresh waters
OUR MISSION
To motivate and inspire young women* to enjoy and protect fresh waters.
*inclusive of all female-identifying youth
OUR VISION
To run free outdoor trips that impart a lifetime of love and understanding of fresh waters.
OUR FOCUS
To serve young women who are interested in the outdoors and science but have limited access to outdoor learning opportunities.
WHAT WE DO
Riparia is a Canadian organization that works to connect young women with learning opportunities on the water.
Each year we run our signature program in the Poisson Blanc Regional Park of Quebec that brings young women on a free week-long canoeing and camping trip.
With our team of guides, they get unprecedented access to tools (underwater drones! portable microscopes!) and different ways of thinking about and doing science. Participants leave our program with robust outdoor skills, lasting friendships and the know-how to protect our fresh waters for life.
OUR VALUES
Valuing different ways of knowing and learning.
Valuing different ways of knowing and learning.
DIVERSITY
Creating space for all youth, including non-binary, Indigenous and others.
EQUALITY
Valuing different ways of knowing and learning.
ACTIVE
LEARNING
We use participants questions and interests to drive learning.
STRONG
BONDS
We emphasize loving relationships with each other and the world around us and work to uphold these with responsibility and reciprocity.
GENEROUSLY SUPPORTED BY
EXPEDITIONS
2019
POISSON BLANC
QC, CANADA
Riparia hosted a free, five-day canoe-camping expedition in the beautiful Poisson Blanc Regional Park, in Quebec, Canada from August 1st to 5th, 2019. We worked with 10 young women aged 13-18 recruited through Native Montreal and the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board to document the ecological state of the region and inspire the next generation of female scientists. For this expedition, we partnered with experienced expedition guides from Boreal River Adventures to ensure safety and comfort.
OUR TEAM
Dalal Hanna
Dalal Hanna is an aquatic and landscape ecologist and National Geographic Explorer who is passionate about researching environmental challenges to try and foster a more equitable and sustainable future.
Currently, she is completing her PhD at McGill University in Canada. Her focus in on the diverse ways rivers contribute to human well-being, and how protecting them influences their ability to make these contributions. She is interested in using her research findings to inform freshwater conservation policy.
When Dalal is not busy not asking scientific questions about the environment, she’s usually exploring it. She has hiked the Fagarash mountains in Romania, biked around Gaspésie in Canada, dived through caverns in Mexico, ridden camels in the Sinai desert, paddled 7000km across Canada to raise funds and awareness for watershed conservation, and worked as a science educator on rafting and canoeing expeditions. Riparia is her ideal vehicle to combine her passions for science, education and outdoor activities.
Andrea Reid
Andrea Reid is an Indigenous fisheries scientist and conservation biologist based in Canada.
Andrea combines ecological and social science methodologies, adopting an integrative approach to complex fisheries questions. She belongs to the Nisga’a Nation on British Columbia’s North Coast and has significant experience with Indigenous fisheries communities, practices, perspectives and issues in British Columbia as well as around the world (East Africa, Oceania and Southeast Asia).
Andrea holds a B.Sc. in Environment and a M.Sc. in Biology from McGill University. She is co-supervised between Carleton University and the University of British Columbia for her Ph.D. in Biology centered on Pacific salmon fisheries and conservation. Her research and outreach are supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Royal Canadian Geographical Society and the National Geographic Society.
Mikayla Wujec
Mikayla is a photographer, science communicator and environmental scientist. Her work fuses technology, storytelling, and research to communicate science to help educate and empower citizens and decision-makers to generate sustainable solutions for our planet.
Mikayla has lived and worked in North America, Southeast-Asia, and the Indo-Pacific to study vulnerable marine species and the ecological and cultural systems they support.
She couples research with storytelling via film, photography, and writing to build awareness and inspire action for these and other global issues facing our planet. She is a published writer, photographer, and videographer and has worked with conservation organizations, governments and businesses to create programs with measurable change.