A note on COVID 19: Riparia staff have made the decision to cancel our 2020 expedition due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Read the full statement here.
OUR MISSION
To motivate and inspire young women* to enjoy and protect fresh waters and the outdoors.
*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 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
TRIPS
2019
POISSON BLANC
QC, CANADA
Riparia hosted a free, five-day canoe-camping expedition in the Poisson Blanc Regional Park, in Quebec, Canada in August 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.
2021
POISSON BLANC
QC, CANADA
We will return to the beautiful Poisson Blanc Regional Park, in Quebec, Canada in August 2021 to again document the ecological state of the region and inspire the next generation of female scientists. For this expedition, we will continue to partner with experienced expedition guides from Boreal River Adventures to ensure safety and comfort.
OUR TEAM
Dalal Hanna
Dr. Dalal Hanna is a conservation and landscape ecologist who is passionate about researching environmental challenges to try and foster a more equitable and sustainable future.
She completed a PhD in Natural Resources Sciences at McGill University in 2020, and is currently a postdoctoral fellow at Carleton University where she conducts research related to freshwater ecosystem conservation. She is interested in using her research findings to inform landscape-scale 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
Dr. Andrea Reid is a citizen of the Nisga’a Nation and an incoming Assistant Professor with the University of British Columbia’s Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries (starting January 2021). There, she will lead the Indigenous Fisheries Research Unit, working to build a national and international hub for the study and protection of culturally significant fish and fisheries. Her research program adopts highly interdisciplinary and applied approaches to improving our understanding of the complex interrelationships between fish, people and place.
Andrea’s PhD in Biology (Carleton University ’20) centered on multiple stressor effects on Pacific salmon, using tools and insights from Western and Indigenous sciences in tandem. Andrea is a National Geographic Explorer (Grantee ’12,’15,’16,’19) and a Fellow of The Explorers Club (FI’19).
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.
EXPEDITION GALLERY
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