Our People
Mutang Urud (Executive Director) is a Kelabit from Sarawak, Borneo who for the past three decades has been involved in protecting their traditional territory from deforestation by logging, pulp and paper and palm oil plantations and Hydro dam. He has been involved with the international Indigenous political movements since 1992 and has spoken at the United Nations General Assembly regarding human rights. In Canada he has worked for a decade among Aboriginal youth in the environmental and outdoor education, based in British Columbia. He now dedicates his time to protecting his people’s culture and language through recording and writing of his people’s oral history, published a dictionary and published a cultural map of Kelabit traditional territory. Currently, he is pursuing a PhD in Indigenous language revitalization.
Mary Stockdale (Director) is an adjunct professor in the Department of Community, Culture and Global Studies at University of British Columbia, Okanagan branch (UBCO), where she teaches and conducts research related to community resilience, sustainability and natural resource management. She has 20 years experience working in Southeast Asia (mainly Indonesia and the Philippines) on community-based management of forests and non-timber forest products (NTFP). She works closely with the NTFP-Exchange Programme for South and Southeast Asia, a regional network of community organizations (mostly Indigenous), local NGOS, and others. She is also active in her own community in Canada, working on resilience and sustainability initiatives.
Jon Corbett (Director) is an Associate Professor at UBC Okanagan, the director of the SpICE Lab (Spatial Information for Community Engagement) and all-round map geek. All aspects of his research include a core community element; this means that the research is of tangible benefit for the communities with whom he works and that those communities feel a strong sense of ownership over the research process.
Alix Flavelle is a forester, has worked with NGOs and Indigenous communities in Canada and SE Asia (Sarawak, Kalimantan and Thailand) on community mapping and ecosystem-based land use planning since 1991. She has authored handbooks on participatory mapping. She has a 4th degree black belt in Aikido and owning a Aikido dōjō in Victoria BC, and is currently working towards certification in dispute mediation and conflict resolution.
Todd Biderman (Director) has over 15 years experience working with local civil society and community organisations supporting rights-based community development and sustainability initiatives. He has worked extensively with Indigenous communities in remote areas of Indonesia, and remains active in several national and international coalitions supporting ecological and social justice in Canada and the Asia-Pacific region.