By On October 29 and 30, 2021, a two-day meeting and discussion workshop was hosted by LMI AMIR (Responsible Mining in Morocco: Issues, Challenges and Solutions) in Rabat, Morocco. On the theme "Mining Activities: Environmental Justice and Local Communities", the conference was an opportunity for researchers from the MinErAL Network and the IRD (French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development) to share some of their research projects and strengthen interdisciplinary and international exchanges in anticipation of the conference Mining the Connections next spring. It was also, for some of us, our first in-person academic activity since the start of the pandemic and a great relief to renew with what felt like human interactions before zoom meetings.
It was with great interest that I listened to the speakers and presented a recent publication, Indigenous peoples' agency within and beyond rights in the mining context: The case of the Schefferville region (co-authored with Sophie Thériault and Zoé Boirin-Fargues, 2021), to share some preliminary results of my Phd research in Canada and broaden the comparison with New Caledonia in anticipation of my fieldwork there in 2022. It was a valuable learning opportunity as for two days rich discussions, kind and intelligent advices as well as in-depth insight on each context were shared between the participants until late at night and it’s with the promise of an equally warm welcome in Canada what we parted ways.