Dr. Deondre Smiles is an assistant professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Victoria. Dr. Smiles is a citizen of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, and is of Ojibwe, Black and settler ancestry. Smiles’ research interests are multifaceted, and center around four key themes: Critical Indigenous geographies, political ecology, Indigenous cultural resource preservation/protection, and science and technology studies. Smiles’ ongoing research agenda centers around connecting lessons learned from Indigenous nations in protecting Indigenous dead with the ways that nations also protect the living, including the more-than-human, in an era of climate crisis.