Towagh Behr, M.A.

Director of Research & Operations

Towagh leads an interdisciplinary team of researchers and software developers in providing support to Indigenous communities and nations across Canada. Working within the context of Environmental Assessments, Towagh and his research team work exclusively with Indigenous communities to understand and communicate likely effects of industrial development upon their rights, title, traditional practices, cultures, and communities. Over the past twenty years leading Indigenous Land Use Studies (ILUS), Traditional Use Studies (TUS), Cultural Heritage Assessments (CHA), and Cumulative Effects Assessments, Towagh has had the honour of leading hundreds of interviews, workshops, and fieldwork trips with Indigenous knowledge holders.  He has also trained numerous community members in Aboriginal Title and Rights research methodologies. Through his hands-on experience of the challenges faced in community-based research projects, Towagh recognized the need for better software and data management tools. As a result, he has spent the past fourteen years managing the development of the Community KnowledgeKeeper software, which is now used to manage research and consultation-related data for numerous Indigenous communities and nations.

Towagh has a BA (joint honours anthropology & sociology) from McGill University and an MA in cultural anthropology and environmental studies from the University of Victoria, where his research focused on the use of New Media to work with First Nations in creating their own multimedia representations of their cultures, languages, and traditional knowledge. Towagh has provided expert testimony in regulatory processes and continues to be a regular presenter at academic and professional association conferences. In addition, he recently developed and taught an upper-level Anthropology course, Applied and Community-Based Anthropology, at the University of Victoria. 

Email: towagh@kwusen.com