Your Indigenous Relations Strategy Needs to be More Than “Sounds Good”
“Sounds good.”
It was those two words that made me realize that a client was not suited for Words for Impact, and it was time to let go my affiliation with them.
These two words followed a very-well thought out e-mail to the client’s leadership that indicated where they may have a strong opportunity to collaborate with a First Nations organization that had shown repeated interest in what they offered.
What my client offered was education about an issue that affects Indigenous peoples in Canada at alarming rates higher than those experienced in non-Indigenous, or colonial Canada. What was offered by the First Nations organization showing repeated interest in their education was an opportunity to work towards truth and reconciliation between Indigenous peoples and those who have benefitted by Canada’s gruesome colonial history.
In my email to the organizational leadership highlighting these opportunities, I realized I was in the wrong company when “sounds good” was the response I got. After a more “honest” response from me that outlined why this kind of response to an Indigenous Relations strategy was a bad showing of the organization, we parted ways.
Since 2021, more Canadians began becoming aware of the country’s shameful history when unmarked graves were revealed within residential schools, and the true atrocities of forced assimilation of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis in Canada.
Just as in 2020 with the murder of George Floyd in Minnesota, it became a fast priority to put DEI into corporate strategies with strong communications statements with a dedication to inclusive and safe environments, land acknowledgments, and self-serving invitations to include Indigenous peoples within events as a check mark of showing your organization cares.
It’s not hard to see that such efforts have begun to dim as time passes and more division is created in the world now more than ever.
Something I have noticed since this “sounds good” interaction is that a lot of white people – including myself – can be comfortable within their ignorance. We lived with the wool pulled over our eyes for so long and were told false narratives about the history of Canada that made us accept that as the truth.
Recognizing and making true efforts towards reconciliation has simply become an inconvenience for too many of us, while so many Indigenous peoples are asking us to become familiar with – and act upon – reconciling our understanding of the past with the truths that are right in front of us.
If your company claims to be concerned with Indigenous Relations, or if it hasn’t even thought of it as a concern, I highly recommend the work and resources available from Indigenous Corporate Training Inc. because of this one true statement: everything you do within your business, corporation, or organization must consider the impacts on Indigenous communities. If you cannot understand that statement, that is a strong indicator you are living with a strong knowledge gap.
Indigenous Corporate Training Inc. offers some tremendous training programs for non-Indigenous people and organizations on how to build effective and authentic relationships with First Nations, Inuit, and Métis communities. Their specialized consulting services help organizations take their knowledge and intentions to the next level with very interesting packages that help show Indigenous communities know you actually care and will do the work towards truth and reconciliation.
For those businesses and individuals who do not have the resources for training or consulting, the Indigenous Corporate Training Inc.’s Working Effectively with Indigenous Peoples® Blog is one of the richest of resources for understanding the TRUE history of Canada and how you can be a more effective contributor to undoing the harms done by our colonial history.
Indigenous Corporate Training Inc.’s mission is “to guide, train, and support learners in Working Effectively With Indigenous Peoples®. [They] are dedicated to fostering understanding, respect, and collaboration between individuals, organizations, and Indigenous communities. Through [their] training programs, resources, and partnerships, [they] aim to promote cultural competence, reconciliation, and the empowerment of Indigenous peoples. [Their] goal is to create positive and meaningful relationships that contribute to the preservation of Indigenous cultures, the advancement of Indigenous rights, and help to change the world for the better for everyone.”
Indigenous Corporate Training’s vision is “continuing to be the trusted guide for learners in their quest for reconciliation and making the world a better place for future generations.”
Having taken their training, I couldn’t be more grateful for the opportunities non-Indigenous people have at their fingertips to work towards more effective Indigenous Relations for a better future for ALL of Canada.
Just a reminder, “sounds good”, is not enough to reconcile hundreds of years of history.
Anne-Marie E. Fischer, BA (Hons), M.Ed., blends her passion for the written word with her vocation to create a better world through effective communications, education, and Community Based Research (CBR).
Words for Impact is the culmination of Anne-Marie’s passions, talents, training, experience, and education. This unique company offers grant and proposal writing, research studies, research reports, impact reports, content development, brand development, communications consulting, biography/autobiography (ghost)writing, education and training materials, curriculum development, podcast script writing, journalistic articles, press releases, developmental editing, in-line editing, and fact-checking.
Words for Impact has a specific interest in serving nonprofits, not-for-profits, community organizations, Indigenous organizations, highly-regulated sectors, individuals & entrepreneurs, podcast hosts, and innovative industries.
Learn more about Words for Impact’s services here and past Impact Projects that Anne-Marie has been involved in here. Dedicated to helping you find the right words for the things that matter.