Free on Zoom Webinar
*This session will NOT be recorded.
Sustainability Network is thrilled to invite you to a fireside chat with Kris Archie and Jess Housty, speaking about the Upwelling Learning Agenda. This initiative, led by The Circle on Philanthropy (The Circle) in partnership with Environment Funders Canada (EFC) brings together the insights of thirteen Indigenous leaders who have worked with settler-led ENGOs across three coasts.
Over two years, The Circle facilitated a collaborative truth-telling process to elevate the voices and experiences of these leaders while critically examining the partnerships between settler-led ENGOs and Indigenous peoples. The resulting learning agenda will serve as an important resource for ENGOs in the settler world, guiding them toward more respectful, reciprocal, and supportive relationships with Indigenous partners.
Attendees are requested to read and reflect on the Learning Agenda in advance of the virtual session, where the presenters will then engage in a fireside chat about the highlights of the process and recommendations to provide deeper insights and enrich the written content. There will also be an opportunity to submit your questions via Q&A.
Don’t miss this opportunity to engage with this important work. We look forward to seeing you there!
Our Presenters:
Kris Archie is a Secwepemc and Seme7 woman from Ts’qescen, a mother, an aunty and an engaged community member. She is also the Chief Executive Officer for The Circle on Philanthropy (The Circle). Kris is a long time practitioner of hosting conversations that matter and currently works to transform philanthropy and contribute lasting systemic change by creating spaces for shared learning and centering Indigenous wisdom. Her biggest joy is working alongside a creative and engaged group of humans surrounding The Circle, from the staff team to Governing Circle directors and members. She has worked to create a workplace and a member network who truly think and do their work differently - and do that good work together for the purpose of redistributing wealth.
She is a PLACES Fellow Alum of 2016 with The Funders Network, a board member of NDN Collective, and a former board member of Environment Funders Canada. She is also a Dialogue Fellow with Simon Fraser University focused on Indigenous ways of knowing and Philanthropy. She loves live music, her puppy Pepper and swimming at any pésellkwe in Secwepemc territories.
Jess Housty is a Haíɫzaqv parent, poet, and land-based educator living in their homelands in the community of Bella Bella, BC.
Jess serves their Haíɫzaqv community as the Executive Director of Qqs (Eyes) Projects Society, and serves the wider BC Central Coast region as the Lead at Coastal Foodways. They also work as a Co-Lead with the Right Relations Collaborative in support of just and equitable relationships between Indigenous changemakers and the philanthropic sector.
They are the author of Crushed Wild Mint, a debut poetry collection (Nightwood Editions, 2023).
Session 1: Settler Colonialism 101
Introduce ENGO representatives to the fact that colonization is a structure and not an event. Identifies key ways that colonialism moves through individuals and organizations.
Session 2: Positionality
ENGO representatives learn how to articulate their social location within a settler colonial state, and in relation to potential Indigenous partners.
Session 3: Inherent Indigenous Governance 101
Introduce the fact that Indigenous nations have their own sources of political authority that they can (and do) draw on when addressing environmental issues. Examples provided.
Session 4: Building Better Relations
ENGO representatives will road test ways they can implement previous workshop key points to re-imagine partnerships with Indigenous nations.
Cost: $100 (or register 4 staff from the same organization for one stream and get the 5th registration free)
All registrants will be provided with a link to access the recordings and presentation slides for 60 days following each session.
Session 1: Diagnosing Settler Colonialism in the Enviro Sector
Participants will be asked to share ways in which they have diagnosed and traced power in social justice movements and/or in the ENGO sector. This workshop will make space for discomfort as part of promoting decolonization.
Session 2: Inherent Indigenous Governance
A mix of advanced and introductory theory, this workshop delves into legal and political pluralism, naming the fact that Indigenous nations have their own sources of political authority that they can (and do) draw on when addressing environmental issues.
Session 3: The Nonprofit Industrial Complex
ENGO participants are introduced to theories and examples describing the Nonprofit Industrial Complex and the “Shadow State.” Purpose is to show how settler colonialism structures civil society.
Session 4: Decolonizing ENGO-First Nation Partnerships
This workshop delves deep into how ENGOs can partner with Indigenous nations beyond the Nonprofit Industrial Complex while promoting deference to inherent Indigenous political leaders.
Cost: $100 (or register 4 staff from the same organization for one stream and get the 5th registration free)
All registrants will be provided with a link to access the recordings and presentation slides for 60 days following each session.
The Indigenous only space will be collaborative in nature but critical in approach. This track is a space for Indigenous folks within the ENGO sector to come together to discuss their experiences and work, with an eye to taking a position on what the sector might need to do in order to promote decolonization. Participants will use the first session to define our goals for the remaining three meetings. Therefore, session topics named here are proposals only.
Session 1: Naming the Cannibal: Settler Colonialism in the ENGO Sector
Session 2: Proposed topic: Reflections on working in the ENGO Sector
Session 3: Proposed topic: Centering Indigenous Thought in the ENGO Sector
Session 4: Proposed topic: Visioning a Decolonial Environmental Sector
Cost: Free
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