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Foundations

2016-17: Knowledge-sharing conference at VIU’s Cowichan campus

2016-2018: Conversations at the Council for the Advancement of Native Development Officers annual meetings

2018: Leadership team completed UBC’s Reconciliation in Education MOOC and OCAP’s on-line training courses

2018: Partnered with Indigenous Student Centres and Applied for Ontario Research Fund – Research Excellence and SSHRC grants; Formed Advisory Council

2019: Indigenous and non-Indigenous student team training and collaborative work on research agenda and initial timelines

2018-2024: Research is guided by Indigenous voices to benefit current and future Indigenous post-secondary students’ career pathways and employment experiences

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The Two Row Wampum-Covenant Chain Tradition as a Guide for Indigenous- University Research Partnerships

(Hill & Coleman, 2019)

Lori Campbell, AVP Indigenous Engagement, U Regina, 2-Spirit nēhiyaw āpihtākosisān iskwew from Treaty 6 territory in kīwētinohk kisiskāciwan

Myeengun Henry, Indigenous Knowledge Keeper, U Waterloo, formerly Chief of the Chippewas of the Thames First Nation

Another practice we aimed to follow was a two row wampum-covenant chain model of Indigenous and non-Indigenous research partnership. Rick Hill and Danial Coleman write about the treaty formed between the Hodinöhsö:ni' confederacy and Dutch merchants arriving near Albany, New York in 1609. The treaty represented promises of friendship and peace for all time.

The Dutch represented this agreement on paper, with three silver chains, hence the Silver Covenant Chain of Friendship.

The Haudenosaunee made a belt of wampum shells to record this agreement. Two purple rows represent two boats travelling on a river, represented by the white shells. The Haudenosaunee canoe runs parallel to the Dutch ship, each maintaining and respecting their own ways of life while sharing the water in peace and friendship.

As Hill and Coleman explain, this model of navigating the research waters in separate but parallel boats can help guide University and Indigenous partnerships. For the non-Indigenous researchers on our team, this helped us understand that not all collaborative work needs to be done together. Rather, our Indigenous partners might be working on one initiative, for example building an alumni database, while the Canadian partners were working on conference submission paper.

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Guiding

Principles

We focus on trust, moving beyond mandated cultural competency training that increases awareness but can also cause resentment and divisiveness.

We bring Indigenous voices to lead organizations in adapting existing systems to make space for Indigenous employee well-being and success.

We emphasize changing organization systems to support Indigenous employees, complementing cultural training efforts aimed at shifting majority group employee attitudes.

We work to build trust: respectful relationships, cultural safety, and networks of trust. Employee trust increases engagement, job satisfaction, performance, & commitment.

We recognize that Indigenous Peoples refer to over 630 First Nations communities, the Inuit, and the Metis people in Canada. And while Indigenous peoples represent diverse groups with unique and rich cultures that in general share values that are more holistic, spiritual, traditional, egalitarian, and other-oriented than non-Indigenous populations. Holistic values and relationality assist in understanding the meaning of work and workplace experiences of Indigenous employees, many of whom strive for balance across intellectual, spiritual, physical, and emotional states as well as equilibrium in their relationships with the self, family, community, and creator. These values may translate into distinct ways of relating to people and work that non-Indigenous Canadian organizations struggle to understand.

Rather than just teaching about Indigenous cultures, the Indigenous Workways toolkit provides pathways to build trusting relationships and trustworthy workplaces. You will learn to recognize the experiences of Indigenous employees in mainstream Canadian organizations and build competencies in interpersonal and organizational practices designed to build trust. Employees, managers, and organizational leaders will be equipped to lay the foundations for workplaces that are inclusive and supportive of Indigenous employees. And the resulting interpersonal and organizational trust can lead directly to desired outcomes such as increased organizational commitment and job satisfaction and decreased turnover intentions for Indigenous employees.

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Why “Workways”?

The term “workways” was created from the word “folkways” that is used to characterize a social group’s norms, customs, and ways of being.

Indigenous Workways refers to characteristics broadly applicable to the way Indigenous peoples relate to work and engage with work.

Here “work” refers to modern, industrialized forms of work in Canadian organizations.

We recognize that we learned won’t apply to all Indigenous employees or all Canadian organizations. Rather, it provides a general understanding, painting a landscape.

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Indigenous Workways Toolkit

On-line Employee Training Modules

Introduction to Indigenous worldviews
Relational communication
Microaggressions in the workplace
Understanding stereotype threat
Holistic conflict management
Psychological safety and cultural safety in the workplace

Organizational Resources

Indigenous employee mentorship framework manual
Organizational cultural safety assessment and manual
Indigenous youth career camp/day documents

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