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We all belong to some form of culture and identify with that culture in varying degrees. Our understanding of our own cultural identity begins at birth and is developed by the environment in which we grow up. It may be a loose affiliation or the guide that directs our daily activities. Whatever the connection, our cultural identity provides a sense of belonging.

There are more and more articles in the news about the value of Indigenous traditional knowledge being taken into account in climate change studies, environmental assessments, wildlife management, plant species’ studies. That has not always been the case. Historically, traditional ecological knowledge was largely ignored by western ecological science practitioners.

In this article, we take a look at the many factors that had to be in place to support recognition of Indigenous traditional knowledge (ITK) from obscurity to being considered a valuable asset in environmental studies. At the time of this writing, May 2018, it is still not mandatory in the environmental assessment process.

I want to reflect on how the social and political landscape of Canada is changing. It may not be as fast as some of us would like, or as all-encompassing, but it is happening.

I’m convinced partially because I am an Indigenous relations trainer and my training calendar is increasingly at capacity. The increase in demand for information about Indigenous Peoples started to pick up about five years ago and has increased sharply in the last 12 months. The people taking our courses are from all walks of life. Some take the training for personal growth, as a pledge to reconciliation, while others are there because their corporate leaders or department heads want the team to have Indigenous relations training.

There’s lots of lore and misconceptions about First Nation totem poles. In this article we address six of the more common misconceptions.

What does Indigenous knowledge (IK) mean? That’s a big question because “there are approximately 370 million Indigenous people in the world, belonging to 5,000 different groups, in 90 countries worldwide. Indigenous people live in every region of the world...” [1] At this point, there isn’t a hard and fast definition accepted and recognized by all; it can mean different things to different societies and cultures.

Indigenous people account for less than five percent of the Canadian population, yet represent 25 per cent of the total inmate population. Canada is not alone, however, in having over representation of Indigenous inmates. In Australia and New Zealand the rate of incarceration of Indigenous people is also disproportionately high.

The abundance of dogs in both non-Indigenous and Indigenous communities in northern Canada is an escalating animal welfare issue. This article takes a look at the initiatives of the Ontario SPCA to work with Indigenous communities to provide animal welfare services and programs to facilitate a solution. The Ontario SPCA and partners have just launched “The Year of the Northern Dog” campaign to bring awareness, attention, and action to the overpopulation of dogs in the north

Canada has a complicated history with the totem pole. Totems have been misunderstood, coveted, stolen, quashed, copied, and celebrated.

The first recorded mention of a pole, which was a house pole,  was on Langara Island in the Haida village of Dadans, c.1790, by John Bartlett, who wrote: 

“We went ashore where one of their winter houses stood. The entrance was cut out of a large tree and carved all the way up and down. The door was made like a man's head and the passage the house was between his teeth and was built before they knew the use of iron."

In Canada, access to clean drinking water is considered a given. A given, I suspect, that is frequently taken for granted by those who enjoy clean drinking water at the twist of the tap. For thousands of Indigenous Peoples, clean water at the twist of tap is an elusive dream. Entire generations in some communities have grown up under various degrees of drinking water advisories (DWA). The Neskantaga First Nation, with a population of about 240, in northern Ontario has had a DWA in place since 1996. That means one full generation has grown up under a DWA and a second generation is now growing up having never turned on the tap for a glass of water.

When communicating cross-culturally there are certain sensitivities around language used in the letter and expectations placed on the recipient of the letter. In this article we focus on some guidelines for writing a letter to request a meeting with an Indigenous leader and provide some tips, as well as some do’s and don’ts.