This video and blog is part of a series sharing the themes from ICA's "Reclaiming the Sacred" Indigenous Economics online conference held June 10-12 2021. This conference was held in partnership with the Canadian Society for Ecological Economics.

Carrianne opened in a good way by sharing her knowledge of opening space through culturally relevant protocols and introducing herself in her language.  She shared a short video about the work of Turtle Island Institute, which focuses on a spiritual process of innovation for healing and social change. 

The video offered stories about the value of healing. Ceremony helps to fill up spiritually and endurance to do the work and grounds the value systems, creating a space that looks and feels like what it used to be like but also looks forward at development for the community.

The aims of Turtle Island Institute include creating a knowledge bundle together through social innovation, talking about issues with other people and building solutions together.  The process is about co-creating a knowledge base and fostering collaboration: sitting in circle, there’s no beginning, no end— no hierarchy in the learning.

Kim van der Woerd and Sofia Vitalis opened a discussion on decolonizing data, centering Indigenous values in economics through their work with Reciprocal Consulting. About the team: Indigenous researchers and knowledge keepers who have been working together for about 18 years. The group is guided by Elders and family who shared learnings throughout lifetimes, along with ancestral lifetimes as well. The key value is in human endeavour work, which is central not only through data but through economy. The group are not economists, but their practice reflects that there are different ways to see and understand the concept of “economy.”

Kim and Sofia offered comparisons across several metrics, comparing Indigenous values and the status quo which relies on colonial ways of doing/being: 

• Determining how economic status is developed  

• Measuring well-being

• Economic development 

• Setting economic development goals 

• Developing economic development partnerships 

The discussion moved into a participatory exercise where the conference attendees were invited to share via interactive discussion via a live Miro board.  The prompts included the questions: “What is data?  What is its story?”

What you can do:

• Article about relational systems thinking by Melanie Goodchild of Turtle Island Institute https://jabsc.org/index.php/jabsc/article/view/577

• Join the Turtle Lodge digital space, view the shared video, and more:  https://turtle-island-lodge.mn.co/share/9KkbaGFktAv8NObt?utm_source=manual 

• Challenge yourself to think about what data is and how it can be used.

Speaker Biographies: 

Carrianne Agawa represented the Turtle Island Institute, an Indigenous social innovation think and do tank -a teaching lodge- enabling transformative change.  Turtle island Institute honours a conscious need to reframe social innovation and complexity by drawing on Anishinaabe Gikendaasowin (our original ways of knowing).  TII strives to support the application of decolonized systems thinking concepts  and processes by holding niche space to connect the hearts and minds of those who hope to shift systems and support the sovereignty and self-determination of Indigenous communities across Turtle Island. 

Kim van der Woerd is a member of the ‘Namgis First Nation from Alert Bay, BC. Kim is the owner of Reciprocal Consulting, an Indigenous consulting firm specializing in program evaluation and research. She has 25 years of experience conducting local, provincial and national program evaluations managing over 245 projects. Kim completed her PhD in Psychology at Simon Fraser University. Her dissertation was the recipient of the Michael Scriven Dissertation Award for Outstanding Contribution to Evaluation Theory, Methodology or Practice, 2007.  Kim also received the Canadian Evaluation Society Contributions to Evaluation in Canada 2014 Award for her mentorship of Indigenous students. More recently, Kim was awarded the 2018 BC Community Achievement Award, and the 2018 Mitchell Award through the BC Achievement Foundation; as well as the Indigenous Business Award 2018 for businesses with 3-10 people. Kim and her team at Reciprocal Consulting are passionate about social justice, and culturally responsive research and evaluation. Kim has also been active in her community serving on many boards locally and nationally. 

Sofia Vitalis was born and raised on the unceded lands of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish People), and mi ce:p kʷətxʷiləm  (Tslawututh Nation, people of the Inlet). Sofia is of mixed ancestry, though her strongest cultural roots are through her maternal side; connecting to her tierra in Colombia, South America. Sofia has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology from Simon Fraser University, where her passion was deepened for critical reflection of systems and heart-centred value that affect all aspects of her work and life. Passions she was able to foster and grow through the work she does at Reciprocal Consulting. In her role, Sofia is passionate about adapting and rebuilding social and institutional systems to centre people's needs. Sofia also thrives on fostering relationships and deepen understanding through the organizational and community education work she is privileged to do at Reciprocal Consulting.