Introduction to Decolonization in the ENGO Sector (Spring 2026)

Dates: Wednesdays, March 11, 18, 25 & April 1, 1-4 PM ET
Cost: $100 for full series (Register 2 spots, get the 3rd free)
70 participants max. (Zoom Meeting)

All registrants will be provided with a link to access the recordings and presentation slides for 60 days following each session.

The DEFNP workshop series will offer tailored programming designed to match ENGOs on their decolonial (un)learning journeys. In Fall 2025, members of the ENGO sector will be able to choose one of three workshop tracks: Introduction to Decolonization in the ENGO Sector, Advanced Decolonial Theory and Application, or For Indigenous Ears Only - A Space for Reflection and Action. Each series consists of four three-hour sessions.‍

Collectively, Decolonizing ENGO-First Nation Partnerships fosters:

• Awareness of settler colonialism and the ways it potentially harnesses civil society;Understanding about how Canadian law such as the Indian Act and the Income Tax Act has suppressed Indigenous governance systems;
• Awareness that Indigenous peoples have unique inherent political and legal systems, with which ENGOs may want to form partnerships;
• A better understanding about how to navigate partnerships with Indigenous communities that promote decolonial environmentalism;
• A stronger sense about how to identify and explain individual and organization social locations (i.e. positionalities) as part of ethical partnership development;
• Promoting the resurgence of Indigenous self-determination in the Canadian ENGO sector.‍

Introduction to Decolonization in the ENGO Sector (Spring 2026)

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.

Instructor:

Philippe Blouin is an anthropologist and translator. His PhD, completed at McGill University in November 2025, studies how Kanien'kéha:ka (Mohawk) political philosophy challenges Western views of relating, and belonging. In particular, his work focuses on the Two Row Wampum, whose conception of alliance based on the respect of difference provides an ethical and methodological framework for settler-Indigenous relationships.