For Indigenous Ears Only - A Space for Reflection and Action (Spring 2026)

Dates: Mondays, March 2, 9, 16 & 23, 1-4 PM ET
Cost: Free (Zoom Meeting)
Maximum 70 participants.

*All registrants will be provided with a link to the recording and presentation slides following each session. The recording will be available for 60 days.

The DEFNP workshop series will offer tailored programming designed to match ENGOs on their decolonial (un)learning journeys. In Fall 2024, 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 two-hour sessions.

Collectively, Decolonizing ENGO-First Nation Partnerships fosters:

• Awareness of settler colonialism and the ways it potentially harnesses civil society;
• Understanding 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.‍
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For Indigenous Ears Only - A Space for Reflection and Action

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

Our Presenter

Jocelyn Cheechoo is a member of Moose Cree First Nation and is the Senior Specialist for Hudson and James Bay Lowlands for WWF Canada. She has extensive experience working with and for First Nation communities on their territories on issues and projects related to climate change, waste management, research, land use planning and energy. Jocelyn practices cultural harvesting with her family and is also reclaiming and learning the language her grandparents spoke, Cree L-dialect.