Food Sovereignty Webinar:

On October 9 (English) and 10 (French) 2024, Odonaterra hosted webinars on food sovereignty, as the first of a series to provide space for Indigenous communities to share their experiences and community-based projects/initiatives. 

If you missed the webinars, recordings of the presentations are available on Youtube:

English Webinar French Webinar  

A big thank you to everyone who joined us! Your enthusiasm and engagement made the event truly special. We hope you found it inspiring and valuable. Some highlights and learnings included:  

• Food security means that communities are able to access nutritious and affordable food at all times, while food sovereignty means that communities lead their own initiatives and determine their own food systems, which may be more specialized to community cultural, social and ecological values and needs to achieve resilience and wellbeing.  This was a focus of the presentation from Laura Wilmot at the First Nations of Quebec and Labrador Sustainable Development Institute. 

• In Ontario, food forests are being implemented to access food and build a relationship with the environment and traditional medicines. Plants from the region are incorporated to ensure that the food harvested is resilient within its environment. This was a focus of the presentation from Tina Nichol at Keepers of the Circle.  

• “Bioregional appropriateness” is a term used to describe the link between the location where foods are harvested and the nutrition they hold. Generally, foods that grow within a region have the nutrients and vitamins that are beneficial to people living in that region. In other words, the land you are on holds the medicine you need.  

• Applying for food security funding can be difficult. That does not mean that these funding opportunities are not relevant to your project. Support is available to navigate how to apply in ways that help you get what you need from the funding available (see funding list and contacts for support). 

We have also created a list of food security and food sovereignty funding opportunities for Indigenous organizations. 35

We look forward to seeing you at our next webinar in early 2025! Stay tuned for updates.  

Français 

Le 9 octobre (anglais), ainsi que le 10 octobre (français) 2024, Odonaterra a organisé des webinaires sur le sujet de la souveraineté alimentaire. Cette initiative s’inscrit dans le cadre d’une série à venir, laquelle se veut un espace de partage et d’échange pour les communautés autochtones, notamment sur leurs projets et initiatives.  

Si vous avez manqué les webinaires, les enregistrements des présentations sont disponibles sur Youtube:

Français   Anglais

Nous tenons à remercier toutes les personnes s’étant jointes à nous. Votre enthousiasme et votre participation ont rendu cet évènement spécial. En espérant que vous ayez été inspiré! 

Voici quelques éléments et apprentissages mis en lumière durant les webinaires: 

• La sécurité alimentaire reflète l’accès constant des communautés à des aliments nutritifs et abordables, alors que la souveraineté alimentaire signifie que celles-ci mènent leurs propres initiatives et déterminent quels sont leurs propres systèmes alimentaires. Ces derniers peuvent être plus adaptés aux valeurs et aux besoins culturels, sociaux et écologiques de la communauté afin de se diriger vers la résilience et le bien-être. Accédez à la présentation de Laura Wilmot, de l’Institut de développement durable des Premières Nations du Québec et du Labrador. 

• En Ontario, les forêts nourricières sont mises en œuvre comme moyen d'accéder à la nourriture et d'établir une relation avec l'environnement et les éléments reliés à la médecine traditionnelle. Les plantes de la région y sont notamment incorporées pour garantir que les aliments récoltés soient résilients dans leur environnement (voir la présentation de Keepers of the Circle, laquelle est disponible en anglais seulement).   

• Le concept de « Bioregional appropriateness » est un terme utilisé pour mettre en lumière le lien entre l'endroit où les aliments sont récoltés et les éléments nutritifs qu'ils contiennent. En général, les aliments qui poussent dans une région donnée contiennent les nutriments et les vitamines qui sont bénéfiques pour les populations y vivant. En d'autres termes, la terre sur laquelle vous vous trouvez contient les nutriments dont vous avez besoin. 

• Il peut être difficile d’appliquer sur des offres de financement pour la sécurité et la souveraineté alimentaire. Néanmoins, cela ne signifie pas que ces offres de financement ne sont pas pertinentes pour votre projet. Un soutien est disponible pour vous aider à faire votre demande de manière à obtenir ce dont vous avez besoin du financement disponible (consultez la liste des financements et des contacts disponibles). 

Nous avons dressé une liste des offres de financement reliés à la sécurité et à la souveraineté alimentaires pour les organisations autochtones.  

En espérant vous retrouver lors de notre prochain webinaire à l’hiver 2024! Demeurez à l’affût des mises à jour! 

Updated funding opportunities (October 2024)

Looking for funding for a project? The Odonaterra team has added updated details of current funding opportunities available to Indigenous communities. The lists add some new funding initiatives from governments and specific opportunities for communities in Ontario and Quebec, with a focus on:  

• capacity building  

• economic development 

• environmental management 

• climate change 

• food security & sovereignty

• forestry 

• governance, land claims and land management 

• impact assessment  

• mining and mineral exploration 

You can view and download the lists here: 

• Quebec funding list

• Ontario funding list

Contact us if you would like to discuss any of these opportunities, or how the Odonaterra team can help to support your community! 

Join our team as our new Operations Coordinator!

As our Operations Coordinator, you'll work 3 days per week (24 hours) with the team to manage all aspects of business operations. Ideally, you will be based in North Bay, Ontario to work directly with the Managing Director / CEO, or be able to travel to North Bay weekly to complete your work. At least some of your work week will be spent in the North Bay office with the expectation that you work from the office at least once a week.

Click HERE to view the full job posting. 

2023 Odonaterra Highlights

Odonaterra has had another successful year thanks to our clients and partners! 

Our team continued to grow this year when Richard was hired as the Strategy & Engagement Director and CE Strategies became a trusted business partner offering GIS services on our projects. We also gained 3 new Indigenous clients and started 9 new projects, including facilitating Indigenous land claim processes, supporting a health and socio-economic baseline study, reviving an Indigenous-led impact assessment, co-developing an Indigenous environmental assessment law, and enabling regional planning and assessment. 

Internally, we have completed a strategic plan for the company. This has helped us to focus on how to develop our organization and services, with clear actions for our team to address. Biannual team retreats and monthly lunch and learns provide opportunities for our remote team to collaborate on projects and cross-train on skills.  

Members of our team attended a variety of conferences this year to support professional development goals and to leverage important networking opportunities, including the Northern Lights Conference (read about Fiona’s experience here), the Indigenous Centre for Cumulative Effects ICCE 2023 Conference, and CenCan Expo. Caroline also co-presented an Indigenous-led process with Chief Davie Joanisse at the Canadian Institute’s Cumulative Effects conference.  

In 2024, members of our team will be presenting on Indigenous-led impact assessment at PDAC 2024, the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada conference in Toronto, and at IAIA24, the International Association for Impact Assessment’s annual conference in Dublin, Ireland. 

We look forward to strengthening our relationships and meeting new clients and partners in the new year while continuing to deliver decolonized services. If you are looking for support to develop Indigenous-led projects or processes, connect with us to discuss how we can work together in 2024!

We wish you a safe and happy holiday season and prosperous new year! 

Reflections of an Indigenous-led impact assessment and community-industry collaboration

Two years ago, Odonaterra worked with the Cree Nation of Wemindji and the Newmont Éléonore (NÉ) mine to complete a Cree-led Social and Indigenous Rights Impact Assessment (SIA) based on the community’s rights, values and interests. NÉ’s corporate standards require a 5-year review of social impacts for its mines and hired Odonaterra and partner, Waptum (a Wemindji-owned business) because of our unique approach to Indigenous-led impact assessments. The Odonaterra/Waptum team suggested that NÉ support an impact assessment guided by community input on actual effects and that is based on Indigenous rights. The results of the assessment have improved the relationship between NÉ and Wemindji.

Two years later, we are pleased to share the perspectives of community members and NÉ in our summary video. Click the image below to launch the video.

Indigenous-led assessments like this one, are not yet common in the mining world, but are beneficial for several reasons:

• They respect the rights, needs, and interests of impacted communities.

• They ensure that Indigenous groups to lead in the identification actual community impacts and determine how severe these are for the community.

• They ensure that Indigenous groups develop effective solutions and mitigations that are mutually beneficial to impacted communities, the mine, and government agencies.

• They enhance relationships between community and industry.

• They enhance transparency and accountability.

When Odonaterra started communicating with Wemindji and NÉ about the SIA, Newmont was new to the community-led design process. Nevertheless, NÉ was keen to get started – or rather, for the community to get started. NÉ supported the process but was not involved in the impact assessment itself, which was key to developing unbiased, community-based data. Odonaterra worked with Waptum to conduct community engagement sessions and ensure diverse community voices were represented in the impact assessment.

Once the SIA was complete, NÉ met with Wemindji to discuss the results. Initially, community members were hesitant about sharing their thoughts with NÉ. By building trust through the Indigenous-led process, the Odonaterra/Waptum team was able to open discussions. Although community members still had reservations about discussing the recommendations with the mine, our team reminded participants that the SIA had been Cree-led, the results reflected Wemindji’s interests, and that NÉ was in fact willing to work with them to implement recommendations. With time, Wemindji members felt more comfortable with the process and more enthusiastic to see the implementation of the SIA.

By using this unique approach, Wemindji members took a chance to allocate energy and resources to leading the assessment. NÉ similarly took a risk by voluntarily using an innovative and community-driven method to complete an internally mandated 5-year review of the project. As a result of this innovative approach, several outcomes were observed, including:

• Increased capacity of Wemindji members to participate in impact assessment.

• NÉ becoming more aware of the community’s needs and expectations.

• Both Wemindji and NÉ are increasing their willingness to communicate and collaborate on implementation strategies.

• NÉ  demonstrating commitment to increased transparency and accountability in implementing mitigations informed by the community.

• NÉ is now better positioned to address the needs of the community and strengthen local relationships.

• The project has contributed to Newmont achieving a AAA score in all of the Towards Sustainable Mining Indigenous and Community Relationships categories for the first time.

Based on the benefits from piloting an equitable and representative approach to the impact assessment, the team hopes to see similar processes adopted across extractive industry. Reflecting on this experience, the Odonaterra/Waptum team learned that even with a mediating consultant and open dialogue, decisions based on colonial ideas have created distrust that is difficult to overcome. The team is hopeful that collaboration and an improved industry-community relationship continues to develop between Wemindji and Éléonore and implementing similar processes elsewhere could contribute to reconciliation between Indigenous communities and industry.

If you are open to collaborative, decolonized approaches to impact assessment, or need support developing an Indigenous-led process, connect with us to discuss how we can work together.