Reflections on 2024

Odonaterra’s 2024 word of the year is gratitude. 2024 was a year filled with new employees, partnerships, opportunities, growth, learning, and capacity. Our team gained a new Impact Assessment Planner, Mathilde Butler, and a new Operations Coordinator, Lindsay McCabe. Our team was grateful for the time and quality of work that Stephanie Ruddock and Richard Truman contributed during their time at Odonaterra before leaving in 2024 to pursue different opportunities.

Our team gained knowledge and capacity in food security and sovereignty, which enabled us to expand our services to offer food security and sovereignty planning and host our first ever webinar!

While there is still progress to be made in the world of Indigenous reconciliation, rights, and self-determination, our team was extremely grateful to have worked with communities and experts across Canada on projects that pushed the bar forward. Such projects include Indigenous-led impact assessment, community-created impact assessment toolkits, climate change resiliency strategies, land claims, health and environment studies, and food security and sovereignty planning.

Members of our team were grateful to attended a variety of conferences this year to support professional development goals and to leverage important networking opportunities, including the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada conference in Toronto, the International Association for Impact Assessment’s annual conference in Dublin, Ireland, The Quebec Association for Impact Assessment’s annual conference  in Quebec City, The Ontario Association for Impact Assessment annual conference in Toronto, and Food Secure Canada’s Towards Sustainable Foods Systems conference in Montreal. This year, you can find we’ll be attending and presenting at conference including the Indigenous Center for Cumulative Effects conference (ICCE) in Vancouver.

We want to thank all our clients, employees, and partners for all that we achieved in 2024. We look forward to strengthening our existing relationships and building new ones in 2025 while continuing to deliver services that empower communities and uplift self-determination.

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!