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.