Share
    Topic

    Growing your allyship to Indigenous communities

    Indigenous Peoples have been stewards of our lands and waters since time immemorial yet their leadership and expertise is often unrecognized and excluded from conversation efforts.

    Many land trust staff and board members are unaware of the ancestral and ongoing relationships that Indigenous communities have with nature, and the ways that white-led land conservation has damaged these relationships and caused harm to Indigenous communities over the course of history and into the present.

    The resources presented below will support you and your organization in showing up as more effective, culturally competent partners to tribal governments, Indigenous-led organizations, and Indigenous communities and set your organization on a path to better meet the needs of Indigenous Peoples through land conservation.

    Remember, Indigenous Peoples are not a monolith and it's important to do your own learning about the Indigenous communities with current and/or ancestral relationships to your service area.

    Resources for change

    Keep learning

    These resources will help you better understand the histories and ongoing land relationships of Indigenous communities, and help prepare you to be a more informed, culturally competent ally and partner.

    Next steps

    Questions for further reflection

    • Which Indigenous communities have ancestral and/or current ties to the land on which your organization works?

    • How can you respectfully “do your homework” as an individual about the histories of these communities, their traditions of stewardship and their relationships to land?

    • Does your organization actively honor and make space for Indigenous leadership and expertise?

    Actions

    What 2-3 action steps can your organization take to be more informed and better prepared partners with Indigenous communities and Indigenous led organizations?

    Identify 2-3 specific areas of work where Indigenous communities can weigh in and shape programs, services or priorities. What will it take for this happen?

    Leave Feedback & Mark Complete