Indigenous Inclusion-When talk is Not Enough

There have been a great number of zoom meetings, symposiums and online conferences where Indigenous Inclusion is the topic of the day! I know because I have attended many of them.

I sign up hoping to find someone or some organization that is committed to putting themselves out there in an effort to make real change. I commend those who do organize and try to keep the conversation going. Without them I suspect the potential for real change diminishes. There is however a need to do more!

Indigenous Inclusion, the “textbook definition”:
Indigenous Inclusion is about building and fostering relationships with Indigenous people with other cultures. It is about creating a respectful environment to explore, learn, and communicate with a community that has been under-represented for a long time in history.
Bringing this one step forward we can introduce economic inclusion.

Economic Inclusion, the “textbook definition”:
Economic inclusion, the opening up of economic opportunities to under-served social groups!

Recently a well-respected Indigenous business leader who was speaking via Zoom, challenged the attendees to go outside the eco-system they created. You see, the attendees are all too familiar with themselves. The same group of like-minded people seem to gather, time and time again to talk and discuss the same topic.

His challenge resonated with me because it was not the first time, I had heard it. In fact, I have heard it many times in the council chambers of First Nations across the country, at Assembly meetings in almost every city in this country and within the halls of Parliament. In fact, it’s one of the main reasons I built the economic inclusion network, Itstimeforchange.ca.

With a single Indigenous partner and a group of people who believed we could effect real change, we began our journey to build a holistic solution addressing the economic inequalities Indigenous peoples, their communities and their businesses face.

Today, we are the number one referral by Google when searching Indigenous economic inclusion platform, the very space we know we must be in. We address the need to identify job opportunities for Indigenous peoples, create procurement opportunities and partnerships that expand the capacity of all parties involved. We have created an online economy where Indigenous peoples can share their knowledge and insights with employers in their back yard and across the country.

We did this without one dime of government money, we did this because it’s the right thing to do!

I am asking you to go outside of your eco-system, effect real change and share this post and the references to the platform and take action.

Indigenous Inclusion requires broad based participation from all Canadians!

Originally published at https://blog.itstimeforchange.ca on December 15, 2021.