At MakeWay, our shared platform is home to over 60 projects based from coast to coast to coast. Initiatives benefit from the support of a mission-aligned community, charitable expertise, and shared resources, so they can focus on the work closest to their heart. Over the last few months, we’ve been sitting down with our shared platform projects to learn more about what they do, and share what they’re up to.
Recently, we connected with Turtle Island Institute, an Indigenous social innovation “think and do tank” enabling transformative change. Led by Melanie Goodchild (Anishinaabe) and Terrellyn Fearn (Mi’kmaq), the teaching lodge is reframing social innovation by drawing on Anishinaabe Gikendaasowin (original ways of knowing and being). Turtle Island Institute is striving to support the application of decolonized systems thinking concepts and processes by holding niche space to connect those who hope to shift systems and support the sovereignty of Indigenous communities across Turtle Island.
Turtle Island Institute’s action lab space is located at Sacred Thundering Waters, (Niagara Falls, Ontario) on Turtle Island, the traditional territory of the Haudenosaunee and Anishinaabe Peoples. This territory is covered by the Upper Canada Treaties and is within the land protected by the Dish With One Spoon Wampum agreement. Turtle Island Institute is also located online for program participants invited into our Virtual Teaching Lodge.
Turtle Island Institute was established in 2017, by Melaine Goodchild, with the support of the Waterloo Institute for Social Innovation and Resilience (WISIR) at the University of Waterloo. Melaine Goodchild is Anishinaabe, moose clan and a member of the Biigtigong Nishnawbeg First Nation on Lake Superior’s Northern shore and Ketegaunseebee First Nation. Melanie is a faculty member of the Academy for Systems Change and a PhD candidate in Social & Ecological Sustainability at the University of Waterloo.
Turtle Island Institute is an Indigenous social innovation “think and do tank” guided by a thirteen-member Circle of Elders, Knowledge Keepers, and Clan Mothers from a number of First Nations. Together with a wide range of partners, they strive to support the application of decolonized systems thinking concepts and processes, to connect the hearts and minds of those who hope to shift systems and to support the sovereignty and self-determination of Indigenous communities across Turtle Island.
Since joining the MakeWay shared platform, Turtle Island Institute has adapted a range of plans for in-person programming to meet the challenges and restrictions of COVID-19.
In order to continue to meet, teach and learn together, they’ve designed and created a very unique Virtual Teaching Lodge, a beautiful and safe place for their Indigenous and non-Indigenous partners, systems change leaders, and social innovators to gather in healthy, accessible and culturally appropriate ways.
In January 2021, Turtle Island Institute will host a Ceremonial Opening for the Virtual Teaching Lodge and welcome members to a series of Tea Cohorts to learn more about decolonized systems thinking, as well as traditional monthly teachings offered in collaboration with their Circle of Elders, Knowledge Keepers and Clan Mothers throughout the year. Also in January, they will launch a multi-week program called Mashkiki (Medicine) for invited BIPOC systems change leaders to experience and explore the deep connection between healing for individuals and the healing of systems.
