Indigenous Guide Group Q&A
Every One Every Day’s Spring 2025 Host Gathering – Indigenous Guide Group Question & Answer Panel
During Every One Every Day’s 2025 Spring Host Gathering, hosts were given the opportunity to ask questions to our Indigenous Guide Group. The Guide Group provided their support and guidance by reviewing the below questions, reflecting, discussing, and finally coming to a collective response. Questions related to T&R, EOED processes, Kokum, Indigenous Leadership, land acknowledgments, and anything else the hosts thought were relevant for their sessions.
The knowledge shared from Every One Every Day’s Indigenous Guide group was not solely from the Mi’kmaw perspective. Membership of the group includes Mi’kmaw, First Nations, Inuit, and Métis. Therefore, the answers shared here reflect all these perspectives. Additionally, it was the responsibility of hosts to reflect on their thoughts and questions with respect to having a decolonial lens and not centering the settler experience.
Questions are numbered and are followed by the response from the Guide Group.
Questions and Responses
1. I would be curious to learn more about Mi'kmaw practices around community decision making and the community's relationship to democracy. Specifically thinking about how to hold space for that in a session that's likely going to wind up centering on colonial concepts of democracy/ Canadian democracy.
Community decision making for Indigenous cultures of Turtle Island take the form of circular discussions, where multiple perspectives are sought and respected. Many different ways of seeing a problem are collaboratively explored before a consensus decision is made. Before colonization, many of the cultures of Turtle Island were matriarchal, something that has been lost through systems of oppression. Traditional community guidance and leadership, then, seek to restore the importance of the feminine voice in leadership and decision-making.
Restorative justice is another important aspect of community accountability and responsibility. Historically, practices of restorative justice were inherent in Indigenous cultures. Today, these practices are still reemergent, allowing Indigenous communities to move away from colonial systems of governance and punitive justice. Overall, there is a feeling that there is more honour, accountability, and trust when individuals face their community.
Lastly, Indigenous decision making and governance makes space for the ancestors and spirits in a way that secular-colonial systems completely ignore. Facing the past when making decisions for the now means creating sustainable systems for the future generations.
2. How can reconciliation be incorporated into sessions by the host in a way that not only feels real and meaningful, but is. How can hosts, for instance, bring sincerity and honour to things like land acknowledgements which can feel/be highly performative?
The most important part of creating a meaningful Land Acknowledgement is to understand the meaning and intent behind the gesture. These are meant to recognize and honour the Peace and Friendship treaties signed by the Mi’kmaq and the settlers, reminding us that we are all Treaty People.
Sessions with EOED are about creating space for building relationships. In keeping with the Mi'kmaw notion of msit no'kmaq or all my relations, Land acknowledgements offer an opportunity to learn more about all of your relations and respect the reciprocal nature of existing alongside others and nature.
3. What are the core values that guide your leadership approach? How do you ensure community voices are heard and respected in decision-making? What challenges are there in centering the urban Indigenous experience within a settler community?
Leadership is about being a part of the circle, not separate from or above it. It is about treating all relations with respect and love when existing in space with them.
This questions centers the settler, rather than the Indigenous perspective, making it inherently colonized.
4. How can we build more equitable pathways to decolonization, truth, and reconciliation as settlers that is based on mutual respect and understanding?
The Guide Group is meant to steer the entire EOED project in a good way, keeping us centered in place based decolonization and reconciliation. There are so many resources available for self education about the history and needed reparations across the so called State of Canada. These include the 94 Calls to Action, RCAP, and more.
Representation - starts with a fair discussion that includes multiple Indigenous voices, not just one perspective.
Language - Having Mi’kmaq be a language that’s included as a government language (bilingual).
It would be nice to have more of our artwork visible in the downtown core. Art that explains treaties and the territory. How much information on tours includes Indigenous culture and the Indigenous identity in the urban context?
5. In what ways can we, as hosts, intervene when harmful ideas or actions that appear within a session, and guide participants towards a more appropriate response or learning?
The EOED staff are on hand to handle these sorts of situations, to act as mediators and educators as needed. Because this is an important part of the job, EOED includes training and capacity building opportunities for all staff members during work hours.
Equip people with knowledge around Indigenous groups, cultures, and proper language. If people know better, they’ll do better. Having a base knowledge so that they can feel confident in what they know and are more confident to stand up for the knowledge they know.
Calling in/Calling out - conflict resolution. A toolkit. Connecting with universities and equipping them with the tools for when unjust conversations are happening.
Be mindful of how much we rely on our Elders and knowledge keepers. That’s why additional resources and people who know more are helpful.
“As an Indigenous person, it depends on if I feel safe enough to voice my opinion. Other times, if it's derogatory, I get defensive and not afraid to speak up. It depends on who’s in the room.”
6. How can we be inclusive of all Indigenous peoples when hosting a session? We are based in Mi'kma'ki, but there are sessions from many Indigenous cultures this program.
Acknowledging that we are in Mi’kma’ki acknowledges everyone and everything that resides here. The best way to acknowledge all Turtle Island is to clarify the path you walk. Are you a settler, a new Canadian, Turtle Island Indigenous from a different location? Where are you in your learning journey about reconciliation and treaties.
The fact that we have Inuit, Métis, and Mi’kmaq but we also have other tribes here in Kjipuktuk / Halifax.
The Mi'kmaw Native Friendship Centre (MNFC) is inclusive and The Every One Every Day Guide Group is inclusive.
You are encouraged to self-reflect - ask yourself "who are you?" and "how are you connected to the land"?
Be mindful of the tendency to pan-Indigenize.
