Inclusion Begins With You
The more you want to embrace the notion that you can indeed inspire change, the more power and courage you give yourself to act in the pursuit of justice and equality.
Chief Dr. Joseph Robert
In a cultural facilitation session for people eager to support a refugee family to Canada, one participant’s enthusiasm to welcome the family rapidly rendered meaningless when she stated her negative bias and discriminate heart towards Indigenous communities. I told her that true humanitarian advocacy starts with respecting and engaging with the communities already here. She didn't like hearing it because it was true.
Good intentions alone are insufficient without addressing local truths. As Euro-centric individuals in the Western Hemisphere, we often overlook the truth and reality of Indigenous communities here while focusing on aiding others we haven't met.
This disparity arises because supporting distant communities demands less of us. It’s easier to offer gestures of goodwill without addressing our responsibilities right in our own community.
Clients often ask for strategies to recruit Indigenous people into their workforce, but this approach repeats colonialism and patronizes equity. Effective cultural inclusion involves more than superficial strategies; it requires a commitment to addressing power imbalances and engaging with Indigenous communities on their terms.
Cultural inclusion should start locally. This means actively participating in Truth and Reconciliation calls to action, developing respectful communication practices, writing meaningful land acknowledgements, and hiring Indigenous leaders at senior levels. It also involves investing in local Indigenous communities and being willing to be wrong, to be curious, to be generous.
Cultural inclusion is not just a checkbox for your DEI strategy. It is a necessary shift in mindset and practice, beginning with individual and collective efforts. True progress in cultural inclusion starts right in our own neighborhoods and communities, not through distant gestures but through meaningful, respectful engagement where we live.
If we wait for others from faraway lands to propel us forward in cultural inclusion, then we’ve missed the point. The point is right here, in our own neighbourhoods, in our communities, in the places where we are uninvited guests.
For more resources, please check out:
United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous People
Books outlining pathways to truth and reconciliation and education
First People’s Map of BC
Land and Territories – Global Map
Video: Healing a Nation through Truth and Reconciliation, Chief Dr. Robert Joseph