Indigenous World View workshops to be offered

By Rick Garrick

Red Rock Indian Band’s Cindy Crowe is planning to deliver Indigenous World View Training workshops to companies and organizations across Turtle Island through the Blue Sky Community Healing Centre.

“There isn’t a whole lot of cultural training going on — you would think there would be especially in our area,” says Crowe, Blue Sky’s lodge keeper and executive director. “There are very few organizations, even across Canada, that are doing it. Of course, there is a huge need for it. If the non-native companies, whether they are corporations or businesses or industry, if they were to take more of an interest in learning about the communities they are working with or the Indigenous people they are hiring, there would be a better understanding between the two.”

Crowe says the training will expand the participant’s world view, noting she has had success in working with companies in the past.

“They do (gain) a better understanding of some of the challenges and the barriers that potential Indigenous employees are facing,” Crowe says. “If a company is looking to hire Indigenous employees, what kind of barriers are they dealing with. The big ones are recruitment and retention; these are huge barriers for the employer. We want to assist with those challenges, those barriers.”

Crowe plans to begin with a focus on providing one-on-one training for CEOs. The Blue Sky Community Healing Centre is located on Victoria Avenue in Thunder Bay.

“If we can have the CEOs interested, and (give them) a little snippet of what is going on, then they will realize how important it is and make sure all of their staff are trained,” Crowe says. “And yes, we are looking at doing train-the-trainers. We will have a team here that is well versed and well experienced in this kind of work and they will be able to share that with other companies.”

In addition to offering the training across Turtle Island, Crowe wants to go international as well.

“We’re thinking about offering webinars so somebody from another country could participate in this whole training process,” Crowe says. “We are seeking out accreditation through the International Association for Continuing Education and Training. This is an international body … that provides accreditation to trainers.”

Crowe says the revenues from the Indigenous World View Training workshops will be used to fund Blue Sky’s other programs.

“(It will enable us) to do the self-discovery work we like to do with individuals,” Crowe says. “So it’s a win-win.”

Crowe plans to begin the training workshops by this fall.

“This accreditation process is going to take us a couple of months,” Crowe says. “But that doesn’t mean that we can’t start doing the workshops before that. We want to be ready for September.”

Blue Sky currently has a team of about 10 facilitators, both Anishinabe and non-native, from across northwestern Ontario.

“Every single one of them carries a very special interest,” Crowe says. “One person is a biologist, an Anishinabekwe. She carries an extreme knowledge of medicines, so she will be able to have her own workshop based on that kind of information.”

Crowe says another facilitator is a Ralph Rowe sexual abuse survivor who wants to get information out about what happened and has happened since.

“I’m excited — each person brings a special gift,” Crowe says. “It’s going to be awesome.”