S1E12
INNOVATION IS INDIGENOUS
Relationships, Responsibility and Reciprocity is the heart of Indigenous Innovation.
INNOVATION IS INDIGENOUS
Relationships, Responsibility and Reciprocity is the heart of Indigenous Innovation.
Writer: Tina Overbury
We acknowledge that this recording was hosted on the traditional, ancestral and unceded territory of the Skwxwú7mesh people, and our guest joined us from the traditional, ancestral and unceded territory of the Snuneymuxw First Nation.
Gather for Her welcomed Sara Wolfe, Anishnawbe-kwe from Northern Ontario with family ties to Brunswick House First Nation, Sara is a Registered Nurse, a Registered Midwife and holds an MBA from the Rotman School of Management. Sara is the Director of Indigenous Innovation Initiative at Grand Challenges Canada / Grands Défis Canada, an innovation platform that seeks to spark a new generation of Indigenous innovation and accelerate the emerging Indigenous economic ecosystem.
Prior to joining the Indigenous Innovation Initiative through Grand Challenges Canada, Sara was the founding Partner and Managing Director of Seventh Generation Midwives Toronto and the Director of Clinical Services for the ‘Baby Bundle’ Research Project. She maintains a passionate belief in the resilience and enduring presence of Indigenous peoples. Sara strives to improve community and economic development through community-driven solutions and local Indigenous leadership.
FOR HER: Human Expansion Realized
SARA is a steward of Indigenous Innovation. She supports systemic change with a relationships and community first approach and responsibility and reciprocity perspective. She asks the questions like: How do we speak about matrilineal communities and traditional indigenous governance structures within a framework of ethics, environmental stewardship and gender equality? How do we talk about intellectual property and Indigenous knowledge? What are the conversations we need to be having around generational relationships and ancestral values? Sara stands for Indigenous Innovation as a model of economic reciprocity, and offers that Human Expansion can be realized as we move from “What’s in it for me?” to “How does this support each of us?”.
"Moving from What’s in it for me? to How does this support each of us?"
~ Sara Wolfe
SARA on deliberately building impact: I really have to go back to my core values and my core pieces. I've done a lot of thinking about this over the years, the three core values that keep coming up over and over again for me are: relationships, responsibility and reciprocity, and thinking about them from a real indigenous perspective.
Let's talk about the impact. Let’s talk about it from the community's perspective, not the evaluations.
~ Sara Wolfe
SARA: There's all these pieces around ethics, environmental stewardship and gender equality. And a lot of them don't match up to the indigenous worldview, and I know they don't match up. How do we speak about matrilineal communities and traditional indigenous governance structures within this kind of framework. How do we talk about intellectual property and Indigenous knowledge? How do we have the conversation around those pieces? How do we talk about research and reporting requirements, or performance measurement frameworks? It becomes about measuring outputs? When we start with community, how do these questions help? We spend all this time writing reports which have little meaning to my community. Let's talk about the impact. Let’s talk about it from the community's perspective, not the evaluations.
The Idea of Responsibility The Wisdom
Relationships, Responsibility and Reciprocity
- Relationships and relationality, much like the relationality within my house, is between generations and reflective of my ancestors and the grandbabies my daughter is already carrying in her ovaries. She is already filled up with pieces from me directly, that I gifted to her from my mother, her grandmother. We are having conversations about that already. Relationality is in the relationships we have here, immediately around us, AND through the peoples, and territories we acknowledge around us. We can move from ‘for me’ to ‘for us’.
The Idea of Responsibility
- My worldview understanding is that I have a responsibility to work to my fullest potential. If I have been given gifts of power, space, education, teachings, knowledge, or wisdom, it's my responsibility to use those gifts to my fullest potential for the people around me.
Equality, Justice and Sovereignty as care of ourselves
- To support Indigenous women, Indigenous families, Indigenous communities, and Indigenous peoples to have more equality, more justice, and more sovereignty is how we take better care. When we do that, all of those other pieces will start falling into place, maybe not immediately, but for the next generation. We can start someplace, and maybe I can have a small role in doing that.
Talk About the Impact Piece.
- Let’s speak about matrilineal communities and traditional indigenous governance structures. Let’s talk about Indigenous knowledge. Let’s consult with our communities and write reports that have meaning to them. Let’s talk about what is really needed. This is the impact of Indigenous Innovation.
Moderator Christina Benty
Host Charlene SanJenko
Story tracker Tina Overbury
Guest & graphic recorder Sharon Marshall