This webinar was a celebration of the 1 year anniversary of the Transformation Systems Mapping & Analysis Working group and highlighted the work of the hosts of our 13th workstream - Decolonizing Systems Mapping. 

Turtle Island Institute (TII) is a global Indigenous social innovation think & do tank, a teaching lodge.  Over the past couple of years TII has developed a uniquely Indigenous approach to deep systems awareness and transformation.  Building on Founder & Co-Director Melanie Goodchild's work on Relational Systems Thinking (RST), the talk will provide an overview of RST as a bridge between systems thinking and Anishinaabe Gikendaasowin (original ways of knowing).  The TII teaching lodge, Mikinaak Wigyaam (Turtle Lodge), explores RST through gichi gakinoo'imaatiwin (the act of great or deep teaching).  Our workstream will explore systems mapping from a 'decolonial' lens that centres relationships and mutual benefit for all. 

Presenter Bios:

Melanie Goodchild is moose clan from Biigtigong Nishnaabeg and Ketegaunseebee First Nations in Northwestern Ontario.  She is the Founder & a Co-Director of the Turtle Island Institute, a global Indigenous social innovation think & do tank (a teaching lodge).  The Institute’s virtual teaching lodge Mikinaak Wigyaam (Turtle Lodge) introduces members to Relational Systems Thinking, a uniquely Indigenous approach to deep systems awareness.  Melanie is a Faculty member with the Academy for Systems Change, a team member of the Wolf Willow Institute for Systems Learning and a member of the Editorial Board for the new Journal of Awareness-Based Systems Change from the Presencing Institute at MIT.  She is a PhD Candidate in Social & Ecological Sustainability at the University of Waterloo and a Research Fellow with the Waterloo Institute for Social Innovation & Resilience.

Terrellyn Fearn is snake clan from Glooscap First Nation and a member of the Wabanaki Confederacy which extends from the eastern shores of Canada to the Northeastern United States.  She is the Co-Director of the Turtle Island Institute, a global Indigenous social innovation think & do tank (a teaching lodge) focussing on Relational Systems Thinking, a uniquely Indigenous approach to deep systems awareness. Her work spans 25 years of applying healing-centred and ancestrally given processes to community-engagement and research with more than 350 Indigenous communities across Turtle Island. Through rematriation, and grounded in Indigenous pedagogical approaches, her work reawakens cultural and linguistic ethical standards rooted in matrilineal care and forms a pathway to deepened awareness in International systems change practice. Terrellyn is a MEd. Candidate at York University and a Research Associate with the Waterloo Institute for Social Innovation & Resilience. 

You can access a recording of the webinar on our YouTube Channel.