Walking Together Chapter

The Walking Together Chapter—hosted by Climate Caucus in close collaboration with Voor Urban Labs, and in partnership with First Nations Leadership and Governance Association—is a supportive, nuanced and action-oriented resource for municipal elected leaders committed to advancing climate solutions in partnership with Indigenous Nations.

Advancing reconciliation is increasingly challenging given tensions and uncertainty around land rights and governance—and the growing anti-Indigenous racism and organized misinformation moving from margins to mainstream. There has never been a more important time, therefore, to commit to finding practical, deeply-relational pathways towards reconciliation — and to work with others who are striving to do just this. 

Grounded in both reconciliation and collaboration, and run by practitioners working at the forefront of relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous governments, the Walking Together Chapter delves into the practical ways in which local elected leaders can enact reconciliation and the complex, myriad factors preventing it. This is not theoretical: it’s steeped in the reality of what you as leaders are working on daily and designed to offer pragmatic and ambitious solutions and tools to complex problems.

This Chapter Offers:

  • Monthly working group meetings (except July and August) to share perspectives; gain up-to-the-minute, tried and tested approaches to working with Nations. 
  • Case studies showing real examples of successful municipal–Indigenous government climate collaboration. 
  • Rapid response support to help address misinformation or local political challenges relating to reconciliation. 
  • Tools and regular, carefully-curated briefs to provide advanced thinking and strategies on key topics.
  • Access to a closed WhatsApp group to share ideas, questions and support each other.
Sign up here

About Our Partners:

Voor Urban Labs — works collaboratively with impacted communities for their solutions. Based in Vancouver’s Chinatown, the consultancy works across Canada with urban Indigenous coalitions, and municipalities and NGOs using an interdisciplinary lab model. The three labs bring diverse subjects experts to work on: climate; landback; and social impact (including measuring FIFA World Cup Impacts). The team delivers placemaking, urban planning, communications, research & engagement services. They currently support the City of Vancouver on climate equity indicators work, and are delivering a BC-wide land back and decolonization conservation training program. The Climate Lab is led by Charlene Aleck, Ananda Lee Tan, Irwin Oostindie, and Dr Wenzhen (Jen) Zuo.     

First Nations Leadership and Governance Association — FNLGA’s goal is to recruit, train, mentor and support potential First Nations candidates to run in elections in British Columbia for City Councillor, School Trustee and Regional Director positions. Our non-profit non-partisan cultural sensitive approach will ensure that our province has First Nations representation in all forms of government with all points of view.  Indigenous voices belong at every decision-making table. Next, we will support First Nations in joining strong Boards of Directors, from local to federal, while providing a support network for elected First Nations delegates. We know from experience the stresses, hardships, and even racism that an elected delegate faces.  One of our goals is to provide a peer support network to assist each other in dealing with these hard issues, and to share our celebrations with.

Join us on Tuesday, April 28 to Learn More

The first session of our Walking Together Chapter takes place on Tuesday April 28th with speakers Khelsilem and Charlene Aleck, former elected First Nations Councillors from Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations, who will share tips for working with First Nations even amongst challenging political moments.  

Sign up here