Crow Shield Lodge, an Indigenous-led charity rooted in Waterloo Region, is on a mission to heal the land and people alike. Built upon the four pillars of education, healing, reconciliation, and land stewardship, its programming embraces both Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples, offering a space to share culture, wisdom, and traditions.

“Mother Nature is like our living relatives, and we’re in relation to all,” says marketing associate Alissa Gee. “It holds knowledge, history, and spirit.”

While Crow Shield Lodge has always prioritized preserving the land, Gee and her team recently recognized a need to deepen their stewardship practices. “We wanted to find a way to be a bit more mindful and to put more practices in balance with the ecosystems that we’re a part of,” she explains. To do so, they reached out to Wisahkotewinowak, an urban Indigenous garden collective that cultivates land-based relationships across the Grand River Territory. This partnership would prove transformative, bringing together complementary strengths and community-based projects to tackle climate adaptation while fostering a shared commitment to the land.

The collaboration between Crow Shield Lodge and Wisahkotewinowak bridges Indigenous teaching with environmental science to address climate resilience. “The project connects two critical viewpoints on environmental resilience and stewardship,” Gee notes, with Indigenous Knowledge Keepers working alongside a biologist to blend traditional ecological wisdom with Western science. “It’s a beautiful blend of traditional ecological knowledge and the Western science perspective,” shared Gee. “Having that balance is important.”

Working collaboratively, the Lodge and the biologist are seeking to better understand the natural habitat, which will guide new practices in being mindful of and reciprocal to the land.

For Gee, the grant’s impact was profound. “The funding is not just a nice-to-have – it’s essential. It provided the foundation needed to move forward,” she says, noting that without it, they wouldn’t have been able to purchase equipment, hire consultants, or complete the ecological assessment and stewardship planning – all integral components of the project.

As Hannah Wellings, Program Manager for Wisahkotewinowak emphasizes, “It’s great that Gore Mutual is a part of it because it’s through partnership that we’re able to continue to have the sustainability with the land.”

For Dave Skene, an urban Métis farmer at Wisahkotewinowak, this project has a deeper cultural resonance. “As more and more Indigenous people move to urban settings, there’s a growing disconnect with the land, especially among the youth,” he explains.

“The hope is that this project can help bridge that gap, reminding younger generations of who they are, while encouraging health, wellness, and healing.”

Indigenous leadership in this collaboration is about restoring roots and building relationships through the Seven Generations teachings. With these teachings, the decisions made today must consider the impact on generations yet to come. “We want to be able to create a space that is sustainable and provides opportunities to connect back with the land,” Gee reflects.

“What makes the collaboration uniquely meaningful,” Wellings adds, “is that we each bring different assets to the table. Everybody brings a unique perspective and different skills and wisdom.”

“There’s a lot of learning both ways,” Wellings reminds us. In that spirit of reciprocity and shared wisdom, the collaboration between Crow Shield Lodge and Wisahkotewinowak is creating a living example of how funding, collaboration, and Indigenous leadership can come together to heal the land, people, and next generations.