Ontario Aboriginal Lands Association

Land Relationship Visioning Course

What Is Land Relationship Visioning?

Land Relationship Visioning is a multi-process, community-driven exercise designed to document First Nation community’s significant spaces and species to protect what is important to the community as it grows and develops.

The Land Relationship Visioning Process is separated into five sections to allow for understanding and then implementation of the land relationship vision through document creation. This resource was developed to provide First Nation land practitioners with the knowledge and resources to document significant species and spaces.

Land Relationship Visioning (LRV) was developed to assist First Nation land-based practitioners to understand how the values of Indigenous Peoples are often lost in contemporary land use planning exercises. Far too often a contetemporary development-based model of land use planning looks too narrowly at the collective land for First Nation communities.

This results in plans that overlook key community conservation drivers within our communities species of importance, cultural spaces and heritage sites.

Land Relationship Visioning training will educate land use practitioners on what to inventory, document and protect on First Nation Lands as determined by the community.

This record will help inform land use planning exercises in the community to ensure that appropriate community value will be assiged to areas not always included in most land use plans.

Summary

In collaboration with Canadian Wildlife Service (CWS) and the Ontario Aboriginal Lands Association (OALA), Cambium Indigenous Professional Services (CIPS) developed a land use planning resource and toolkit that captures First Nation needs and priorities.

As part of the process of development, CIPS engaged with First Nation Land practitioners through the Ontario Aboriginal Lands Association (OALA) to ensure needs and priorities were addressed.

As a result, the Land Relationship Vision Process was developed and includes a narrated, phased slide deck and accompanying digital tools and resources. Part of initiating the Land Relationship Vision Process was to provide a two hour workshop every Tuesday for six weeks to OALA members for feedback.

This information can then be formulated into a report that will help to guide community decisions around land use planning.

The Land Relationship Visioning Workshops were held by the Ontario Aboriginal Lands Association (OALA) from October 5, 2021 – November 9, 2021.

Course Instructor

Kassie McKeown, Alderville First Nation. Cambium Indigenous Professional Services (CIPS) Technical Advisor, Indigenous Projects.

Course Timeline:

October 5, 2021: Module 1: Understanding the Process of Land Relationship Visioning
October 12, 2021: Module 2: Understanding Natural Heritage Inventories and Species of Importance
October 19, 2021: Module 3: Understanding Spaces of Importance
October 26, 2021: Module 4: Mapping Natural Heritage Features
November 2, 2021: Module 5: Using your Vision to Guide Community Decisions
November 9, 2021: Accountability Day: Bringing it All Together.

Course Participants?

There were a total of 18 participants from 9 Ontario First Nations (as follows):

Georgina Island
Sheguiandah
Curve Lake
Chippewas of the Thames
Kettle & Stony Point
Aamjiwnaang
Wahnapitae
Tyendinaga
Thessalon

Course Overview

Session 1: Understanding the Process of Land Relationship Visioning

Session 2: Understanding Natural Heritage Inventories and Species of Importance

Session 3: Understanding Spaces of Importance

Session 4: Mapping Natural Heritage Features

Session 5: Using your Vision to Guide Community Decisions

Session 6: Bringing it All Together

Project Results

The Land Relationship Visioning Training (LRVT) hosted by Ontario Aboriginal Lands Association (OALA) and delivered by Cambium Indigenous Professional Services (CIPS) was an opportunity for First Nation Land Practitioners and other relevant key players to explore land use planning through an Indigenous lens.

It proved beneficial for those with varying degrees of experience and knowledge, allowing for a collaborative approach by those with more experience sharing their resources, particularly in the areas of mapping and species identification.

The intent of the program is to serve as a step by step (module by module) guide with accompanying tools to learn how to gather relevant information and then use that information to guide land-based decisions.

Participants will leave the LRVT with the tools to create a document that is specific to their First Nation, and rich with data, that can be used in a variety of ways – used as a template of information for grant program applications, use to guide land use planning decisions within community, and a way to engage with the community and foster connection to the land.

Project Duration: October 5, 2021 to November 9, 2021