Decoding Conflict for Environmental NGOs: How to Uncover and Resolve What's Really Wrong

Date: July 29, 1:00-2:30 PM ET (Zoom Meeting)

Cost: Free

*All registrants will be provided with a link to the recording and presentation slides following the session. The recording will be available for 60 days.

The work you do is vital, and collaboration is critical to the mission’s success. So why does the work get tripped up when people come together? Because conflict and tension are inevitable, especially when people care so deeply. Conflict is not simply a hazard to be avoided. With a bit of courage and the right tools, conflict can be a gateway to greater possibilities.

In this participatory workshop, you’ll learn:

- The six core drivers of conflict, which are common to internal teams and external collaborators

- Where to focus first to start transforming conflict

- Effective techniques you can use in any conflict

- How to go from intractable disagreements to collaborative solutions

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Who This is For

This workshop will be valuable for people of any experience level who work on teams, or across teams, where collaboration is essential.

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Our Presenter

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Matt McKenna helps people reconnect when it matters most, whether it’s teams in conflict or two leaders who’ve stopped speaking. A Qualified Mediator and seasoned facilitator, Matt’s path began on stage as a touring musician. Today, he brings the same focus on harmony and connection to boardrooms and mission-driven teams. He’s worked with high-purpose organizations of all kinds, from NFPs and B-Corps to faith communities and Ontario’s Provincial COVID-19 Response Team. Matt’s work helps teams rebuild trust, strengthen relationships, and navigate conflict with clarity so they can move forward together.

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How to choose your stream:

‍ENGO representatives may self-select from the three workshop tracks based on their previous learning experiences with decolonization content.‍

‍Introduction to Decolonization in the ENGO Sector is designed for first-time learners and those with limited comfort exploring the Session topics. Sessions will be lecture-style making limited space for group discussion. Breakout rooms will be used intermittently to encourage first-time learners to practice discussing topics and gain confident understanding of materials.

‍‍Advanced Decolonial Theory and Application is designed for ENGO representatives who have experience with session topics and are ready to take chances by participating in potentially uncomfortable conversations to expose the root issues at play. These spaces are designed with safety of participants in mind with the goal of exposing the potential reproduction of colonial thinking/doing within the ENGO sector. Sessions will be conversational while making use of lecture-style teaching.

‍For Indigenous Ears Only - A Space for Reflection and Action is designed for Indigenous people who work within the ENGO sector and seek to connect with others to discuss experiences and vision decolonial pathways forward. These session agendas will be co-developed with participants.

Introduction to Decolonization in the ENGO Sector

Fridays, September 19, September 26, October 3, & October 10 (1-4:00 pm ET)

Session 1: Settler Colonialism 101

Introduce ENGO representatives to the fact that colonization is a structure and not an event. Identifies key ways that colonialism moves through individuals and organizations.

Session 2: Positionality

ENGO representatives learn how to articulate their social location within a settler colonial state, and in relation to potential Indigenous partners.

Session 3: Inherent Indigenous Governance 101

Introduce the fact that Indigenous nations have their own sources of political authority that they can (and do) draw on when addressing environmental issues. Examples provided.

Session 4: Building Better Relations

ENGO representatives will road test ways they can implement previous workshop key points to re-imagine partnerships with Indigenous nations.

Cost: $100 (or register 4 staff from the same organization for one stream and get the 5th registration free)

All registrants will be provided with a link to access the recordings and presentation slides for 60 days following each session.

Instructor:

Dr. Les Sabiston (Red River Métis) is from Aswahonanihk (Selkirk), Manitoba. Working at the intersections of political, legal, and medical anthropologies, as well as Indigenous Studies, Les’ work brings together critical social theories of colonialism, race, class, gender and sexuality with the political commitments of decolonization and aspirations of realizing alternative worlds informed by Indigenous futures. A guiding principle to his work has been to develop a more robust understanding of the ongoing process of encounter with Indigenous peoples in Canada, that is, how the state and its people interact with and understand themselves in relation to the original peoples of this land.

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Advanced Decolonial Theory and Application

Thursdays, October 23, October 30, November 6 & November 13 (1-4:00 pm ET)

Session 1: Diagnosing Settler Colonialism in the Enviro Sector

Participants will be asked to share ways in which they have diagnosed and traced power in social justice movements and/or in the ENGO sector. This workshop will make space for discomfort as part of promoting decolonization.

Session 2: Inherent Indigenous Governance

A mix of advanced and introductory theory, this workshop delves into legal and political pluralism, naming the fact that Indigenous nations have their own sources of political authority that they can (and do) draw on when addressing environmental issues.

Session 3: The Nonprofit Industrial Complex

ENGO participants are introduced to theories and examples describing the Nonprofit Industrial Complex and the “Shadow State.” Purpose is to show how settler colonialism structures civil society.

Session 4: Decolonizing ENGO-First Nation Partnerships

This workshop delves deep into how ENGOs can partner with Indigenous nations beyond the Nonprofit Industrial Complex while promoting deference to inherent Indigenous political leaders.

Cost: $100 (or register 4 staff from the same organization for one stream and get the 5th registration free)

All registrants will be provided with a link to access the recordings and presentation slides for 60 days following each session.

Instructor:

Dr. Damien Lee is a member of Fort William First Nation and holds a PhD in Indigenous Studies from the University of Manitoba, and a Master of Arts in Indigenous Governance from the University of Victoria. Dr. Lee has extensive experience facilitating/teaching adult-focused education at the post-secondary level and co-leads Gimiwan Research and Consulting. Gimiwan serves mainly Indigenous communities and Indigenous-led organizations by providing research and workshop services based in decolonial ethics and Indigenous worldviews.

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For Indigenous Ears Only - A Space for Reflection and Action

Tuesdays, October 21, October 28, November 4 & November 11 (1-4 pm ET)

The Indigenous only space will be collaborative in nature but critical in approach. This track is a space for Indigenous folks within the ENGO sector to come together to discuss their experiences and work, with an eye to taking a position on what the sector might need to do in order to promote decolonization. Participants will use the first session to define our goals for the remaining three meetings. Therefore, session topics named here are proposals only.

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Session 1: Naming the Cannibal: Settler Colonialism in the ENGO Sector

Session 2: Proposed topic: Reflections on working in the ENGO Sector

Session 3: Proposed topic: Centering Indigenous Thought in the ENGO Sector

Session 4: Proposed topic: Visioning a Decolonial Environmental Sector

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Cost: Free

Instructor:

Dr. Damien Lee is a member of Fort William First Nation and holds a PhD in Indigenous Studies from the University of Manitoba, and a Master of Arts in Indigenous Governance from the University of Victoria. Dr. Lee has extensive experience facilitating/teaching adult-focused education at the post-secondary level and co-leads Gimiwan Research and Consulting. Gimiwan serves mainly Indigenous communities and Indigenous-led organizations by providing research and workshop services based in decolonial ethics and Indigenous worldviews.

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