1. Locating PWRDF’s Canadian Indigenous Program on the Map
What are the foundations of a fair and honourable relationship between the Aboriginal and non- Aboriginal people of Canada?
(Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, 1991)

2. PWRDF Indigenous work responds to:
the needs and priorities identified by Indigenous partners and by the 1991 Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP) report;
the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP);
the Recommendations of the 2015 Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada: Calls to Action.

3. Background
In 1996 PWRDF carried out visits and consultations with Indigenous communities with whom the Anglican Church had worked.
Restoring language and culture
Working with youth
Empowering women
Health and wellness
These communities identified four strategic areas in which PWRDF could work with them:
Inter-Indigenous networking

4. Outcome
Based on Indigenous partners’ vision, perspectives, and expectations of a new relationship, PWRDF launched the Canadian Indigenous Communities Program in 1997.
The aim was to build a new partnership based on principles of trust, equal respect and ensuring Indigenous peoples identify and implement the work they would like to accomplish.

5. Operational principles
Transparency
Including intended beneficiaries in the participatory process of designing and implementing community development projects
Non-partisanship
Non-proselytization
Complementing other development assistance to Indigenous communities in Canada
Responsiveness to needs as expressed by and for women and youth
Facilitating implementation of Indigenous peoples’ agenda towards self- sufficiency
Sustainability
Micro rather than macro- economic projects

6. Since it’s inception the PWRDF Canadian Indigenous program has supported partners and projects focusing on:
Indigenous Language and Culture
Working with Youth
Empowering Women
Health and Wellness
Inter-Indigenous Partnerships
Indigenous Rights Education and Awareness
Strategic Collaborations

7. NEDC Indigenous Youth Business Strategy Program
In 2016, PWRDF began supporting the Nuu-chan-nulth Economic Development Corporation’s Indigenous Youth Business Strategy Program. Based on Vancouver Island, B.C., this program aims to provide Indigenous youth with access to a specific youth-oriented loan fund to assist them in starting a business, experience success, create jobs and develop wealth. By applying for a micro-loan young people can learn valuable skills like budgeting and marketing, develop increased confidence, and they can even start building their future career. (In the photo are Al Little, General Manager of NEDC and Jennifer Gallic, Youth Business Development Program Officer.)

8. First Nations Adult and Higher Education Consortium (FNAHEC), AB
The goal of the First Nation Adult and Higher Education Consortium program is to develop skills and knowledge for, by and with Siksika communities about their cultural objects, their meaning, protocol and care to educate, promote and preserve Siksika knowledge, culture and language. The program also seeks to integrate these skills and knowledge into FNAHEC’s other training and professional development programs.

9. Kanien’kehaka Onkwawén:na Raotitiohkwa (KOR), QC
The mandate of Kanien’keha:ka Onkwawen:na Raotitiohkwa Language and Cultural Centre (KORLCC) is to develop and implement language and culturally based programs that meet the needs and benefit Kahnawake’s children, youth, adult learners and the wider community in general.

10. PWRDF Indigenous Maternal Health
Since 2015 PWRDF has been working in collaboration with three national Indigenous organizations and three universities to develop an Indigenous maternal health initiative. These are:
Mexico: Kinal Antzetik, a long-time PWRDF partner based in Mexico City in collaboration with the Universidad Autonoma de Guerrero
Peru: Chirapaq, Centro de Culturas Indigenas del Peru, in collaboration with the Universidad Nacional San Cristobal of Huamanga, Ayacucho
Canada: The National Aboriginal Council of Midwives (NAMC) in collaboration with the Ryerson Aboriginal Students Centre at Ryerson University, Toronto
The initiative seeks to disseminate midwifery knowledge, expertise and experience and to share best practices through Indigenous communities in Canada and Latin America. (Pictured in the photo are a midwife teacher and her apprentices, Oaxaca, Mexico)

11. Update: Pikangikum Water Project
Finally, a word about PWRDF’s accompaniment of the First Nations community of Pikangikum in Northwestern Ontario… Between 2013 and 2018, PWRDF worked in coordination with Pimatisiwin Nipi, the Pikangikum Working Group (PWG) and the Pikangikum First Nation community to ensure clean and safe water, as well as wastewater systems to homes in Pikangikum. In 2019 the Pikangikum Band Council has taken on the retrofitting of more homes with funding from both the federal and provincial governments. PWRDF continues to work in partnership with the PWG and the Pimatisiwin Nipi “Living Water” Group on best ways to support Pikangikum and other First Nations who do not have access to clean water in their homes or communities.

12. PWRDF’s Strategic Plan 2019-2024
PWDRF has included Indigenous Programs as one of the key areas in its five-year strategic plan, as follows:
“We will accompany and support First Nations, Metis and Inuit people, guided by the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the priorities of Indigenous communities and organizations in Canada.”
To this end, in 2019 PWRDF will create an advisory body of Indigenous Anglican partners and secular Indigenous organizations to guide PWRDF efforts in programming, advocacy, coordination and complementarity of effort.  In addition, PWRDF is expanding the use of its “education for reconciliation” tool called “Mapping the Ground We Stand On” by investing in a national training program of ten “Mapping Exercise” facilitators.