Located in Kenora, Ont., the Common Ground Research Forum (CGRF) is silently helping build connection between municipal and First Nations leaders to expand cross-cultural collaboration for regional sustainability.
Founded in 2008, the project is a collaboration between the Natural Resources Institute at the University of Manitoba, University of Winnipeg environmental studies department, the Grand Council Treaty No. 3, the City of Kenora, and three First Nations located near Kenora: Wauzhushk Onigum Nation, Ochiichagwe’babigo’ining Ojibwe Nation, and Obashkaandagaang First Nation.
Teika Newton, community research coordinator for the CGRF, explained that the project looks at sustainable resource management in the specific context of an area of heritage land that is co-owned and co-managed by the CGRF’s community partners.
“This 450 acres of land on Tunnel Island and Old Fort Island in the centre of Kenora has become a physical space in which the community’s leaders and citizens are learning to implement principals of resource sharing, cooperation, and cross-cultural accommodation based on the spirit and intent of the Treaty 3” agreement signed in 1873 said Newton.
She noted that First Nations and municipal interests each hold 50 per cent ownership of this property.
The CGRF provides academic research capacity to assist community leaders in developing processes for shared cross-cultural governance, resource management, community consultation and strategic planning.
In addition, the CGRF invests in community-initiated research and action projects that build cross-cultural understanding within the partner communities.
Newton mentioned that the CGRF provides research grants of up to $5,000 to community organizations through its community projects fund.
“Just this fall, we’re introducing a new community small grants program that will award small grants of $50 – $500 to community groups to support community events that enhance cross-cultural understanding,” said Newton.
CGRF’s community grants program began in late 2009; it has awarded over $20,000 in research grants to a variety of community organizations.
The project has supported action research in the fine arts, in species-at-risk research, traditional cultural knowledge, and through a traditional food security project.
“These projects have united First Nations and community organizations with various levels of government, private industry, and the general public in pursuing work that has built understanding between First Nations, Métis and settler peoples,” said Newton.
“It has contributed to a growing discourse in the Kenora area about what it means to be Treaty partners, committed to sharing this place forever,” she said.
To give specific examples on CGRF’s direct impact on the community, Newton explained that in 2009-10 CGRF supported a community project initiated by Ochiichagwe’babigo’ining Ojibwe Nation.
The project was to investigate the reasons for the sharp decline of the lake sturgeon in the Winnipeg River between the Norman dam and the Whitedog dam.
“In collaboration with federal and provincial governments, the CGRF, and other funders, the First Nation undertook a multi-year assessment and investigation, and is now providing recommendations on how best to restore this at-risk, culturally — and potentially commercially — important population,” said Newton.
She added that the CGRF also supported the community’s research with Anishinaabe, Métis and settler elders in the area of study, allowing researchers to collect historical data through interviews, site visits and community gatherings.
At an elders’ gathering on Old Fort Island in October 2010, several First Nations elders remarked that this was the first time in their experience that their traditional and personal knowledge was being heard and honoured by their non-aboriginal peers, said Newton.
“It was an emotional, powerful event for all, learning of experiences shared among culturally distinct neighbors, and also of the profound differences that had separated them,” Newton commented.
Newton noted that CGRF is still looking to recruit more master’s and undergraduate students. She said that interested students can find more information and contact the group through CGRF’s website.
