ITO Bridging the Waters Cultural Competency Workshop

Alongside Indigenous Tourism Ontario (ITO), CES was honoured to create a cultural competency workshop for non-Indigenous settlers to build bridges with their Indigenous neighbours and set them up for success when pursuing community and business partnerships. This curriculum program includes a participant journal and accompanying appendices, a facilitator guide and a PowerPoint that will serve to build foundational knowledge for non-Indigenous people who want to take steps to create relationships and work side by side with Indigenous communities in the tourism industry in Ontario.

Through a four-part series, participants are presented with examples, activities, and videos that give valuable insight into topics such as: Indigenous success stories, systemic barriers, re-learning history from an Indigenous perspective, truth and reconciliation, and land acknowledgements. Throughout the workshop, there is an underlying theme of responsibility, self-reflection, and encouragement for participants to explore their relationship with the land, their Indigenous neighbours, and with the colonial realities of the country. This project resulted in the establishment of a cultural competency workshop that supports and empowers participants within a learning space that will further their path towards cultivating relationships and partnerships with their Indigenous neighbours within the tourism industry.