This is the latest article in a three-part series on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – also known as the 2030 Agenda – and how our community is working together to implement them in Nogojiwanong. / Peterborough and the Kawarthas.

In Part 1, we explained what the SDGs are and how the Kawartha World Issues Center (KWIC) and GreenUP are working together to advance them locally.

In Part 2, we interviewed members of the project’s Indigenous Leadership Action Team to discuss why Indigenous leadership is needed to guide our local process.

Finally, in Part 3 below, we share the experience and results of a recent SDG community collaboration event.

In February, KWIC and GreenUP hosted a two-day virtual community forum titled “Focusing Indigenous Leadership and Diverse Perspectives to Advance the Sustainable Development Goals in Nogojiwanong / Peterborough”.

This event was designed to build on the work of community members who gathered two years ago, to identify five areas of action from the 2030 Agenda on which our region will focus:

Prioritize indigenous leadership: no poverty (SDG n ° 1); Quality education (SDG n ° 4); Clean water and sanitation (SDG n ° 6); Climate Action (SDG n ° 13)

For this latest gathering, community members came together to deepen their understanding of how to advance the SDGs in a way that leaves no one behind and prioritizes Indigenous leadership. Collectively, Indigenous leadership has been identified as essential to our local success.

As hosts of the forum, KWIC and GreenUP hosted over two hundred participants from near and far to work with the community of Nogojiwanong / Peterborough in three interconnected workshops.

Each session began with an introduction to the Seven Teachings of the Grandfathers, the principles to guide the forum, and how we would work together. These teachings are at the heart of local indigenous ways of life; they are our role model on how to live a good and healthy life. They include: wisdom, love, respect, bravery, honesty, humility, and truth.

“I especially appreciated that the event was guided by the Seven Teachings of the Grandfathers,” says Anca Pascalau, Sustainable Peterborough coordinator and forum participant. “The respect, kindness and inclusiveness were evident throughout the three sessions, even in the Zoom chat section.”

In addition, the workshops were framed by words spoken by Elders Michi Saagiig and knowledge keepers. The intention of this giveaway was to anchor the sessions well, ensuring that we worked together in a meaningful, grateful and present state of mind.

Each workshop had a distinct objective. The first session contained a presentation by indigenous consultants and the local SDG Project Elder Advisor on examining the past to guide the future. This was followed by a workshop in which participants worked together to identify groups that had not yet been included in the development of the local initiative.

In the second session, which opened with Hiawatha Drum Group Michi Saagiig Manoomin, attendees heard three speakers explain why Indigenous leadership and an intersectional approach are essential to leaving no one behind.

The evening’s first speaker was SS Ahmad, founder of Green Beacon. Ahmad explained why empathy and a focus on human rights are essential to advance the SDGs.

Then we heard from Jaida Ponce, a Kichi Siibi Anishinabe-Kwe from the Ardoch Algonquin First Nation. Ponce, who works with the Oshkwazin Indigenous Youth Leadership Program, shared stories that explained the need for strong and open relationships and communications between settler institutions and Indigenous communities.

The third speaker was Dr. Alan Corbiere, a well-respected Anishinaabe historian and teacher from the M’Chigeeng First Nation on Manitoulin Island. Dr Corbiere explained how indigenous knowledge and language can help us better understand and advance our sustainable development goals.

The last session of the forum introduced the “No Poverty”, “Quality Education”, “Clean Water and Sanitation” and “Climate Action” local action teams. Team Chairs explained how focus areas are located to ensure relevant results for Nogojiwanong / Peterborough.

Throughout the forum, presentations and discussions highlighted the interdependence of local SDGs.

“In my community, our biggest conversation is about drinking water; it has become a struggle over the last hundred years and has been amplified by the pandemic, ”said Chief Emily Whetung of the Curve Lake First Nation in her opening speech. “In the long term, our goal is to protect and preserve the lands where our traditions, ceremonies and relationships can be practiced; where we can exercise our ability to be stewards of our lands and remove the paternalistic system imposed on us.

Chief Whetung’s powerful words imply the extent to which clean water (SDG # 6) is inseparable from climate change (SDG # 13) and the historical and current injustices that have pushed many indigenous communities into poverty ( SDG # 1). In the presentations that followed, it became clear that quality education (SDG # 4) is essential to the achievement of other local SDGs.

Interconnectivity is a recurring theme in this project. Action teams are aware of how the local SDGs and the 17 UN SDGs are linked; one cannot be achieved without the others. Locally, we believe that the actions we take in our community will trickle down the world in a good way.

By the end of the forum, the urgent need to achieve our goals was evident. We have nine years left to achieve Agenda 2030; there is a lot of important work to be done.

The project team would like to sincerely thank the organizers, partners, team members, volunteers, speakers, funders, leaders and event attendees who helped organize this momentous event. . We can’t wait to see the rest!

To keep up to date with this initiative, visit the KWIC and GreenUP SDG pages.