Walking Together: Engagement Lessons from My First Nations Learning Journey

Stories of First Nations people may be new to you, and possibly outside your comfort zone. Andy Fyon chronicles his experiences engaging with First Nations people living in Ontario's far north. They encouraged him to share their lessons to create a broader awareness and understanding of remote First Nations culture, values, world views, community life, and engagement expectations.

Walking Together is relevant to anyone working in government, industry, or academia who is engaging, or who plans to engage, with remote First Nations people regardless of your occupation, including the broadening of your own reconciliation journey. This book provides you and your organization with ideas to help build relationships with remote First Nations people, help avoid common mistakes, and prepare you to jointly design and implement engagement.

Dr. Andy Fyon is a retired Director of the Ontario Geological Survey (OGS), an Ontario government geoscience organization. In 1999, Andy started to visit fly-in First Nations communities in northern Ontario to understand the underlying causes of conflict with the OGS geoscience program. Over the following fifteen years, Andy learned about the importance of jointly creating an engagement process with each First Nations band he worked with. In 2007, Andy and his colleague Lori Churchill received an Ontario Government Amethyst Award recognizing their efforts to improve relations with remote First Nations people. The lessons learned and insights gained from the First Nations people guided Andy as he modernized the OGS First Nations engagement practices. They also changed Andy's life.