Join Maureen as she welcomes Shelly Hill, Senior Project Manager, Health and Safe Communities to discuss the Hamilton Urban Indigenous Strategy.

In the spring of 2015, Hamilton City Council committed to develop an Urban Indigenous Strategy that would identify actions and strengthen the City’s relationship with the Indigenous community. City staff began by reaching out to community partners to co-develop this strategy. Staff worked with Indigenous community partners and agreed to learn and follow principles that honour traditional knowledge, teachings and reciprocity. The key objectives of the Hamilton Urban Indigenous Strategy are to:

• Identify actions within municipal jurisdiction and capacity arising from the 2015 Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) of Canada’s Final Report.
• Celebrate and honour Indigenous people, cultures and traditions.
• Promote a greater understanding among all Hamiltonians through public education on the histories and contributions of Indigenous peoples.
• Create opportunities for education and internal collaboration among City staff to strengthen the relationship with the Indigenous community and service providers.

The strategy is the result of two years of working together on a process that went through three phases. Phase One: “plant the strategy” (December 2016–December 2017) was focused on establishing the governance structure, guiding principles, and raising awareness of this new work among the Indigenous community and all Hamilton residents. Phase Two, “cultivate the strategy” (January 2018–August 2018) focused on engaging Indigenous and non-Indigenous residents in a variety of ways about the needs and priorities for the strategy. Phase Three: “harvest the strategy” (September 2018–December 2018) involved finalizing and sharing the findings and recommendations from the first two phases.

Read the report then join Maureen in conversation with Shelly Hill.  After Maureen and Shelly's initial discussion, you will have an opportunity to ask Shelly about the study, and the progress 

The report is available online 

Registration in advance is required for this meeting.