Turtle Island Institute (TII)

The Turtle Island Institute is a start-up Indigenous social innovation institute currently supported by the Waterloo Institute for Social Innovation & Resilience (WISIR) at the University of Waterloo, Start-up Indigenous social innovation “think and do tank” supported by the Waterloo Institute for Social Innovation and Resilience (WISIR), in collaboration with the rare Charitable Research Reserve and Musagetes. The founding Director is Melanie Goodchild, Ph.D. student, Anishinaabeg. The design team includes Indigenous Wayfinders, professors from Waterloo, and other benefactors.

Turtle Island Initiative is a think-do-tank enabling transformative change. The vision is to create and support social innovation communities of practice, rooted in the belief of the kinship of all things and grounded in a spiritually meaningful path, with three main objectives:

» Achieving transformative change, arriving at new paradigms to support the self-determination of Indigenous peoples across Turtle Island.
» Developing a uniquely Indigenous approach to social innovation through spiritual direction from elders and the preservation of cultural heritage, and
» Supporting healthy relationships between land, the environment, and all peoples (Anishinaabe mino-bimadiziwan).