Honouring Connections is an Indigenous Strategic Initiatives (ISI) funded project from the Human Early Learning Partnership (HELP) and the Indigenous Research Support Initiative (IRSI). In partnership with Indigenous Elders and Knowledge Holders, Indigenous youth, the X̱wi7x̱wa Library, the Centre for Teaching Learning and Technology Indigenous Initiatives, and HELP’s Aboriginal Steering Committee, Honouring Connections is a workbook to help guide UBC faculty, staff, and students in building relational partnerships with Indigenous communities, collectives, and organizations (ICCOs).
The workbook’s major themes come from HELP’s previous project in partnership with the Centre for Excellence in Indigenous Health (CEIH), Creating Structures for Meaningful Indigenous Community-UBC Health Partnerships, which examined how to better support Indigenous research partnerships at UBC.
Honouring Connections will be an activity and reflection-based resource with both written and arts-based prompts. The content will guide individuals or teams to explore their relationship with the lands and people they work with, with the goal of dismantling the academic ego and navigating their work with ICCOs in relational, reciprocal, and respectful ways.
We expect the workbook to be available for public use in the fall of 2026.