The AMSSATalk: Indigenous Leaders’ Circle invites individuals and organizations to consider approaches to decolonizing their organizational culture. Viewers will learn what can become possible when Indigenous worldviews and ways of knowing are centred in organizational life.

This session offers a grounded and practical introduction to decolonizing organizational culture through dialogue, shared teachings, and applied examples. It highlights how cultural transformation is essential to sustaining efforts to decolonize policies, reminding us that policy change alone cannot create meaningful or lasting shifts without corresponding changes in the culture that interprets and enacts those policies.

As many settlement organizations take meaningful steps toward decolonizing their policies and practices, this session builds on that momentum by exploring how cultural transformation strengthens and sustains that work. As policies are enacted and embodied by people, truly effective and lasting change requires meaningful conversations and shifts in organizational culture at every level.

This AMSSATalk: Indigenous Leaders’ Circle explores three key themes:

1. Why Decolonization and Cultural Transformation Are Necessary? What Is Wrong, and What Is Possible?Speakers consider how colonial harms surface in workplace structures, decision‑making, communication norms, and power dynamics, and imagine alternative ways of working guided by Indigenous worldviews grounded in relationship, reciprocity, connection to land, and shared responsibility.
2. Why Cultural Transformation Must Accompany Policy Change. Speakers explore why policy alone does not guarantee equity or inclusion. They reflected on how organizational culture shapes how policies are interpreted, enacted, or quietly undermined through fear, defensiveness, or disconnection.
3. Practical Strategies for Decolonizing Organizational Culture. Responding to the question, ‘Where do we start?’, speakers offer entry points and applied practices for cultural transformation.

This AMSSATalk: Indigenous Leaders’ Circle features Elder Glida Morgan (Tla’amin Nation), Elder Mary Point(Musqueam Indian Band), Elder Sharon Jinkerson‑Brass (Key First Nation, Treaty 4), Elder Norm Leech (T’it’q’et, St’át’imc Nation), and Eva Habib from Len Pierre Consulting, with facilitation by AMSSA’s Rebecca Ferguson‑Salamin.

We are grateful for the wisdom and time that the Elders have shared with AMSSA and the sector.We recognize our responsibility to translate their vision into practice. As an organization, AMSSA is committed to honouring their generosity by acting with care and carrying this guidance forward in our work.

Accompanying Resources

• Internal Conversation Toolkit: A practical tool designed to support organizations in hosting internal discussions about decolonizing organizational culture. It includes guiding questions, reflective prompts, and considerations to help teams explore their own practices, assumptions, and responsibilities.
• Graphic Illustration: A visual recording created by artist and graphic recorder Adriana Contreras that captures the teachings, themes, and insights shared during the AMSSATalk: Indigenous Leaders’ Circle. This illustration offers an accessible and engaging way to revisit and reflect on the conversation.

If you have any questions or comments, please contact Rebecca at rferguson@amssa.org

We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Province of British Columbia through the Ministry of Municipal Affairs.