A conversation with Dr. David Danto: Truth, humility, and the path to reconciliation
Release Date: 01/20/2022
Constant Strategic Innovation at the Centre for Social Innovation, or CSI at CSI.
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In this episode, we talk to Paulina Cameron, a Globe and Mail ’22 Changemaker and CEO of The Forum, a Vancouver-based charity teaching, mentoring and supporting women entrepreneurs across Canada to take their businesses to the next level. We hear about the challenges and opportunities the organization and women entrepreneurs faced through COVID. We also hear about the systemic issues women entrepreneurs face, and work The Forum is doing in both supporting women to overcome these barriers, while at the same time providing training to banks to address systemic biases. ...
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Our guest today is Andrea Nemtin, Executive Director of SI Canada. Sally and Andrea talk about what Social Innovation is, the history of the field in Canada, and how Social Innovation Canada (SI Canada) came to be. Andrea talks about the priorities of the organization as our country emerges from COVID, and how solutions to the complex challenges of social justice and climate change can be catalyzed and aligned through education, intentional networking at local and national levels across all sectors, and storytelling. Resources: Social Innovation...
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Sarah Midanik, Executive Director of the Gord Downie & Chanie Wenjack Fund shares a message of hope, as she reflects on the important work of reconciliation requiring us all, and non-Indigenous Canadians in particular, to take action. We hear about the important work to be done to address systemic racism and how this national charity found a way, working from the ground up, to address the history not previously being told in the school curriculum, providing tools and resources into some 6000 schools within 4 years. And that’s just one example. Resources Gord Downie...
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Catalyzing Local Action on Climate Change through Collective Impact
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Bianca Caramento is the Manager of the Bay Area Climate Change Council, leading the collective impact initiative to advance and accelerate climate change action in the cities of Burlington and Hamilton. She shares with us the structure behind this collective, with her “backbone” role housed in the Centre for Climate Change Management at Mohawk College, supporting a collective of 14 community organizations. We hear about their Theory of Change – the master plan for reducing green house gases in the community by 50% by 2030, towards becoming net zero cities by...
info_outlineOur guest on this episode is Dr. David Danto, who is the Head of Psychology at the University of Guelph Humber. Dr. Danto’s clinical and research interests include Indigenous wellness and culture-based approaches to addressing intergenerational trauma in local and global contexts. David is involved in allyship and decolonization efforts within the discipline and the academy.
Dr. Danto has worked in psychiatric hospitals, counselling centers, private practice, and correctional facilities in Canada and the United States. In partnership with Indigenous Knowledge Keepers, he developed a field course on Indigenous Mental Health, which he has delivered in Mushkegowuk Territory along the James and Hudson Bay coast for the last ten years. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Canadian Psychological Association (CPA), he recently chaired the CPA Task Force on Responding to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Report, and he currently Chairs the CPA Standing Committee on Reconciliation.
In this episode Sally and Dr. Danto talk about the early experiences and influences that brought David to this work. We also talk about David’s work learning alongside his students from the people in the Mushkegowuk territory in Northern Ontario. David shares his thoughts about how far we have to go toward achieving justice and true reconciliation, and how the first step is to learn the truth of the experience of Indigenous people in Canada and connecting in a spirit of humility and openness with Indigenous people.
“Learning isn’t enough. A genocide has happened here. I think there is a growing awareness that is just really beginning. And despite that, there is such a great warmth of spirit, generosity and resilience within the indigenous community, which is, according to some research, one tenth of the population of indigenous people that existed pre contact. That needs to be understood, respected and appreciated.”
Resources:
Indigenous Knowledge and Mental Health: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-71346-1
Psychology’s Response to the Truth and Reconciliation Report: https://cpa.ca/docs/File/Task_Forces/TRC%20Task%20Force%20Report_FINAL.pdf
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Find out more about our work at Social Impact Advisors: https://socialimpactadvisors.ca