Begin early
Contact should begin before major restoration, governance, access or public-communication decisions are treated as settled.
For Indigenous Nations & Communities
Relationship before intervention.
TILT does not want to arrive with a finished restoration plan and ask a Nation to endorse it. Where a project concerns a Nation's territory, knowledge, governance, access or participation, the relationship should begin before the intervention is fixed.
Our working commitments
A project should be shaped with the Nation, not merely presented to it.
These commitments describe TILT's current working approach while a formal Indigenous engagement and knowledge-governance policy is developed for Board approval and future refinement with Indigenous partners.
Nation-specific protocols
TILT does not assume that one engagement model, term, protocol or knowledge framework applies across all Indigenous Nations.
Explicit agreement
A Nation's participation, representation or endorsement is never treated as implied. The appropriate relationship and decision-making structure must be agreed with the Nation itself.
Knowledge governance
Indigenous knowledge, cultural information, sensitive locations and community data do not become TILT property simply because they inform a project.
Privacy and safety
Public identification, biographies, Nation affiliations and personal contact information are not republished by TILT without consent, subject to legal disclosure requirements.
Participation should not be a cost
TILT intends to cover reasonable travel, accommodation and necessary meeting costs and to avoid relying on unpaid Indigenous expertise where funding and law permit.
Access is not presumed away
Restoration is not treated as a reason to exclude Indigenous people from land by default. Access, harvesting, cultural use and other relationships to place should be discussed with the Nation and reflected in project arrangements where lawful, safe and agreed.
Stewardship can take different forms
Depending on the Nation and the project, long-term governance may include Nation-led stewardship, co-stewardship, shared decision-making, transfer, or another arrangement developed with the Nation rather than imposed by TILT.
Consent & knowledge
Participation is not permission to extract.
TILT uses Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) as a guiding standard for its own engagement where decisions affect Indigenous participation, knowledge, governance or relationships to land, together with the laws, governance and protocols of the Nation involved.
We will not treat participation in meetings as permission to publish Indigenous knowledge, present a Nation as a project partner, identify an individual as speaking for a Nation, or assume access arrangements on the Nation's behalf. Those matters require their own agreement.
Knowledge may guide a project without becoming public
Transparency about TILT's decisions does not create a right to disclose Indigenous knowledge, cultural information, sensitive locations or community data.
Restoration is not synonymous with exclusion
Ecological recovery and Indigenous access are not treated as inherently incompatible. Where a Nation is involved, project design should address access, harvesting, cultural use, stewardship and governance directly rather than defaulting to a fence-and-protect model.
Governance should follow the land.
Where TILT undertakes a restoration project within a Nation's traditional territory, our goal is to seek meaningful governance participation identified with or supported by that Nation, where the Nation wishes to participate. TILT does not presume to decide who speaks for a Nation.
Where appropriate, agreed and legally possible, a project may also include a pathway toward long-term Indigenous stewardship or transfer of restored land or stewardship interests.
A first conversation can remain confidential.
A Nation, community representative or potential Board participant does not need to agree to a public profile, public announcement or formal role in order to begin a conversation with TILT.
Begin a confidential conversation