Established in 2018, the Reconciliation Through Engineering Initiative (RTEI) considers how to enact reconciliation within the activities of the Centre for Global Engineering. This includes efforts to facilitate reciprocal, long-term partnerships between Indigenous Nations and engineering faculty to support community-identified needs.
RTEI approaches these efforts as a learning journey grounded in the findings of Answering the Call. Wecheehetowin. Final Report of the Steering Committee for the University of Toronto Response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. We are grateful for the knowledge, lessons, and patience shared with us by the Indigenous Peoples, organizations, and allies with whom we have had the opportunity to meet, work, and learn.
Current Project:
- Learning from Collaborative Research with Indigenous Nations Aims to learn from past collaborations to understand how engineering and other technical researchers can better work as allies to Indigenous Nations. Includes recommendations for training, guidance and institutional structures targeted at technical audiences. This project is carried out in collaboration with the IISAAK OLAM Foundation and funded by the Ocean Program of the National Research Council Canada. We are grateful for the ongoing advice of an Advisory Group, whose members bring knowledge such as community lived experience, journalism, Indigenous worldviews, engineering, and ethical space.
To read a copy of the full report from this project, please click here.
Past Projects Include:
- Supporting Collaborative Research Support for researchers to engage in collaborative research with Indigenous Nations and organizations. Examples of past projects include conventional vs. natural alternatives for healthy housing and optimizing transportation routes for food and emergency services in Northern Ontario.
- Sioux Lookout Sharing Event Co-hosted a sharing event (2019) to launch the Sioux Lookout Innovation Station. RTEI staff and UofT Faculty met with representatives from 19 First Nations and learned about the needs of those Nations.
- Northern Food Sovereignty Building on connections established at Sioux Lookout, food sovereignty considerations for Northern First Nations were integrated into an undergraduate course (Winter 2020). Included a visit to Cat Lake First Nation and collaboration with ASM Innovations on design challenges related to a proposed greenhouse installation.