Plenty Canada has long been an organization that both attracts and nurtures exceptional talent. Guided by our values and collaborative practice of partnering with other community-minded individuals and organizations to complete good works over a period of 45 years, we’ve aligned with some truly inspiring professionals.

To mention just a few who I believe would qualify as significant leaders among their people were John Hardbattle, who advocated for the rights of N/oakhwe communities across Botswana. The N/oakhwe, who are more commonly referred to as the Bushmen, Bararwa, or San, are an Indigenous people of southern Africa. John was an amazing cultural interpreter who gathered the testimony and expressions of village leadership and helped us all better understand the impacts and distress caused by Botswana’s resettlement program, of life before and after fences divided the Kalahari, and of the needs of the country’s Indigenous people to sustain their traditional food supplies and lifeways. John died far too young and will forever be missed by those of us who knew and loved him.

Sam Mercado, a Miskito leader from the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua, was instrumental in securing and directing reconstruction and rehabilitation resources to Indigenous communities destroyed during the Contra War. It would be impossible to overstate Sam’s carefully guided management and delivery of Plenty Canada resources used to replant fruit orchards and to rebuild homes and community buildings. Sam was instrumental in the development of Pana Pana (Asociación para el Desarrollo de la Costa Atlántica) which leverages resources from governmental and non-governmental organizations to promote and strengthen the development of sustainable infrastructure to deliver potable water, sanitation, and hygiene services. He continues to work hard for his people.

In our April donor letter, I highlighted the work of Mwana Bermudes, who deserves additional affirmation here as Plenty Canada's stalwart field project coordinator in southern Africa. Our association with Mwana extends back to our earliest years in the 1980s when Plenty Canada was developing the Village Technology and Training Centre (VTTC) in the Quthing River Valley of Lesotho. Over a period of more than 40 years he’s led numerous projects (potable water, sanitation, agriculture, forestry, etc.) that have improved the lives of thousands of rural villagers. His generous and genuine soul, combined with his multiple skill sets and talents, including music and photography, make Mwana Plenty Canada’s favourite renaissance man.

Peigi Wilson, research manager for the First Nations Information Governance Centre in Ottawa, supports the development of Indigenous capacity as an important pathway to First Nations self-determination. As a board member of our organization, she has provided stable guidance and applied a broad range of skill sets that have strengthened our work across the board. From serving as the director of Environmental Stewardship at the Assembly of First Nations, to facilitating municipal water service agreements at the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, and as a consultant for Global Affairs and Canada employees on recognition and reconciliation issues, Peigi brings to the table significant policy experience and professional practice.

It’s been an honour to have been associated with so many admirable and highly credentialed colleagues over the years.

Jeff Beaver, a long-time associate who hails from Alderville First Nation has led many programs for Plenty Canada. His life’s work, which has upheld the knowledge and traditions of the Mississauga Anishinabeg of the Ojibway Nation, is comprehensive. From working with Parks Canada in many capacities including that of Wasagaming Townsite warden, through his service as resource management co-ordinator and facilitator of projects with the Indian Agricultural Program of Ontario, to working with our organization on developing youth training around manoomin (wild rice) seeding and harvesting, he’s become a respected and cherished member of our team.

Another of our standouts is esteemed Mohawk elder and midwife Katsi Cook, who led a Plenty Canada-supported program called The First Environment back in the 90s and who remains a close friend to this day. Katsi is an advocate of Indigenous women’s health, drawing from a longhouse traditionalist perspective the idea of Woman as the First Environment. For the past 25 years she’s worked at the intersections of environmental health and justice and reproductive research and policy. Katsi is a founding member of the National Aboriginal Council of Midwives, a researcher, and a lecturer on Indigenous environmental reproductive health. She is currently the director of the Spirit Aligned Leadership Program.

Mafika Ludidi arrived in Canada after being exiled from his home country of South Africa during the Apartheid scourge. He never once lost sight of his own people’s plight while working as a development education specialist with Plenty Canada. When conditions were right for his return, Ludidi was greeted as a hero by his community in the Transkei region. Among our staff who were present and fortunate to have witnessed the event, they likened his entrance into the celebration hall to that of Moses parting the Red Sea, as throngs of well wishers joyously jumped into the air as he walked down the aisle. Ludidi went on to initiate Plenty Canada projects dealing with potable water supply and agriculture before his untimely death. His story and that of John Hardbattle remind us of just how precious and precarious life can be, but also of the significant impacts one can have when dedicated to right and just causes.

And then there’s Tim Johnson, Mohawk from Six Nations of the Grand River, who served as communications director for Plenty Canada back in the early 1990s and continues to be an active partner today. His work built a loyal donor base for our organization, which has remarkably survived through some 30 years of institutional evolution. Tim’s career eventually led him to the Smithsonian Institution where he served in senior management at the National Museum of the American Indian for 11 and ½ years, ten of those as associate director for Museum Programs overseeing exhibitions and public programs. Many of you may know Tim for his multiple award-winning film RUMBLE: The Indians Who Rocked The World, which emerged from a Smithsonian exhibition he initiated and directed. Tim currently heads up our Six Nations bureau office.

This partial list (with apologies to dozens of others who’ve built impactful careers and successful lives) provides insight into how even a modest grassroots organization like Plenty Canada can make a difference in the world. Our primary goal for the past 45 years has been to simply help people where and when we can, particularly those who’ve been neglected, mistreated, or otherwise ignored, like Indigenous peoples. And when I look out at the incredibly bright and talented young professionals who’ve come through Plenty Canada in more recent years, I’m encouraged by their intelligence, commitment, and decency.

Together, our accomplished elders and talented young people give me cause to believe in a bright and hopeful future.

Chi Miigwech. Niá:wen. Merci. Thank you.

Larry McDermott
​Executive Director
Plenty Canada

As Phase One of the Plenty Canada CampUs renovations draw to a close, it feels like a fitting time to pause and reflect on the principles that have guided the process so far. This Trillium Foundation funded capital project has allowed our organization to become even more rooted and connected to this beautiful Algonquin environment, as we invest in renovating our structures and planning our work for generations to come.
 
Buildings too often have the effect of separating us from our surroundings, yet they are essential components of our daily lives that influence how we interpret and interact between human-constructed and natural environments. The layout of our rooms and common areas affect how we gather. Windows and doors facilitate our connections to the outdoors. And the materials we choose determine the impacts we have on our surroundings.
 
The work we do on, and within, our buildings present us with opportunities to do great good or great harm. Such opportunities challenge us to define what we believe is important. Under the leadership of Plenty Canada Executive Director Larry McDermott, we have continually asked ourselves these fundamental questions. Through the lens of Two-Eyed Seeing, what does sustainable building look like? Within the rubric of truth and reconciliation and environmental justice, how can our buildings reflect our values and our work?
 
To answer these questions, we turned to important voices in the field of Indigenous architecture. These include internationally renowned architect Douglas Cardinal and the seventeen other distinguished Indigenous architects who created the exhibition Unceded: Voices of the Land for the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale. We also consulted Patrick Stewart’s dissertation Indigenous Architecture through Indigenous Knowledge: Dion Sagalt'apkw Nisim (Together We Will Build a Village). In addition, Bruce King and Chris Magwood, who have advanced to mainstream audiences, data related to carbon storage within buildings, were important influences on our thinking. From those sources, we developed a starting point to define sustainable building practices at Plenty Canada. These include:
 
Place-based approach: To design buildings that operate in conjunction with our surroundings, using local materials and employing a collaborative design process.
 
Embracing, representing, and reflecting Indigenous culture: To provide a space for cultural practices, teachings, and ceremonies where multiple generations may gather.
 
Ecological Responsibility: To design our buildings and the surrounding landscape to be safe for human and non-human users to protect and enhance biodiversity and be low-carbon in construction and operation.
 
Our current building industry is doing well at producing energy-efficient buildings. However, at Plenty Canada, we are equally concerned with how we get energy-efficient buildings. We are concerned with where the materials come from and the impacts of harvesting and manufacturing. We are concerned with the safety of installation for our tradespeople and with how materials will impact indoor air quality and the health of our occupants. We are also concerned with what toxins materials put into our surroundings and how much carbon was emitted into the environment from their extraction, manufacturing, and transportation.
 
That’s a lot to take into consideration. But as an example, let’s examine Plenty Canada’s wall system to see how we have made our decisions.

1.    Fibreboard: We wrapped the whole building in a layer of fibreboard to increase insulation value. This fibreboard is manufactured in Quebec and is 97 percent wood fibre, with the rest being a wax binder. The most common choice for continuous insulation today is rigid foam panels. However, fibreboard has many fewer negative impacts on our environment and is, in fact, a carbon sink.

2.    Weather and air barrier:  Durability is essential for low-impact buildings and the number one obstacle to durability is water. We must keep our buildings dry. We selected a very durable, 3-ply weather barrier that while airtight, is vapour permeable so any moisture in the building can dry to the exterior. (Buildings don’t need to breathe, but they do need to dry.)

3.    Rain screen and strapping: Strapping is essential to allow airflow behind our building and encourage drying. Strapping should only be laid vertically against the building wall, to allow drainage. If vertical siding is installed (as in our case), a second layer of horizontal strapping should be installed. In our case, we were  able to reuse our old, weathered cedar siding as strapping.

4.     Eastern white cedar siding: This siding was supplied by Don McGovern who runs a cedar mill just down the road from the Plenty Canada CampUs. Cedar has excellent longevity as siding because of its natural oils. Unlike western red cedar, eastern white cedar is grown in our local area and transported minimal distances.

5.     Linseed Oil Paint: Linseed oil paint is an all-natural paint made of boiled linseed (flax) oil and natural pigments. It contains no solvents and is free from petroleum products. The oil penetrates the wood, rather than forming a coat, like latex paint. Because of this, the paint doesn’t peel, it simply fades. The paint is much more durable than latex paints and stains, which is of particular concern for the south and west facing sides of our buildings.
 
As the exterior of the building finishes up, we turn to the interior renovations. We have selected linseed oil paints for the interior, as well as Marmoleum flooring, a resilient flooring made from flax.
 
While social distancing has disrupted our in-person workshops, we are grateful to the opportunity to create a healthy and welcoming space for our programming. We look forward to opening our doors in the near future for our workshops and gatherings. We hope the work on our CampUs will help demonstrate the important role of sustainable building within our mission and inspire our visitors to apply Two-Eyed Seeing principles to building projects in their own lives.

— Lindey Touzel

Since 1976 when Plenty Canada first coalesced and activated in response to an earthquake that devastated Mayan communities in Guatemala, our organization has worked closely with Indigenous peoples to affirm and support their rightful roles in the pantheon of nations that comprise human civilization on Earth. In the pursuit of truth and justice and recognizing the profound need to respect human rights and promote and restore equality, Indigenous peoples should be free from discrimination of any kind.
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Recent news that 215 Indigenous children were found buried in a mass grave at the Kamloops Residential School has been devastating to our organization, to our community, and to all those across the country whose empathy and decency have been roiled by shock, dismay, and pain. As an Indigenous organization, whose family members and associates have been impacted directly by Canada’s residential school policies and who continue to contend with generational trauma, we are reminded on a regular basis the extent of this tragic history. But nothing prepared us for this, for such a stark and horrific realization of the pain and suffering evidenced by this terrible discovery.

In our attempts to process events and realizations such as these, we must also confront the lingering impacts of colonialism, of rationalization born of entitlement, that not only dehumanize Indigenous peoples, but also damage our sacred earth’s delicate balance. These outcomes are connected, they are related. Whether a violation of natural law or a violation of human rights, we are now forced to ponder, have we been inadequately describing residential school policies as “cultural” destruction, when it would appear they meet the full and complete United Nations definition of genocide, full stop?

It is therefore with collective grieving hearts that we extend our most sincere and heartfelt sympathy to the families of the 215 children who did not survive the Kamloops Residential School, and to all those within Canada who are feeling the deep and seemingly indelible effects of this recurring and dreadful nightmare.

If you or any of your family members, friends, or associates need someone with whom to talk or communicate, please consider contacting the National Indian Residential School Survivors Crisis Line, which is available 24-hours per day for anyone experiencing pain or distress caused by a residential school experience.

Phone: 1-866-925-4419
​​Website: https://www.irsss.ca/faqs/how-do-i-reach-the-24-hour-crisis-line