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The Canadian North

The Canadian North

Toward a Tlicho Model of Governance


On August 4, 2005, the Tlicho people of the Northwest Territories officially began the transition to self-government. With financial support from the Gordon Foundation, the Tlicho are creating an organizational, policy and governance frame- work for both the new Tlicho Government and the Tlicho Community Services Agency (TCSA) based on Tlicho values, and drawn from the cosmology and

history of the Tlicho people. By mapping the shared experience of Tlicho people, they are able to initiate a discussion about what it means to be Tlicho, and can seek to apply this knowledge to their work.

"Mapping the shared experiences" refers to the use of a cosmological framework that seeks to explain Tlicho experiences, myths, legends, heritage and history in
terms of a series of stages or periods. Each period has its own characteristics, challenges and responses to these challenges which contribute to Tlicho identity. This framework for understanding, along with a heightening awareness of history and values, is used as a tool to be applied to modern dilemmas of governance, program and organizational design, policy making and more.

The following activities have been undertaken to date (as at December, 2006):
a) Digitization of audio heritage materials: They have developed an open-source system to create and safely store digital audiofiles of this material. There is public access to this server, which to date includes approximately 120 days of digitized elder testimony.
b) The development of the cosmology as an organizational tool: The stages of the Tlicho

Photo by Ginger Gibson
cosmology are being used to organize the digitized heritage materials so that they can be readily accessed for use in the governance project. The use of this organizing framework will start to build community awareness of the history; as people begin to access materials, or as they are exposed to them, it will become increasingly familiar.
c) Tlicho Community Services Agency (TCSA) Governance and the delivery of Child and Family Services programming: The trial focus for this governance project is on the operation of the TCSA's programming in Child and Family Services, with specific focus on using the cosmology and values to develop new Community Based Child Welfare Guidelines.

The Tlicho are now developing a plan for implementing the cosmological value system into the Government's policies and operations by early 2007, with implementation soon thereafter. Elder interviews and focus groups to this end will begin in January 2007.

There is considerable interest about this initiative from as far away as Australia, where the Tlicho have been invited to present at the 2007 "Memory and Identity" conference on applying learnings from oral history to modern governance challenges, hosted by the Cape York Institute for Policy and Leadership.

Photo by Ginger Gibson

Learn more about the Tlicho Land Claims and Self Government Agreement .