The Turtle Lodge: sustainable self-determination in practice

Abstract

The Turtle Lodge International Centre for Indigenous Education and Wellness in Sagkeeng First Nation, Manitoba, is leading the way in exemplifying and cultivating sustainable self-determination. This is a holistic concept and process that recognizes the central role that land and culture play in self-determination, and the responsibility to pass these teachings on to future generations. This article links theory and practice in the emerging scholarship on sustainable self-determination and examines how Turtle Lodge embodies sustainable self-determination through traditional governance and laws, respectful and reciprocal relationships, cultivation of cultural revitalization and community well-being, and efforts to inspire earth guardianship. Turtle Lodge’s experience underscores the importance of understanding sustainable self-determination as a flexible, community-based process. This case study fits within recent calls in the literature for a shift from a rights-based to responsibility-based self-determination discourse and demonstrates some of the challenges and lessons learned that might support other communities pursuing similar actions.