Our Responsibility as Good Relatives

The concept of Our Relatives Home goes beyond the traditional nuclear family living together in one house. Families are extensive networks of strong, connective kinship and are often entire communities who understand that raising a child is everyone’s responsibility. Kinship is a system that reflects how people relate to one another and their surroundings, with the aim of creating an undivided and harmonious community. 

Mission

Ndinawemaaganag Endaawaad Inc. (Our Relative’s Home) honours our responsibility to be good relatives for our youth, using a kinship approach.

Vision

To create a kinship support network for youth in Winnipeg that allows them to feel safe to connect with others, discover their gifts, and find their place in community.

Core Values

• Respect is a basic law of life. Respect means to feel and show honour for someone and to care for their well-being. Respect one’s self and respect will be bestowed.
• Love and children are the vehicles we have been given to experience and comprehend the Creator.
• Honesty is from within and is not to be confused with truth or law. In our traditional way, there are no ‘ifs or buts’ about honesty if one is to survive in a good way.
• Courage is the capacity to stick to a challenge even though it is very hard and even painful. We must seek understanding and resolution through spiritual intervention as healing.
• Humility is the ability to understand that, as an employee/volunteer of Ndinawe, we have an individual role to ensure the survival of the family. Humility is the quality which allows us to understand and accept our roles as well.
• Wisdom is gained through experience and insight and is not to be confused with knowledge. Wisdom brings with it the need to be responsible and accountable.
• Truth is the ability to adapt and change without compromising.

Strengthening The Foundations Of Our Relatives Home

Home is not just a physical structure. It is more than just the four walls and a roof we have come to know as a “house”. Home is the place we as individuals feel safe, feel loved, and can grow into the person we were intended to be.

The teepee represents the foundational cultural supports of how a house becomes a home. For the purpose of this plan, the teepee is being used as a graphic representation to show how the strategic priorities work interconnectedly to Strengthen Our Relatives Home.

The poles of the teepee represent a strong Indigenous culture. The poles represent the traditional teachings that surround us and provide support through life. Without the poles, there is no home.

The hide wrap is Ndinawe’s organizational development and sustainability. The hide provides protection from the elements and creates a space for kinship network development. Without the hide wrap working with the poles, there would be no structure.

The shadows around the fire represent Protecting and Building Capacity in Youth. Sitting around a fire with your kinship network is a space for connecting, eating, laughing, and learning. The warm glow from the fire represents the peaceful space that allows youth to receive the knowledge needed to become who the Creator intended them to be.