When we first started working together during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, we came together not just as nonprofit leaders, but as two women, one Indigenous and one Persian*, brought together by a shared commitment to community, healing, and solidarity. With support from the Canadian Women’s Foundation and Indigenous Youth Roots, we co-led projects that delivered care packages to Indigenous youth in remote communities and hosted virtual mental health workshops that created connections across distance.

In that work, we began to reflect deeply on what helped us build trust with one another, across cultures, lived experiences, and responsibilities. We realized that it was never just about what we did, it was about how we showed up. It was about listening without rushing, honouring boundaries, centering care, and co-creating spaces where people, including ourselves, felt seen. Those early lessons continue to guide A+ Projects today, where we work alongside communities and organizations to build trust, capacity, and strategies rooted in relationships.

At A+ Projects, we often say that relationships are our bread and butter. Before strategies, deliverables, or timelines, there are people. Communities. Histories. Land. And when it comes to building relationships with Indigenous communities, this truth carries even more weight and responsibility.

Both of us, Amie and Arezoo, came to this work through community organizing and social justice movements. We’ve seen firsthand how extractive, transactional approaches to “partnership” have caused harm, especially in the nonprofit sector. Too often, Indigenous communities are invited to tables they did not set, to weigh in on plans that were written without them, and are expected to trust institutions that have yet to earn that trust. That’s not how we work. That’s not how we want to move forward.

So what does a good relationship with Indigenous communities look like? It’s not a checklist, it’s a commitment. It’s a practice. It’s about showing up differently, and staying in the work for the long haul.

Here are the guiding principles we uphold to foster meaningful and reciprocal relationships with Indigenous communities.

1. Start with Truth, Not Tactics

There is no relationship without truth, and no truth without acknowledging the ongoing impacts of colonization on land, governance, language, culture, and people. For us, building relationships begins with learning and unlearning. This includes understanding the treaties and agreements that exist, as well as recognizing the many Nations whose territories remain unceded or where no treaties were signed. It also means reflecting on how our work intersects with Indigenous rights, sovereignty, and jurisdiction, and how we show up in solidarity with those realities.

But this truth-telling is not just historical; it’s personal and institutional. We ask ourselves: How have we benefited from colonial systems? How are we complicit in the nonprofit industrial complex that often sidelines Indigenous leadership? Are we prepared to redistribute power, not just funds?

This kind of truth work can start with simple but intentional steps: learn whose territory you're on and what treaties, if there are any, govern that land. Build relationships with local Nations beyond land acknowledgements, attend events, listen to Elders, and support Indigenous-led initiatives with no strings attached. Inside your organization, audit your policies, partnerships, and funding practices.

Ask whether Indigenous knowledge is being invited respectfully, or being extracted. Most importantly, commit to the long game. Truth isn’t a box to check; it’s a practice that must live in your relationships, your decisions, and your accountability.

2. Move at the Speed of Trust

Timelines are a colonial invention. And in the rush to “get things done,” we often miss the deeper work of trust-building. Good relationships don’t start with agendas or contracts; they start with listening. With presence. With showing up to community events, checking in without a hidden ask, and respecting boundaries around time, energy, and information.

We’ve learned to let go of urgency, especially when working alongside communities that carry the weight of intergenerational trauma and resilience. Trust doesn’t come because we have good intentions, it comes because we demonstrate consistency, humility, and accountability over time.

3. Center Indigenous Leadership and Self-Determination

A+ Projects exists to support, not to lead, Indigenous work. Our role is to follow the direction of community leaders, to amplify what’s already happening, and to make space, not take space.

That might mean saying “no” to funders when they want to impose metrics that don’t align with Indigenous worldviews. It might mean doing behind-the-scenes work while Indigenous partners are centered publicly. It always means asking: Who gets to decide? Who gets resourced? Who gets credited?

This principle also applies internally. Our work is deeply guided by Indigenous leadership, knowledge, and values, both within our partnership and in the communities we serve. We approach collaborations with Indigenous partners by honouring their full selves, not just their labour. This means respecting cultural protocols, creating space for ceremony and land-based practices, and recognizing traditional knowledge systems as fundamental to the work. Fair compensation is a starting point, but equally important are consent, care, and relational accountability woven throughout all we do.

4. Reciprocity Over Transaction

Too often, relationships between nonprofits and Indigenous communities are built around extraction of stories, data, and expertise. In contrast, good relationships are rooted in reciprocity. That doesn’t mean equal exchange in a transactional sense; it means understanding and responding to the needs of the community.

Sometimes that looks like sharing meals. Sometimes it looks like adjusting our scope to align with a community's timeline. Sometimes it looks like stepping back entirely and offering our support quietly, without branding or recognition.

Reciprocity is also emotional, it’s about holding space, celebrating together, grieving together. We’ve cried with aunties, danced at powwows, and sat in silence when that was what was needed. These moments don’t make it into project reports, but they are where the real work happens.

5. Be Ready to Be Called In and Called Out

We’re not perfect and can make mistakes. That’s a part of being human. But what matters is how we respond.

We approach this work with open hearts and a willingness to be called in. When Indigenous partners offer feedback, critique, or correction, we take it seriously. We reflect. We adjust. We apologize. We repair.

Being in a good relationship means embracing discomfort as a teacher, not as something to avoid. It means being accountable not just to individuals, but to communities, ancestors, and future generations.

A Final Word

At A+ Projects, we don’t see relationships with Indigenous communities as part of our work, they are our work. They shape our values, our strategies, and our vision for a just future.

We believe that reconciliation is not a goalpost, but a practice. One that requires humility, imagination, and action.

To those in the nonprofit and social impact world: this work begins with you. Reflect on your role. Build meaningful partnerships. Resource Indigenous leadership. And above all, walk gently, because you are walking on sacred ground.

It’s a privilege to walk this path, and we invite you to walk alongside us.

In solidarity,
Amie & Arezoo

Co-founders, A+ Projects

*Amie is a member of Gwich’in Tribal Council and Liard First Nation and Arezoo is Persian from Iran.

Tending the Garden: Cultivating Trust and Reciprocity with Indigenous Partners