We help companies and Indigenous communities build solid, lasting, productive partnerships.

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What is Indigenous Relations?

Is it Indigenous relations or Indigenous engagement? We think it’s the same thing.

More and more companies are looking to engage and work with Indigenous communities. Gaining support in the environment you operate in needs purposeful interaction with the communities by building mutual understanding, trust, and respect.

This requires searching for the common ground even if it takes longer than anticipated. Don’t be a temporary business partner.

Establishing relationships and partnerships can be confusing and intimidating and many companies don’t have the knowledge, know where to go, or even where to start.

All of this defines both Indigenous relations and engagement.

How can we help you?

Many companies want to know how best to approach Indigenous strategy, policy and engagement.

We assist your company in creating your own Indigenous Relations Toolbox. Working together with your team to build internal strategies and policies, we help you lay the foundation in order to build solid, lasting, and productive relationships with the local Indigenous communities and businesses.

Analytics u0026 Insights

Education u0026 Awareness

Engagement

Internal Capacity Building

Clients

We work with a wide variety of clients in multiple industries including oil & gas, mining, aerospace & defence, commercial & industrial construction, renewable energy as well as building Indigenous Benefits Plans for Canadian federal government projects. Although most of our clients are contractors engaged by lead proponents of large scale construction and P3 projects, DHIR also guides professional services such as law firms in building their industry specific Indigenous strategies.

Case Studies

About Us

At DHIR, our attitude is ”roll up your sleeves and let’s get to work”. Working closely with many Indigenous communities and organizations across the country, we have honed the skills needed to help build, lead and manage Indigenous engagement strategies for clients committed to reconciliation. Our ability to make genuine connections with all stakeholders will benefit our client’s engagement goals.

The hard, tactical skills can be found in many but the soft skills of encouraging trust and building agreement are often harder to find. They are ingrained in who we are at DHIR. We help companies to create and maintain relationships with Indigenous communities. We introduce our clients to those communities we already have formed relationships with and identify communities of interest to our clients in the areas in which they operate.

We differentiate by maintaining the interests of all involved – both our clients and the communities they partner with. In doing so, we have established a solid reputation among both businesses and communities, building an awareness of the standards, protocols, processes, events and current issues that impact both parties.

Above all, we operate with empathy, humility, a willingness to learn and help you understand the cultural sensitivity required to operate in the right relation with Indigenous communities.

Our Team

Opportunities

We are thrilled to announce that DHIR has been selected to partner with Mount Saint Vincent University as part of the Kinu Tourism Project (KTP). The Kinu Tourism Project is a Mi’kma’ki wide collaborative initiative at Mount Saint Vincent University (MSVU) to create a sustainable Indigenous tourism student cohort program. This project is aimed at supporting Indigenous tourism leaders and entrepreneurs while enhancing capacity within the Indigenous Tourism sector. Our role is to conduct community research on behalf of the KTP and gather the voices of Indigenous people across Mi’kma’ki. Through analysis of in-person conversations and semi-structured interviews, we will explore the barriers and facilitators affecting the development of Indigenous Tourism entrepreneurs. We will also seek strategies to improve Indigenous student access to post-secondary education related to tourism. DHIR is a team of Indigenous Relations professionals whose approach aligns with the principles and protocols of the Mi’kmaw Ethics Watch. 

What does this mean for you? It means new opportunities. 

Paid Research Apprenticeship

Deadline Sunday, Dec 17, 2023

Social science research is an incredible tool that can empower communities. As partners in the KTP, we are committed to furthering Indigenous data sovereignty not only through our data collection and management practices, but also through skills sharing. Through our Mi’kmaw Researcher Apprenticeship, we hope to facilitate future research conducted for community and by community. We invite Mi’kmaw individuals of every experience level to reach out to Julietta at Julietta@daniellehartleyir.ca by Dec 17, 2023 to chat about joining our team. See the full details here. 

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