Webinar Series – Cultural Protocol

Each webinar is eligible for 1.5 CEP credits for regulated member’s professional learning.

This three-part series is designed for Alberta system education leaders and educators who wish to deepen their knowledge of Understanding, Honouring, and Learning Cultural Protocol in Relationship with Indigenous Peoples and Communities. Each session will feature Elders and/or Knowledge Carriers, along with education leaders who will share their wisdom, experiences, and insights.

This webinar series will be held online from 3:30 – 5:00 p.m. on the following dates:

Topic 1 – Visiting: Honouring Time and Knowledge (January 27, 2026)

Focus: Respectful engagement, reciprocity, and relationship-building.
Guiding Intent: Addresses the heart of protocol learning while building confidence and understanding.

Ethical partnerships with First Nations, Métis, and Inuit communities require system education leaders and staff—across all roles, from finance to administrative assistants—to build, strengthen and sustain respectful relationships. This includes honouring time, intellectual property, and unseen work through appropriate budgeting for honoraria, gifts, travel, and related expenses.

Topic 2 – Worldview – Land Relationship and Living Treaties (February 3, 2026)

Focus: Moving beyond acknowledgment into lived practice.
Guiding Intent: Connects awareness and understanding with sustained, meaningful practice by moving from words to real, ongoing action.

While many school authorities now begin meetings and events with land acknowledgments, this session explores how to move from words to action—fostering living, reciprocal relationships with the land and Indigenous Peoples.

Topic 3 – Embedding Protocol in System Practice (February 10, 202)

Focus: Policy integration, sustainability, leadership roles, and financial structures.
Guiding Intent: Transforms learning into long-term, system-supported change.

Embedding new learning requires commitment, flexibility, and the willingness to adapt organizational processes over time. Learning with and from Indigenous peoples and communities requires organizations to shift mindsets and ways of working. This session will explore how education systems can enhance practices to ensure that relationships with Indigenous Peoples and communities are sustained, honoured, and supported through policy, leadership, and budget structures.

As a result of participation in the Cultural Protocol Webinar Series, participants will:

• develop awareness of approaches that reflect respectful engagement, reciprocity, and relationship-building when visiting and working with Indigenous Peoples and communities.
• gain insight into the value of time, knowledge, and intellectual property through ethical partnerships that include appropriate budgeting and actions that demonstrate respect and reciprocity.
• explore ways to deepen land acknowledgments toward active, sustained, and reciprocal relationships with Indigenous Peoples and the land.
• consider how to apply and sustain practices that honour cultural protocol within system policies, processes, and leadership frameworks to support meaningful, long-term change.