Rooted in Culture. Working for Our Communities.
Mishkiki means “medicine” in Anishinaabemowin. For us, that medicine is carried through our relationship with our ancestors, our languages, the land, and one another. It is present when knowledge is shared, when someone finds belonging, and when a community has the tools to shape its own future.
We are an Indigenous-founded nonprofit organization based out of Toronto (Tkarón:to / Ta’aando) bringing cultural education, practical learning, and community development together. Our work supports people in strengthening identity, wellbeing, and self-determination, while creating opportunities for the generations coming after us.
Our Mission
To bring the medicine of our ancestors into our communities through cultural education, social and economic empowerment, and sustainable development strengthening sovereignty, wellbeing, and self-determination for future generations.
Our Story
Founded in 2018 by Joshua Martin, Mishkiki grew from a personal understanding of what culture and community can make possible. Joshua’s reconnection with his Anishinaabe culture helped him find healing, sobriety, and purpose. Returning to a community centre he had once accessed for support, this time to facilitate a youth empowerment workshop, helped shape the path that followed.
That experience continues to guide our work: recognizing the strengths people already carry and creating opportunities to put them into practice. Mishkiki has grown to bring together facilitators, artists, language educators, and people with practical and lived experience, sharing learning with communities and organizations across Turtle Island.
What We Do
Cultural Learning & Community Wellbeing
Our workshops and keynotes create opportunities to learn through storytelling, discussion, making, movement, and time on the land. Programming connects cultural knowledge with practical skills, supporting youth, adults, families, and Elders in strengthening confidence, relationships, and belonging.
Training & Cultural Consultation
We work with schools, service providers, employers, governments, and organizations to strengthen cultural understanding and improve how they engage with Indigenous people and communities. Our training and consultation support respectful relationships, culturally safer practices, and decisions informed by community priorities.
Economic, Social & Community Development
Our broader initiative priorities connect housing, clean water, connectivity, renewable energy, food sovereignty, and land stewardship with local opportunity and community wellbeing. We advance planning and relationships that support community-led solutions, with attention to long-term capacity and responsibilities to the land.
How We Work
We begin by listening. Every community has its own history, strengths, teachings, and priorities. We work with organizers to understand their goals, audience, location, and available resources before recommending programming and facilitators.
Our approach respects the knowledge and protocols of the people and territories involved. Teachings belong to the Nations, families, and Knowledge Keepers who carry them. We recognize those distinctions and work with the appropriate people to guide what is shared.
Learning is participatory. We make room for questions, reflection, practical experience, and different levels of familiarity with culture. Our aim is for participants to leave with something they can carry into daily life: a skill, a stronger relationship, a new understanding, or a renewed sense of purpose.
What Guides Us
Our work is guided by respect for Indigenous sovereignty, cultural integrity, reciprocity, and responsibility. We honour the knowledge entrusted to us, value the contributions of the people we work with, and consider how our choices affect both communities and the land.
We see cultural continuity, economic opportunity, and community wellbeing as connected responsibilities. The work we do today should help our children and grandchildren grow with belonging, opportunity, and the freedom to carry their cultures forward.
Our Team
Mishkiki’s work is carried by people with distinct gifts, community connections, and experiences. Our team brings together cultural educators, language instructors, artists, dancers, craftspeople, and land-based educators. Each person contributes their own knowledge and approach, helping us connect communities with learning that fits their goals.
Let’s Build Something Meaningful Together
Whether you are planning a workshop, a keynote, staff training, or a conversation about community development, we would like to hear what matters to your community. Tell us about your goals, audience, location, and preferred dates, and we will discuss the next steps with you.
Treaty Acknowledgement
We operate on the territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit and our fellow Anishinaabe nations, shared with the Haudenosaunee under the Gdoo-naaganinaa (Dish with One Spoon) Treaty.
For generations, this agreement has reminded everyone sharing these lands and waters to take only what they need, leave enough for the next, and keep the dish clean. As Anishinaabeg doing business here today, we hold ourselves accountable to those original laws of peace, respect, and looking out for the collective dish.
