Communities Already Know the Answer - A reflection at the close of National Indigenous History Month

By Wáhiakatste (Wahi) Diome-Deer

Ask an Indigenous community what it needs, and you will get a clear answer. The problem has never been a shortage of answers. It has been a shortage of listening.

June is National Indigenous History Month. We celebrate the cultures, languages, and histories of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples. As the month closes, I keep thinking less about the celebrations and more about a quieter shift. Communities are moving from being consulted about solutions to leading them. They set their own priorities. They design around local realities. And they keep proving something that should never have been in doubt: results get better when communities define success for themselves.

The challenges are local. Housing. Energy costs. Health. Economic opportunity. Governments and investors have a role. But no one understands a community's priorities better than the people who live there.

At Raven Outcomes, we see that every day.

One idea, three different communities

The proof is not theory. These projects are already running.

• Onion Lake Cree Nation named energy affordability as a priority. The result is rooftop solar on 123 homes, lower energy bills, and local jobs.

• Brokenhead Ojibway Nation focused on housing and local economic opportunity. 100 homes are being retrofitted, and the community launched its own energy company, BON Energy, to carry the work forward.

• Island Lake Anisininew Nation is building a community-led program to prevent and manage Type 2 diabetes, shaped by local knowledge of what families need.

The projects look nothing alike, because the priorities are not alike. That is the point. What matters most in one community is not what matters most in another.

The common thread is not a program or a template. The community named the outcome it wanted and helped design the path to reach it.

Across our work so far, that has meant more than 400 homes improved and more than 40 people trained and employed. Chief Gordon Bluesky of Brokenhead Ojibway Nation put it better than I can:

"Working with Raven Outcomes has allowed us to work in a way that reflects the priorities, values, and self-determination of our community. This has benefitted our community members, leadership, and local economy."

Funding what works, not what is hoped for

Most funding still pays for activity. It buys a program, supports an effort, and hopes results follow.

Outcomes finance flips that order.

Communities lead. Investors provide the upfront capital. Government pays only once the agreed results are achieved and verified by an independent party. If the outcomes are missed, government does not pay, and the risk sits with investors, not the community.

It does two things at once. It ties dollars to proven results instead of good intentions. And it keeps decisions where they belong, with the people who will live with those results long after any funding cycle ends.

This is not a new idea. It is an old one, finally written into how money moves. The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples says it plainly in Article 3: Indigenous peoples have the right to self-determination, to freely pursue their economic, social, and cultural development.

Self-determination is not a slogan. It is a way of moving capital. Communities decide their vision, and the capital follows their lead.

Why we built this

Raven exists because of a frustration many communities know by heart. Funding arrives wrapped in rigid requirements that do not reflect local realities. Real resources go into programs, yet the outcomes miss what the community set out to achieve.

We wanted to fund people, not programs.

That belief is now backed by real money. Our $50 million fund is built to scale Indigenous-led solutions, and it has already returned more than three times its value in measurable community outcomes.

A practical next step for Canada

As Canada works to improve housing, health, and Economic Reconciliation, the smartest move is not to invent something new. It is to scale what already delivers.

That is why Raven has called on the Government of Canada to create a $500 million Outcomes Canada Fund, including a dedicated $100 million Indigenous allocation. It would back community-led projects in housing, health, energy, and skills, while drawing in private and philanthropic capital alongside public dollars. It would also deliver directly on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's Calls to Action and on UNDRIP.

By tying public money to results that are measured and independently verified, dollars would flow toward what works. And more communities would gain the flexible capital they need to pursue solutions on their own terms.

What the month leaves us with

National Indigenous History Month is a time to celebrate. It is also a reminder that some of the most effective answers to this country's hardest problems are being built and led by Indigenous communities right now.

I keep returning to the words of the late Justice Murray Sinclair:

"Reconciliation is not an aboriginal problem, it is a Canadian problem. It involves all of us."

Communities already know the answer. The work in front of the rest of us is to fund it, trust it, and build on it. Not just in June, but in every month that follows.

Niá:wen.

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