here, we present our Visions for Tomorrow in the form of poetry, to make space for expansive dreaming into the future.

    • We will understand that wellness is rooted in the quality of our relationships with ourselves, each other, and the Land. We will understand whole person wellness.

    • We will have great knowledge of the medicines that our Lands provide.

    • Emotional competency and mental wellness will be understood, nourished, and valued by all people, in all systems.

    • We will practice health care premised on Reconnection that doesn’t just value drugs developed in a lab but recognizes and values the healing powers of the Land.

    • Traditional medicine and Land-based healing practices will be integrated and connected to the healthcare system. Spiritual and emotional healthcare will transform this system that currently only knows how to care for our physical bodies.

    • All our communities will have thriving on the Land healing and treatment centres and integrated health spaces that support the emotional, physical, spiritual and mental needs of our people.

    • We will have many trauma therapists and care workers who help keep our communities strong and safe with cultural humility.

    • Screen time will be recognized as detrimental to health and wellbeing.

    • Our economy will be built around ethics of healing and care. We will deeply value all facets of care work.

    • We will keep our internal energy in balance so we can be of service.

    • Our grandchildren will have a relationship with everything they need, and our current models of extraction will be transformed.

    • People will be deeply connected with local ingredients and materials and we will make much more of what we need right here in the Yukon.

    • Our systems of extraction will be built on ethics of reciprocity.

    • Ceremony will be incorporated into all extraction activities. We may not call it ‘extraction’ anymore.

    • Systems of extraction built on principles of wealth accumulation and perpetual growth will become outdated.

    • Mining policies will be reformed to support the local economy and reflect reciprocity.

    • We will be responsible for dealing with our mining and other waste locally. We will not ship our waste metals and materials abroad.

    • We will ban cheap, non-humane, and single-use products and materials in the Yukon. We will heal our Land from former damaging extractive practices through natural means.

    • We will be globally accountable to our brothers, sisters and beyond-human kin in faraway Lands where many of our materials are sourced from.

    • Return on our investments will be transformed to prioritize the health and well-being of the communities that are part of these networks.

    • The idea of ‘property’ will be completely transformed. Our grandchildren and all Yukon children will understand that the Land does not belong to them - they belong to the Land.

    • Our homes will be built using local materials; materials we love and with whom our people have long been in relationship with. Many of the Land-harming materials we use today will become illegal.

    • We will re-purpose, repair, and reuse materials that we currently waste.

    • Our housing will enable us to honour bush life when living in urban environments.

    • We will revitalize Clan Houses and Potlatch Houses. Powerful communal efforts will flow into the creation of these communal spaces. We envision language houses for knowledge transfer.

    • We will have a local lumber and sawmill industry that enables us to harvest wood spared from natural hazard events for use in local housing projects.

    • We will have trades training in all communities that will lead to a thriving First Nations housing economy, developing housing on and off settlement Land.

    • New policies and incentives will eliminate lawns and in turn, will promote stewardship of natural ecosystems, local food production and medicine cultivation.

    • An ethical contracting industry will make us more accountable to our global neighbours.

    • There will be more Whitehorse-based off-settlement housing for First Nations people who move to Whitehorse so they may be part of the larger community. Housing for those in need will be places of home, love, and community. Including spaces for those coming to Whitehorse for education, young people in need of care and those in need of healing.

    • We envision an economy that holds care for our community at its centre. This economy will be guided by our virtues as Yukon First Nations people and will based on the principles of share, care and respect - it will prioritise love, purpose, and belonging.

    • Our grandchildren will protect themselves from the harms of technology and social media. They will understand technology devices are tools to be handled with responsibility and respect. This will result in less need for the devices that disconnect us from being present in our communities, resulting in less time indoors overusing and wasting energy.

    • Everyone will have a role to play in helping our communities flourish, and we will uplift people for their strengths, honouring their role, honouring diversity. Instead of feeling separate, individualised and lacking, we will feel a sense of belonging, validation, and responsibility to our role as part of a whole. We will know our co-workers as community members, not simply as job titles, void of the emotional and spiritual connection that colonisation has normalised for us.

    • What we get from other Lands will come to us via Indigenous trade networks, similar to how Grease Trails inspired local trade with our ancestors’ neighbours.

    • Our economic system will value time spent on the Land, for all of us.

    • Our economy will be guided by our virtues as First Nations people. It will shed light upon the things that we need to live a good life, and will recognize how valuable they are. In this economy, our hands will spend as much time in soil, on saws, and in berries and moose guts as they do on keyboards.

    • We will value caring for our Elders and community members. We will incentivise rest and connection.

    • We will recognise the importance of and value what it takes to raise children well - the economy will support parents playing a significant role in the education of all children.

    • Work will sync with the seasons and the phases of the moon and the 9-5 standardised way of working will no longer exist - in this way we will honour our role as part of nature.

    • Our development companies will have options to generate value that do not depend on practices that harm the Land.

    • Our food systems will nurture deep relationships with all the beings, places and people who feed us. We will eat beautifully where ceremony will be present in all our food practices.

    • Cultivating food will be part of everyone’s life. We will all learn to grow, harvest, preserve, prepare and eat together. Producing food locally and lovingly and in sync with the seasons will guide our understanding of the economy.

    • Food will no longer be commodified. Community and backyard greenhouses and gardens will flourish and be the norm.

    • We will harness technology and storage solutions to support local food availability in the winter season and we will build sophisticated compost systems. Free-range farms will be pillars of our communities and food will bring communities together.

    • We will still support the global food economy, but we won’t be dependent on it. We will ensure imported food is ethically sourced and produced.

    • We will support Land Guardians and others to revitalise YFN’s Land-care practicesCommunity hunts and harvesting will be an important part of our lifestyle. We will preserve foods like our Grandmas and Grandpas did.

    • Our food systems will have no waste, everything will be used - just as we were taught to use all parts of the animal’s body when hunting.

    • Knowledge about subsistence hunting and fishing practices will flourish, it will be understood that bigger is not better. We must protect herd leaders and breeders for future generations. Trophy hunting will end on our Lands. Catch and release fishing will end in our Waters.

    • Harvests will be balanced, informed by Doòli Law. We will allow the Land to rest through cyclical voluntary closures of areas. Our food will once again be our medicine. No need for vitamin supplements.

    • We will honour our Indigenous Laws. Indigenous Law and leadership will transform Crown government systems we currently work within. Indigenous Law revitalisation will be well resourced and supported to enable joint legislation that honours the spirit of true, equitable collaboration and partnership in governance and decision making.

    • We will deeply understand what a worldview is and how it impacts governance. Governance systems will reflect both Indigenous worldviews and Western worldviews. Efforts to evolve governance will be inclusive and collaborative.

    • Governance will honour Matrilineal structures.

    • Our governance models will respect the Land. Decisions for the Land will be made on the Land.

    • Governance models will be built on natural Law, that respects the seasons and natural climate cycles.

    • Governance will not be hierarchical or patriarchal. We will build a different model. All community members will have a role in governance. Siloed governing will sunset.

    • Ceremony will exist at all levels of government.

    • Those with no human voice (Land, Waters, Animals, Ancestors and Future Generations) will have a seat at the table to be respected and supported to thrive. Humans will be responsible for stewarding the Land.

    • ‘Indigenous Leadership’ will be defined differently than Leadership today. Our Leaders will be supported by the community and will make decisions from a place of whole-personhood.

    • Personal accountability and responsibility will thrive.

    • We will understand that everything is connected through energy. Our physical bodies are held by our energetic essence that is intertwined with the energy of life, elements and spirit around us.

    • These relationships will determine how we build our electricity and energy systems of the future.

    • We will understand that to heal things, Water’s energy needs to be healthy.

    • We will show our respect for Water by using it in a good way.

    • We will understand how to harness energy as our Ancestors did in a manner that enhances and nourishes life, rather than disrupting it.

    • We will revitalize our deep reverence for Water, Land, Air, and Fire in our education systems.

    • We will be mindful of how we speak to Water, how much we consume, and what we are using Her for.

    • We will understand that our thoughts have power - our dreams, will, words, and music affect the molecular structure of the energy of ourselves and those around us

    • As in nature, Energy must be protected and used efficiently. This includes our own energy, where we must recharge when we are depleted.

    • Our use of energy will be guided by the the needs of the community. We will build true community energy infrastructures.

    • First Nations knowledge and storytelling will be valued and normalized.

    • We will honour a balance of both the traditional knowledge and Western based education systems and in doing so, will provide our Youth more opportunity to flourish within the school system.

    • Our current education models of deposit, regurgitate and assess will be dismantled and our education systems become nurturing spaces of growth, strength, and safe exploration.

    • Everyone will be a teacher and a learner. Yukon First Nation education systems will be inclusive of all Yukoners.

    • Students will be happy, healthy, and productive through their learning years.

    • We will be able to access and reconnect with our cultures at any age.

    • We will have a Yukon First Nation Education Act.

    • We will speak our languages. We will relearn ceremony and reclaim our power.

    • Youth will graduate with the values of our cultures and the skills to thrive in the modern world and choose whichever path they want.

    • All educational spaces will be taught using a Whole person approach, where spirit, emotion, intellect and body are experienced when learning new knowledge.