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Greenbelt Award To Kerry-Ann Charles
- Team CIPS
- Nov 18, 2025
- 1 min read
We’re thrilled to introduce another incredible 2025 Friend of the Greenbelt Award recipient—Kerry-Ann Charles, this year’s Thought Partner Award winner!
Kerry-Ann has been a trusted and inspiring partner for many years, in her capacity as the Environment Partnership Coordinator with Cambium Indigenous Professional Services. She played a key role in developing the Foundation’s Land Acknowledgement, supported the Southern Ontario Nature Coalition, and contributed her expertise to the Oak Ridges Moraine Trail Strategy, just to name a few, ensuring each initiative reflected genuine collaboration and respect.
A proud member of the Chippewas of Georgina Island First Nation, Kerry-Ann is the Founder and Executive Director of Ne’ikaanigaana — an Ojibway word meaning “seeing ourselves as a reflection of Creation.” Through her leadership and partnership, she continues to strengthen the connection between environmental stewardship and reconciliation across Ontario.
We’re so grateful for Kerry-Ann’s insight, generosity, and unwavering commitment to the Greenbelt’s vision.
Stay tuned as we continue spotlighting our 2025 award recipients and celebrating the people who make the Greenbelt thrive!
I’m glad you’re spotlighting people like Kerry-Ann who sit in that connector role—between organizations, communities, and actual on-the-ground projects. That’s where a lot of reconciliation work either becomes real or just stays performative. Weird comparison, but the “seeing ourselves as a reflection of Creation” line made me think of how tools like Imgg do “ghibli ai” stylization—same scene, different lens, and it changes what you notice.
What I’m taking from this is how much better the outcomes are when Indigenous leadership isn’t treated as an add-on, but as part of the actual design of the work (like the land acknowledgement and trail strategy). The phrase “strengthen the connection between environmental stewardship and reconciliation” is doing a lot of work here—in a good way. Slightly off-topic, but it reminded me of how identity/representation shows up in small choices too (I’d been messing around with Stylelooklab and “hairstyle ai” previews for a friend before a big event).
Awards posts can be a little fluffy sometimes, but this one actually gives enough specifics that you can tell it’s earned—especially the behind-the-scenes coordinating work that usually doesn’t get public credit. Also, I appreciate the emphasis on “genuine collaboration and respect” because that’s the part that’s easiest to say and hardest to do. Totally random aside: I decompress with stuff like Blockblast (yeah, the “blockblast” grid game) after reading heavier environmental/reconciliation updates like this.
Ne’ikaanigaana being framed as “seeing ourselves as a reflection of Creation” hit me harder than I expected—feels like a simple way to explain why stewardship and reconciliation can’t be separated. I’m curious how they’re measuring impact across these partnerships though (like what “good collaboration” looks like year to year). This reminded me of a completely unrelated rabbit hole I went down on Caesarcipher about a “cipher identifier” where you’re basically looking for patterns before you can even start solving the real thing.
I like that this highlights concrete contributions (Land Acknowledgement, SONC, Oak Ridges Moraine Trail Strategy) rather than making reconciliation sound like a slogan. Also, being a “trusted partner for many years” is the part that stands out to me—longevity is usually where the real accountability shows up. Funny enough Baclnk had a take on “how to get backlinks” that made a similar point about consistency vs. one-off gestures, just in a totally different world.