Company Overview

Why Turtle Island?

In various Indigenous origin stories, Turtle Island represents North America, where the turtle is said to support the world on its back and is a symbol of life and earth itself.

Turtle Island therefore speaks to spiritual beliefs about creation and brings with it a deeply held respect for the environment, making it the perfect name and icon for our joint venture.

“Turtle Island Earth Services is the foundation on which we will build a respected earth services company that will provide opportunity and growth for future generations.”

TIES Core Focus.

A Core Focus is the combination of a company’s WHY and WHAT. The why is our purpose, cause, and passion. The what is our niche, or what we do better than anyone else. TIES Core Focus is simply:

“To build a premier, First Nation owned company that enriches and unifies our communities while protecting Mother Earth through professional and traditional land stewardship principles.”

Our Core Focus sets our bearings and is the internal compass that keeps us from drifting off course, helps remove distractions and keeps us focused on protecting our natural environment for generations to come.

TIES Core Values.

Our core values form the foundation on which we perform work and conduct ourselves. They are the deeply ingrained principles that guide our actions and serve as cultural cornerstones.

  • Collaboration

  • Tread Lightly

  • Accountability

  • Wisdom

Core Values Expanded

Collaboration

Collaboration is a critical core value when creating a successful joint venture. For TIES, Collaboration is not simply a catch phrase for working together on a single project or meeting. To truly create a culture of collaboration requires commitment, consistency and education that is consistent and supportive. Collaboration is all about bringing people together from different backgrounds, skillsets, experiences and teams, and focusing their efforts on a common goal.

For TIES, collaboration means listening and evolving together by embracing our commonalities and recognizing our unique traditions, perspectives, strengths and wisdoms. Together we are better and will continue to build a premier First Nation business. We cannot thrive without collaboration or achieve our core focus of enriching and unifying our community while protecting mother earth.

 

Tread Lightly

Long before contemporary terms like “sustainability” and "carbon footprint" were in common usage, Indigenous peoples believed in living in a respectful balance with all life. This balance matters in our day to day lives and our businesses as we balance the needs of our clients, employees, and Mother Earth using pragmatic practices to preserve and restore our natural environment.

We must understand our relationships with all life, including our business life and try our best to live in a balanced relationship with each. We must consider the long-term effects on the land, plants, water, air, animals and birds and act accordingly. Like the 7th generation principle, which states, “that we should make decisions about how we live today based on how our decisions will impact the future seven generations.” We must be good caretakers of the earth, not simply for ourselves, but for those who will inherit the earth, and the results of our decisions.

Accountability

The goal of accountability is to foster an environment of openness and trust while promoting organization-wide responsibility and reliability. To build a positive culture of accountability we must start by clearly defining the corporate strategy, and accurately set individual and collective expectations while embracing and promoting accountability at every level. When accountability is absent, it creates a negative cascading effect through an entire organization, impacts performance, deteriorates trust, breeds apathy and weakens culture. When accountability is embraced and clear expectations are set, we create a strong, vibrant and successful culture that enriches our lives and allows us to deliver on our core focus.

For TIES, this means being accountable to our clients, co-workers, our families, our communities, our business and most importantly to Mother Earth. To achieve a respectful balance in life and business we must be accountable to each other, we must be responsible for our words, our actions, and our results.

 

Wisdom

It is imperative we share the traditions, knowledge, culture and values of our Elders and professionals with the goal to educate and pass on our inherent knowledge and share these values and traditions for generations to come.

At TIES we will integrate traditional land stewardship practices with practical science and experience to provide our customers and employees with a unique perspective and understanding of why we do what we do.

"ka-kí-kiskéyihtétan óma, namoya kinwés maka aciyowés pohko óma óta ka-hayayak wasétam askihk, ékwa ka-kakwéy miskétan kiskéyihtamowin, iyinísiwin, kistéyitowin, mina nánisitotatowin kakiya ayisiniwak, ékosi óma kakiya ka-wahkotowak."

"Realize that we as human beings have been put on this earth for only a short time and that we must use this time to gain wisdom, knowledge, respect and the understanding for all human beings since we are all relatives."

-Cree Proverb