Click here to join: Membership
Join our Community
Membership in The Circle of Turtle Lodge is open to anyone of Indigenous Heritage who is interested in our objectives. It is free and lasts a lifetime.
We also welcome non-Indigenous settlers who are interested in supporting our work at a rate of $10 per moon as Ally members.
Most of our events take place near Golden Lake (Pembroke, Renfrew), but our service area extends throughout Renfrew County, Ontario, and across Traditional Algonquin Territory. We also have members across the country who simply wish to stay connected.
Why should you join? Because our main programming events are for members only. Our preferred method for contacting our members is by email, and for this, we require your permission. Some of our members must be contacted by phone, rarely would we send something by regular post.
Indigenous Identity Policy Statement:
Identity connotes the beliefs, values, and expressions that encompass the memories, experiences, and relations that enable individuals and groups to construct themselves in the present. Generally, Indigenous Members must know and be able to articulate their relation and connection to their Indigenous identity. This may include familial connections or nationhood, and it may also include displacement. Belonging is who you claim to be, and also who claims you. There may be disagreements among Indigenous people over the legitimacy of a particular person’s or group’s claims.
According to the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues statement on Indigenous identity, the test is “Self-identification as indigenous peoples at the individual level and accepted by the community as their member.” The issue is not one of enrollment, or blood quantum, or recognition by the government, or meeting any particular set of criteria for defining “proper” or “authentic” Indigenous identity. The issue is honesty and integrity in engaging the complexities, difficulties, and messiness of our histories (both individual and collective).
The Circle of Turtle Lodge does not support Indigenous identity fraud, and both Indigenous and Ally members are called upon to be honest about identity claims. Being dishonest about one’s identity and one’s connections to Indigenous communities is harmful to Indigenous peoples.